For the early business venture, sometimes it’s difficult to determine what the word ‘need’ really means. Do you need that marketing buy? Do you need that new piece of equipment? An office? That paperclip? That fancy new Macbook?
Localest Foods, formerly Indie Food Hub, formerly Pop Up Food Club, well, we can tell you first hand that it is all too easy to confuse want something with need something. To whit: we got an office. It seemed like a good deal. We didn’t really need the office. We spent thousands of dollars on something we didn’t truly need.
We got this cool vehicle tracking thing. We didn’t really need it. We bought small vehicles for catering and then had to figure out how to give them back after two months. Repeat this a few times, and you can easily rack up tens of thousands of dollars spent on things that your business well and truly could have done without.
Need, to get all Lemony Snickett, here means, will your business cease to exist if you do not make this purchase? And more importantly, will you see a measurable impact on your sales and growth through this purchase?
You do indeed have to spend money to make money. But if you spend all your money, you will no longer be in a position to make money. Any at all.
We can’t tell you if you need something or not. Only you can do that. The point here is to take a pause, sleep on it, and decide in the morning.
And then go ahead and buy the paperclip.