The Difference Between Spending Money and Investing It For Your Fashion Startup

Do you know the difference between spending money and investing it?

You’ve definitely been approached with an array of opportunities for your business and you said “no.” You wanted to invest in something to help you succeed and you say this at the end of day because you’re afraid to spend money. So, what is going on?  Why are we not investing in ourselves and our business? There’s a few reasons for this.

Fear of Risks

The number one reason is fear of course – the fear of taking a risk is so strong for you that you’d rather stay in your same situation than do something different to get out of your current situation. But where does this fear really come from?  It comes a lot of times from the fear or being afraid to lose or fail at something – both fear of success and fear of failure. A lot of us have a fear of losing this money that we are now investing.  I mean let’s be real, investing money is a very scary thing. You worked hard for your money and you don’t want to just throw it away at every little thing that comes your way. But at the same time, being a business owner, being an entrepreneur, you need to have a level of risk inside of you n order to really be successful as an entrepreneur.  Starting a business is risky, so there’s already that level of risk taker inside of you, but sometimes it’s a question of how much of a risk taker are you. I like to say that I take calculated risks. I don’t just willy-nilly throw my money everywhere. I analyze the situation and the pros and cons, and decide what’s going to be the best and go from there. You need to make smart decisions and you need to make the right investments, but at the end of the day it’s really all about how you’re taking advantage of the investments.  Even if you made a bad investment, something good can come out of it. You need to learn the difference between spending money and investing it for your fashion startup.

Fear of Work

The second reason a lot of us don’t take advantage of investments is because you’re afraid of doing the work necessary. You realize that like anything, not only will taking this course or hiring this coach help you, but you are going to need to start applying the information that you’ve learned in order to be a success. This might cause you to step up and play at a new level that’s going to require work on your end, and a lot of people are afraid of work. I have a lot of clients that literally quit after getting started because they didn’t realize the amount of work it would take to start their own fashion line. And that’s fine – I’d rather have you quit now than spend $50,000 starting a fashion line and have nothing work out and then quit later and blow $50,000.  If you’re better or you’re okay with just getting a job and not doing the work, there’s nothing wrong with that. However, most of us don’t want to work for someone else, and that was a huge passion and drive for me. I never wanted to work for someone else, I always wanted to work for myself. I wanted to build something for myself and for my family and to be able have the time and the money freedom to be able to do what I want to do when I want to do and really spend time with my family because that’s very important for me. So, this is one of the reasons why I recommend taking programs where you can apply the information as you go along. I don’t like these like crash course type programs where you learn a bunch of information in a really short period of time because your brain can’t absorb all of that and you definitely don’t have the time to actually sit down and start applying all that information. This is also why I specifically designed my courses, especially the Fashion Startup Intensive, to really push you to get the work done as you go. I give you time in between the courses to be able to do the work that you just learned so you don’t get overwhelmed and you don’t start falling behind. That’s why it’s a four-month group coaching program. I probably could’ve made it a year-long group coaching program but I thought that was a little too long for people to commit to. I wanted to make it short enough for people to commit but long enough that you actually have the time to apply. Therefore, a lot of people don’t invest because they’re afraid of doing the work that’s necessary once they do invest.

Fear of Leaving Comfort Zone

Another reason you’re afraid is because you’re afraid of stepping outside of your comfort zone.  A lot of us are just too comfortable in our current situations. You talk about how you want X, Y, and Z, but secretly you want to stay exactly where you are because you’re comfortable. The first step is to recognize that this is what’s going on and in the second step is to do something about it.  You need to get to the point that you say enough with mediocrity, enough with your current situation. You need to almost hit rock bottom in most situations for real deep change to occur because until you have hit rock bottom, until you have said enough is enough, nothing will really change. Your will on the inside needs to be in alignment with the words that you’re saying. Fear is obviously one of the reasons we are not investing in ourselves and in our business, but is that the real reason? I think it goes even deeper than that and it’s all about your mindset about investing.

Fear of Mindset

Almost every time I’ve ever invested in myself, I have always made back what I spent and then some almost every single time and if I didn’t, it was because I actually made a poor choice in my investment decision. I am a huge fan of investing in yourself and I’m a huge fan of your mindset being right when you are doing the investing. So, why am I having so much success? It really comes down to how you are approaching your investment. I just have this attitude that whatever I’m going to invest in, I will somehow make my money back and then some. I will somehow come out on top at the end of it because that is my mindset. Now here’s the mistake most people make – they choose to invest and they’re focusing on the cost instead of what the reward could possibly be. They are thinking here’s the money that’s not going to be in my bank account – this is the wrong mindset to have about investing. There is a difference between spending money and investing it that you need to understand.  Maybe you’ve been burned in your investments before, but if you don’t keep trying, you’re never going to succeed. You’re never going to get things that you want in the end and be successful. You need to start planning now, as investing in yourself is just like investing in a Roth IRA. If you have the mindset that your investment is going to work out it will, but if you go into it thinking it’s not going to work out, it probably won’t.

Fear of Losing Money

Start thinking about what’s possible instead of what’s not possible because you just spent this money.  Instead of asking yourself what can I lose, ask what can I gain from investing this money. You’re not spending it, and there is a big difference. The money being invested isn’t gone – you’re investing it to make more money in the end. In business, it takes money to make money, so how much are you willing to invest? If you’re thinking about the lack of money you have or what you’re giving up in order to invest, you’re setting yourself up for failure. You need to think about what you’re going to gain because of what you are investing.  

Fear of Performance

Your investment needs to match the level of performance that you’re giving and that you expect others to give. This is also why I don’t offer a ton of payment plans for a lot of our courses and things because if you spent for instance $300 in three payments, it will subconsciously feel different than if you shell that $900 all in one shot. I can tell you from experience you won’t take it as seriously. Those of my clients that do the payment plan or try to ask me for payment plan options and different things they never take it as seriously as the ones that pay upfront and full. This is one of the reasons that I don’t do monthly payment plans for the FSI or four different installments for the FSI because it’s already really affordable to begin with and if you don’t have the money, something that you’re doing right now isn’t working. You need to start changing your mindset for better performance.

Replace Your Fear With Faith

I want to leave you with one thing – I dare you to replace your fear with faith. I dare you to shift your mindset from one of lack to abundance. I dare you to change and go after your dreams, to turn your back on your past and whatever has happened before and look forward.  This is a new year, anything is possible. I hope you will all start to think of your investments in a new way and start to make some amazing changes in your business going forward. And hopefully, you have a better understanding of investing money and spending it for your business.

And for weekly fashion biz tips, join our Fearless Fashionpreneur Facebook Page!

---