You’ve heard this phrase, but do you really pay attention to this when it comes to investing in yourself or your business? Many entrepreneurs do not. I know this because I talk with hundreds of women entrepreneurs every month. They are continuously trying to find ways to cut costs, get stuff for free, find someone to trade for services or find a reason why they “can’t afford it” or shouldn’t invest.

Yes, it’s fine and very important to cut costs when you can in your life, business, and in any economic market. However, when it comes to necessary things in the running and marketing of your business or making sales, why would you risk it? Here are some areas where you do not want to skimp or be cheap:

1. The design, maintenance, functionality and updates of your website and entire web presence (blog, social sites, membership profiles, etc.)
2. Hiring assistants and support staff
3. Making a good first impression with whatever that is — your attire, having proper materials and set up at your live events, etc.
4. Your follow-up marketing set-up and processes
5. Technology and software to make things look more professional, run smoother and make it easier for people to buy and connect
6. Coaching, mentors and ongoing learning

Doing so in these areas of your business could result in the following consequences:

• Decreased credibility or worse, developing a bad reputation
• Lack of learning and outdated knowledge
• Lack of the right systems to automate your business and save you time
• Delay in getting stuff done
• Delay in generating more sales
• Missed sales in lack of preparedness, marketing and functionality
• And so much more!

So, hopefully you’re being smart in your decisions and not just watching your pocketbook. This is an awesome time to be in business and do good things. But you have to take your business seriously, not treat it like a part time job or hobby; then you’ll see bigger results!

Katrina Sawa is known as The JumpStart Your Biz Coach who uses online and offline strategies to leverage your resources, contacts and your expertise. Katrina is an author, speaker and coach, has been featured on the Oprah and Friends XMRadioNetwork, and is a regular Business Expert on News 10 in Sacramento. Get her Free Entrepreneur’s Success Kit.

When you first start working from home and you’re spending time growing your business, it’s normal to face a few worries along with fear. Aside from figuring out how you’re going to grow your business, you have to worry about how to pay the bills, where your next client will come from and how to keep your family from turning on you because of your crazy hours.

For some people, fear is a motivator.  For others it’s the first step to feeling discouraged. While being motivated is a good thing, being paralyzed with fear and weighted with worry can dampen your spirits and possibly keep you from growing your business.

You can’t get rid of all of your fears but there are a few ways to tame them.

• Don’t quit your day job. Lately I’ve been reading about business owners I thought were doing well but it turns out that they work full time during the day and work on their business at night. When they make enough money, they’re going to quit their job and focus on their business full time.

• Go for the low-hanging fruit. If you left a corporate job to work from home, turn to your old employer as your first client. The company won’t have to train you, pay your health insurance and give you two weeks off each year. If you left your last job on bad terms, skip to the next tip.

• Use skills not related to your business to make money. If you’re handy with a hammer, have an eye for design, or can landscape like nobody’s business, get to work. There’s nothing wrong with taking odd jobs to supplement your income or in some cases to serve as income until your business takes off.

Don't forget about safety when you work naked.

If you have kids, you probably remember the baby-proofing stage when you had to install cabinet latches, toilet locks and baby gates. I realized it was time to remove the locks when my younger son showed his babysitter how to use them.

Taking the time to make your house safe for your kids is important, but who’s keeping your office safe for you? All it takes is one fall to break a leg and you’re out of commission for weeks. (Although you can milk it and get your family to do tasks and errands for you that normally they wouldn’t.) Either way, an injury is still inconvenient. There are a few steps you can take to safety-proof your home office.

• Avoid accidental falls by securing loose cables and turning overflowing stacks of papers and magazines into organized files or next week’s recycling. I used to put things on the floor “for now” and would forget I did that until I tripped over whatever it was I should have moved earlier. Graceful is not my middle name!

• Set up your office so you can reach the equipment and supplies you use often and avoid straining your back. You may not notice the effects of regular up, down and twisting motions until you feel a sharp pain shooting up your spine or down your neck.

• Avoid neck, back and even wrist injury by using a chair that supports your back while absorbing and distributing your weight. In other words, don’t use your kitchen chair or dining room table chair in place of an ergonomically correct chair. By using an ergonomic wrist rest, mouse, and adjustable and articulating keyboard, you can reduce the likelihood of developing Carpal Tunnel Syndrome or causing damage to your wrist.

• Sharp pains or a throbbing in your neck are a sure sign that your monitor is either too low or too high (usually it’s too high). There are various monitor risers that can put your monitor at the right height to help you reduce neck strain.

• Make sure your home office has a smoke detector and a fire extinguisher that you know how to use. The time to figure out how to use your fire extinguisher is before, not during a fire.

