by Michelle Anama Abari | Nov 29, 2021 | Personal Growth
A lot of people have never taken out time to ponder on ways to invest in themselves. There are millions of smart ways to invest in yourself, it all depends on your willingness to see yourself as a being to invest in.
Investing in yourself does not only deal with your physical self, it also touches other facets of your life like your spiritual, mental, and even emotional life. There are a lot of smart ways to invest in yourself that is you as a whole.
Taking out time to build yourself is a very good thing. It is like you see yourself as a broken building that needs to be reconstructed. As you go deeper into this literature you get to realize that there are infallible smart ways to invest in yourself.
Ways to Invest in Yourself
1. Travel More
Yes, travelling is a good way to invest in yourself. By travelling, you get to see and experience a lot of things ranging from seeing new people, learning a new language, learning new cultures, and even trying out new dishes.
Travelling also helps you relive your mind by changing environment and meeting people with different ideologies and experiences which help you see life from a different angle.
2. Plan for Your Future
Don’t wait until retirement age to start saving or investing. A lot of people fall into this category because they don’t save, they just spend all the money that comes into their hands.
By saving money, you get to invest in a business or even build a business empire for yourself. This business can be inherited by your children which is a good thing.
In the book The Richest Man In Babylon’ by George S. Clason, the author states you should pay yourself first. By paying yourself first, are not just keeping a certain amount of your money stagnant, you are keeping to put your money to work later on. It is a really good way to invest in your future.
3. Read a Book or a Blog
There are hidden benefits to the art of reading. It is not boring to read, it’s a blessing! Reading a book or blog which is beneficial to your life is another smart way to invest in yourself.
Books give you the power to learn new things and bust through career slumps. Books and blogs help you boost your career and show you a clear path to things you never knew possible. Books give insights into a lot of things in life. Because books and blogs are written by people from their own experience, you can grasp and understand life from these authors’ perspectives.
By grasping some of their ideas, you get to use the good to help your life and this is very good in investing in yourself.
4. Exercises and Yoga
Your physical self also has to be invested in. Exercises and Yoga are good ways to invest in yourself. Exercises bring a sense of lightness and confidence to your body, honestly stretching and flexing your muscles are very beneficial to you in the long run. To exercise and do yoga habitually, you have to motivate yourself to workout, you have to look beyond the pain of exercises and look at the beneficial part of exercises and what it does for you in the long run.
Exercising and doing yoga gives you self-confidence which is very good and helps you appreciate your physical appearance.
5. Pray More
As very religious as it may be, it is a very relevant way to invest in yourself. The art of prayer helps you feel at peace, you don’t only feel at peace but you also feel a sense of wholeness in yourself. Praying may seem orthodoxical to some but it is good for investing in yourself.
By praying, you are also investing in your spiritual life which has a link to other facets of your life. Praying goes a long way when investing in yourself. It is often neglected but it is very important to invest in yourself. Just praying solves and leads you to other ways to invest in yourself. It does not matter how your prayer, all that matters is how you take prayer and how it invests in your life.
You could join religious associations which help people know themselves and also helpless privileged people. By doing this you’re knowing yourself and also investing in yourself.
6. Another Smart Way To Invest In Yourself Is By Eating Healthy
Eating healthy can help optimize brain function. Eating healthy is also very beneficial to invest in yourself. Your body needs fuel to run efficiently, so be sure to serve it nutrients.
Here are some ways to nourish your body:
- Increase the number of fruits and vegetables going into your body.
- Drink at least 3 litres of water daily.
- Take supplements
7. Find A Mentor
Your path to investing in yourself doesn’t have to be a solo trip. Whether you want to be in business or education, finding an experienced mentor in your chosen industry will help you get where you want to go.
These mentors will often have your best financial interest at heart and can direct you towards a future of wealth and stability. Some tips to find a mentor maybe:
- Check social media for a mentor that fits your career path.
- Going for a program relating to your career venture.
- Sending cold emails to some mentors.
8. Develop Your Skills
Everyone has skills, it just depends on you finding them. Once you’ve found something you’re good at or would want to venture into, you have to build on it. Exploiting opportunities to help develop does skills. As they say, practice makes perfect!
Some skills for developing could be:
- Leadership skills
- Digital skills
- Writing skills
- Intelligence skills
- Public speaking skills
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9. A Smart Way To Invest In Yourself Is By Setting Goals
Setting goals is a really good thing if you plan on getting ahead in life. Setting goals will not only help invest in your life but will also help you get ahead in life.
Setting goals could be long-term, short-term, or even challenging yourself. A way to set goals is by taking time to do things you ordinarily would not do but are very beneficial to your life. Take for instance reading 10 pages of a book each day, that would sum up to at least 30 books a year! It is really good because it helps you increase your vocabulary.
10. When You Invest In Others, You Also Invest in Yourself
You may be asking how you can invest in people? There are numerous to invest in people and some ways include:
- Patronize a friends business
- Being moral support to people
- Praying for people
- Giving a talk about your experience at a conference
These are some little ways to invest in people and by doing this you’re also doing good and investing in yourself. You may not know this, but helping people gives you a place in their hearts. So if you would want to invest in yourself, start helping people!
