Investing in Your Business, Episode 90

When your business is young and cash isn’t exactly pouring in, it’s tough to know when to take financial risks. Sometimes it’s a $40 risk on a plugin, sometimes it’s a $4,000 risk on hiring some help. But how do you make sure you’re taking the right risks?

Being the owner/operator of your business means you will need take financial risks to grow, so the question is not “will I take risks”, but rather “how do I be smart about risks?”

Join me on this episode with Brad Touesnard of Delicious Brains (if you don’t recognize his company, you’ll like recognize his flagship product: WP Migrate DB Pro). Brad started as an independent web developer and has grown into a full-on business-owner, supporting his career and the folks that work with him.

We’ll talk about the evolution of freelancer to employer and hear Brad’s experience on taking risks to grow a business.

Watch this episode

Episode Transcript

Essential points about business risk from this episode:

Look for creative ways to minimize your business risk. For example, lease hardware instead of buying.

Pursuing education is not a business risk.

Software that saves you time and money is worth the investment.

Participating in a mastermind group can reduce the risk of unknown business ventures by knowing what others have tried.

Pricing new products is risky – too high or too low?

Sending a survey to your target customers can help you frame the risk of investment in a product that you want to launch.

Even though the cash flow may not be there for a product, you may need to take on the risk of adding an additional employee to build it.

There’s risk when hiring somebody. Be honest and upfront about a trial period and about the offer for employment.

A business focused around products should be able to be run by the employees without the owner oversight for a period of time.

Episode links:

Brad’s recommended podcasts: