Running a business needs investment. There’s the obvious stuff like premises, tech, software and staff. Then there’s the less tangible stuff like your time and your energy.

And something I have noticed is that some, certainly not all, business owners forget to invest in themselves. Or rather, they don’t forget. They don’t prioritise it. Perhaps a bit like a parent putting their child first come what may, business owners can neglect self investment in favour of developing the business, or their team.

And there are problems with that.

You risk your skills and knowledge becoming out of date. You risk missing out on new developments in your field. You miss out on opportunities to grow. You risk the very thing you have worked so hard to establish - your business. And, without wishing to sound overdramatic, you risk your own health and wellbeing.

With that in mind, let's dig into what might be going on beneath the surface.

Personal investment is not a luxury

I’m really keen to kick around the notion that personal investment is somehow a luxury or a bit self indulgent. I mean, I get it. I’ve been there. As have most people in some way, shape or form; whether personally or professionally.

Overcoming that feeling needs you to take a step back and anchor yourself in your mission, or purpose. Keeping your focus on what it is you are striving for soon puts paid to the idea that investments that help you move closer to that goal are selfish or self-indulgent.

Let me add some context.

I peddle my trade as a coach, a mediator, a tutor, someone clients can turn to when they need clarity, support or a little Nike nudge (just do it!). But that’s not my mission. It’s what I do.

My mission is to be a safe pair of hands for business owners by operating from a place of expertise, experience or a combination of both.

Experience is achieved by doing. Whether it’s the experience I gained from being on a sinking ship, or from working with a range of business owners.

Expertise though - that’s a bit different. To prove myself as a safe pair of hands means having confidence that I’m not just spouting my own theory and opinions without any substance to back them up.

For me, that means investing in the qualifications and accreditations I have in my back pocket to support the messages I share with clients.

Say goodbye to imposter syndrome and confidence dips

Investing in you has another, super helpful spin off that shouldn’t be underestimated. It gives you confidence to nip imposter syndrome in the bud, bolstering your confidence and self-esteem.

Some people are fortunate enough to have an innate self-confidence that doesn’t need anyone else to tell them they’re OK. Then there’s us mere mortals!

Again, I speak from my personal position. Sometimes I feel like I can't help people with something unless somebody else has told me that I'm good enough to do it. This means that achieving my EMCC accreditation for coaching and mentoring was super important to me.

It was somebody external to me saying, “Do you know what - you’re good at what you do. You're a safe pair of hands. You follow some renowned and well regarded principles and protocols about how you go about your business.”

By extension, that was really helpful for my self confidence and my self esteem.

Given we know that 80% of our performance comes from our mindset, I was able to perform more competently when I was with my clients.

The confidence and competence interplay

If you’ve watched my videos, listened to my podcast or even followed me for a while on social media, you’ll have heard me talk about the massive interplay between confidence and competence. In fact, I often invite my clients to draw the sign of the infinity symbol with the word competence at one end and confidence at the other because there is such a strong relationship with each other.

Which means that, by not investing in yourself, not only are you risking providing a service that may not be as good as it could be. You might also be robbing yourself of the opportunity to build your self confidence and your self-esteem. Something which, in turn, means that you're able to provide an even better quality service to your customers (and I'm certainly all about the quality of service I provide).

You owe it to your customers!

Perhaps a way to get around this notion of personal development and investing in ourselves being a luxury is to reframe it.

Because when you reframe it and say, actually, it's not self indulgent, it is client indulgent, you shift the perspective. You give yourself permission to invest in yourself, whether that's on your skill set or our mindset.

When you invest in the things that benefit your clients, there’s no doubt about it. Personal development is client, or customer centred. You owe it to your business to make that investment as not doing so is a disservice to your ‘why’!

For me it’s about skills: for example, Action Learning sets training, so I can run Action Learning sets. And it’s about mindset: I invest in a personal coach myself. I eat my own sandwiches, as they say, as doing so helps me with moments where I'm having a confidence crisis, a judgement crisis or I'm thinking I'm getting things wrong, or I just don't know which turn to take next.

Put your own personal development back on the agenda

As you can probably guess, I’m firmly in the ‘investing in you’ camp!

To effectively lead your team and service your clients, your own personal development must have its place high on your business agenda each year. Create a lovely blend of skill set and mindset development, and all with that notion that you're doing it for your customers

Because, just like the L'Oreal advert says, you, me, we are all worth it. But do you know what?

So are our customers and our clients!

Book an hour for you, on me

All it takes to start investing in you is an hour. Your first hour is always ‘on me’ with no obligation to go any further. My mission in that hour is to hear the challenges you’re facing and help you find the next logical step for you.

If you’d like to find out more about working with me, why not book a free consultation via the button below.