11. Make Money On The Side
Earning money on the side of your day job is different from creating multiple income streams. A side hustle is not necessarily about investing or saving small amounts of money. Earning money in your spare time often means developing a skill that you can offer as a service to clients.
By knowing this little difference, you can use this to your advantage by investing in yourself. There are a million and one ways to create multiple streams of income that can be beneficial to you and your clients. Some ways include freelance writing, reading for a blog, or even tutoring on subjects you’re good at.
All these are ways to earn money that also help develop your skills in the long run.
12. Learn to Say No
Most individuals believe that saying no is a bad thing and makes you a greedy person. On the contrary, saying no does not necessarily mean you are a bad person.
It is good to say no because you do not also have to agree with everything, sometimes saying no is a way of keeping your mental health in check. You do not always have to be a people pleaser to be accepted, saying no can mean you put yourself first and you appreciate yourself better.
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13. Expand Your Network
You don’t have to just work and keep working, as they say, ‘all work and no play makes jack a dull boy. You have to go out, meet people, and get acquainted with these people you meet.
By expanding your network, you could get to meet people through friends at work or even mutual friends. These are little ways of expanding your network which can be beneficial to your life and help you invest in yourself.
A benefit of expanding your network is that you get to meet or people with different sides to life and this can help you in the future.
14. Invest In Your Relationship
This is another beneficial way to invest in yourself, you do this by paying more attention and giving more time to people who matter to you in life. You try to preserve this relationship by doing every possible thing, it could just be going out for drinks, going on a vacation, and also just going out to have fun in general.
You should always try to keep those you care about and who care about you close to you because these are people who help you in the future.
Investing in a relationship also helps you to invest in yourself.
The Point Is…
Investing in yourself is a very good thing to do if you plan on getting ahead in life. As earlier written, there are millions of ways to invest in yourself and these are very beneficial to yourself as a whole.
Most of the time when people suggest ways to invest, they are usually talking about a monetary investment. Learn how to strike the proper balance between investing time and investing money. In other words, be patient.
In other words, know when to spend and when to save, or when to invest and when to let time do its thing.
by Abdulganiyu Ibrahim | Nov 8, 2021 | Business & Finance
Why are some Entrepreneurs who are just setting up a business more successful than those who have been in the business for quite a couple of years? How do some Entrepreneurs who are starting a business for the first time make more money, and accomplish much more within a few years of establishing than the great majority of entrepreneurs who have spent years running the same business and haven’t accomplished much? What beginners guide do you need to entrepreneurship?
These are some of the questions I asked my boss when I was still an apprentice at the fashion house. The reason for all the questions was as a result of me knowing I will one day be a boss of myself. And how to fit as one triggered a lot of questions.
In this Beginners Guide to entrepreneurship, I will be sharing some of the things you should know in becoming a successful boss (Entrepreneur) of your own. And trust me it will work out for you the same way it does for my boss and which I am seeing the impact in my business as well.
I know you are very hesitant to know what those things are, but I would like to ask you what that Boss (Entrepreneur) you want to be, really is? Who is an Entrepreneur? And what is that thing you are “bossing” on (Entrepreneurship) Okay, let me save you the stress.
Who Is An Entrepreneur?
An Entrepreneur is a person who buys mean of production at certain prices to combine them into a new product. But that particular kind of person sets up a business primarily to make money, through his/her intellectual property and must take a great deal of financial risk or business risk.
An Entrepreneur is also a person who starts a business and is willing to risk a loss to make money.’ But fortunately, ‘he earns profit as a reward for taking such a risk’.
Entrepreneurship, however, encompasses the art and science of innovation and risk-taking intending to make a profit in business.
Having known what an Entrepreneur and Entrepreneurship means, then let see what I have for you in the Beginners Guide to Entrepreneurship as counselled by my boss.
A Beginners Guide to Entrepreneurship; What I Learned From My Boss
1. Follow your Passion
When I stepped into my boss’s fashion house to learn the profession, the first question he asked me was”why do you want to learn fashion designing?” My answer was”I just like the creativity aspect of the work.” Furthermore, as days passed, he made me know that the reason for the question was to know if I had a passion for the work or was a result of me seeing others in the profession.
Furthermore, he made me realize that if I am due to stand on my own as an Entrepreneur, the main factor that will determine my success in the field is my “passion” for it. The one which has enabled him to move to that other side is called success. So, now you see why you should follow your passion in being that successful Entrepreneur you aspire to be.
When you have passion for that business, you will genuinely love what you do and be willing to invest more extra hours to make that Business blossom.
Hence, passion must be factored into the equation to enable you to succeed as a beginner in your Business. Because it is what keeps you going and moving even when the road seems rough. Following your passion is one of the qualities every entrepreneur should have.
2. Research What You Are Going Into
This is another important beginner’s guide to which most entrepreneurs don’t consider before going into Business.
It is advisable to carry out some research in other to widen your knowledge of the business you are going into. A study of the market is essential to determine if the market conditions are favourable and to check the viability of your business model.
3. Come Up with An Attractive Name for Your Business
As a Beginner in Entrepreneurship, one very important thing which is capable of attracting your target customer is the name you tag your Business; your business name.
Selecting the right and appropriate name for your start-up business does have a great deal of significant contribution to the flourishes of your business.
When selecting a name for a startup, try and ‘conduct a thorough trademark search’ this will prevent you from choosing an already licensed name for another organization or person, which can have you penalized.
However, in choosing a company name, avoid too long and hard to pronounce the name. You should try as much as possible to have a very simple to pronounce a name, so as not to give those that come across the name problem in pronouncing it.
Giving a business a very simple and beautiful name will always leave a lasting memory of your company in people’s heads, which will enable them to keep patronizing you.
Another thing that is very important to consider is when coming up with your business name is; Avoid picking a name that would not capture your business as it grows.
Taking myself into consideration, I sew for men when I started the business and knew as time passed, I would consider females wear also. So it will be okay going by “Brai’s apparel” which has encapsulated both men and women instead of saying “Brai men or women apparel” which won’t suit the business as it progresses. You should consider these seven tips for Naming your Business.
4. Know Where to Get The Funds
Getting finance is another most important thing an entrepreneur should know, taking into considerations in this Beginners guide to entrepreneurship.
Like you know, you can’t mount a house without money, so also with business. You need to have your finances ready.
However, you can get that through your savings, loan, family and friends, investors.
You might even succeed in finding an investor for your startup or small business once you successfully pitch your idea.
5. Have A Unique Approach to The Business
In this Beginners guide to entrepreneurship, I would want you to know that there is always a gap that hasn’t been filled in every business. So it is your responsibility to have if filled by adopting the three traits of an entrepreneur by “Harvey Leibenstein” which are;
Recognizing market trends
New Goods or Process in Demand
Determining profitable activities.
Because you as an entrepreneur should be capable of fixing market failures, deficiencies, and the same process or method that has been used over and over again. Therefore, you should avoid ‘revising business model of existing enterprise’, rather bring your business from a unique angle of”gap-filling”.
6. Master the Concept of Time Management
Time! You need to be very conscious and know how to manage it if you want your business to progress. Time, however, ‘is irretrievable; once it is gone or wasted, you can never get it.
Therefore, it is time management that enables you to plan and control the time you spend executing sequential events on your to-do-do lists. This, however, is simple and easy to do, by adopting Vilfredo Pareto’s 80/20 rule of time management (Pareto’s principle).
This involves accomplishing 80% of a specific activity using 20% of the time you’ve got. This means you should focus on the most prioritized task which can bring more money to your business.
Some things you do are more valuable than other things, even though they share the same minutes and hours. So you can also follow the method I like to consider in managing my time by Brian Tracy’s ‘power of self-discipline’ (194-195) which is the ABCDE method and trust me it will also work for you.
A are must-do tasks with serious consequences for non-completion
B are tasks with little or no consequences for doing or not doing;
C Tasks Have No Consequences
D is for Delegate. Everything you possibly can to free up more time for those that only you can do;
E stands for Eliminate. Discontinue all tasks and activities that are no longer essential to your work and to achieving your goals.
7. Set a Template for Your Business
Having considered all those, you need to set yourself a Template.
This is a self dream or determination of what you want your business to achieve or where you want it to be in the next one year for start, then probably five years after, and subsequent years of your choice. However, this will be a guide and motivation for you as that you have a target to meet.
Therefore it is now advisable you should “be like an eagle that never gets its eyes away from a prey from afar until it gets on it”.
8. Master The Art of Self Discipline
The achievement of business success demands high levels of discipline from you in every area of business activity, both large or small.’ Without self-discipline, no success is possible. As Dwayne Johnson would say “All success begins with self-discipline. It starts with you.”
As an Entrepreneur who is self Disciplined, you will have that total control and power to stick to your decisions, no matter the situation and condition you might face in the business. This is just one of the reasons why you should learn self-discipline.
However, it is through self Discipline you would be able to know the difference between “a wish” and “a goal”. As a “Wish” is only but an ordinary wish, but a “Goal” Is a wish backed with actions. And how can you back your wish with actions to be a goal? Simple!! through self Discipline.
You can be selfly Disciplined by taking into consideration the CANEL FORMULA, which stands for “Continuous and never never-ending.”
Among other things an Entrepreneur should consider in this guide include;
You must have the quality of Obsession.
You must be Devoted to your Business.
An entrepreneur must be Inspirational, which leads to Creativity.
You must be smart enough to handle the Business.
You must be Dynamic.
Conclusion
I would like to sound it as an advice to you; Once you have finally started up the business, and you’ve become that boss you aimed, you must discipline yourself to give it at least 80% of your time and attention while the other 20% should be channelled into researching how to go beyond where you currently are. Remember the market is dynamic.
And finally, in this Beginners Guide to Entrepreneurship, Remember “A journey of a thousand miles starts with a foot footsteps. So, which step have you taken so far among those above? Don’t forget to share it with us in the comment section below. You could also check out these 7 Books That Every Entrepreneur Should Read in 2021
See you on the other side called success.