I just finished reading Susan Wilson Solovic’s book, The Girls’ Guide to Building a Million-Dollar Business, and it was the fire under my tush that I needed during a long week of feeling burned out.  Some of my favorite morsels of motivation from her book include:

• There’s really no such thing as an overnight success. It takes time, and undoubtedly there will be a lot of No’s along the way. “No” is never the end of the story in the business world. “No” is merely an obstacle in the road to maneuver around.

• If you have a desire, a passion, to really build something—to create an entity that is bigger than you by yourself—then, embrace your dreams. Don’t ignore them.

• Don’t let life’s disappointments and hurts prevent you from going after your dreams and living your life to the fullest. Never, never, never give up. Every day take action to make it happen.

1. There’s no commute
2. You’re not stuck in a cubicle
3. Technology lets you keep up with your corporate counterparts
4. You save money on rent
5. You have the freedom to have a life
6. Your clothing and dry cleaning bills drop significantly
7. There’s no boss looming over your shoulder
8. You can wear whatever you want or better yet, nothing at all.  A non-scratchy chair is key to working naked comfortably!

What’s keeping you from stripping yourself of the corporate workplace?

“Something I’ve found very effective in increasing traffic is writing articles and then transforming them into multiple media. I’ll post the text version on article directories, the audio version on Associated Content and the video version on YouTube and Facebook. Then when I have four posted, I create a Squidoo Lens.”

—Carma Spence-Pothitt, President & CEO  DragonWyze Solutions

“Promotional strategies I’ve used include providing donations for silent auctions and welcoming new Chamber of Commerce members through my involvement in the local Chamber. Having recently added a retail site as another line of business, I’m exploring new ways to promote that.”

—Lynn Maria Thompson, President, Thompson Writing & Editing, Inc.

“To help reposition myself and my business from the competition, I decided to write a book titled Stretching A Dollar To Save And Make Thousands: An Entrepreneur’s Guide To Doing More With Less. To help promote my book and my business, I decided to start my own Internet radio show on Blogtalkradio.com, Stretching A Dollar For Entrepreneurs.”

—Lisa Sims, Author

What are you doing to market your business?

• The dog gets sick.  This time on the product samples you need to send to a client.

• Your in-laws decide to visit the same week your biggest project of the year is due.

• Your child is home from school and in a lame attempt to entertain him, you show him how cool your new shredder is.  Everything’s fine until you realize you’ve accidentally mixed up your “throw away” pile with your “extremely important” pile of paper.

• You’re wearing a suit (finally) and as you’re ready to leave your car, it starts raining.  That’s when you remember that you never replaced your broken umbrella.

• Your printer runs out of ink when you need to print out a proposal and you’re already running late.

• Your iPhone quits working the week after the warranty runs out.

• Your favorite client is laid off and now you have to deal with his boss who’s a jerk. It’s hard to take him seriously considering all that your client has told you about him including what happened at the last company Christmas party.

• You lose your Internet connection right before a videoconference call that you’ve had to reschedule three times.

• You forget to fill up the car, your meeting is across town and you don’t have any time to spare.

Life is messy when you don’t work from home but when your home and office life are in the same place, it seems a bit messier.

How has life made working from home messy for you?

The economy is getting better and no one wants to let a client go but sometimes enough is enough.  In her blog post “Weed Out Your Customers From Hell,” Donna Fenn describes four types of clients that you should consider dumping. Two of the types are:

The Bully. They’re nasty, impossible to please, and they typically abuse your most important asset: your employees. No one is allowed to treat you badly. That applies in business and in your personal life.

The Tightwad.  Times are tough for everyone, but a tightwad cares only about his own bottom line. He’ll beat you up on price until you’re working for pennies and then he’ll string you out for more than 120 days on invoices. Ask yourself whether the time you’ve spent trying to collect your payment is more than the time you spent working on the project. Doing the math may make it easier to fire the client.

At what point have you had to fire a client?



Take a close look at your business. Do you enjoy what you do?  Do you take risks and make an effort to get out of your comfort zone?  Maybe what you’re doing now is only a fraction of what you could be doing.  In this video, learn ways to grow your business and make sure that one of the things you’re going to be when you grow up is happy.

In her blog post “8 DIY Marketers Tools For Making Your Business Look Bigger,” Taylor shares useful and affordable resources to help a small business appear larger.

Re-Targeter: Your customer sees your ad on expensive ad space after they’ve visited your site – a coincidence?  No.  Re-Targeter! For a small monthly fee (really) your ad will “stick” to your web visitors and follow them across their web travels. You’re known by the company you keep. Why not keep company with the big guys to look even bigger?

Tungle: Use Tungle and you will schedule your next meeting (with any number of people) with only one e-mail. Scheduling meetings can be time-consuming and frustrating.  Why not use a free service that helps you save time and increases your professionalism?

QuestionPro: There are dozens of free and affordable online survey tools.  QuestionPro offers dozens of cutting edge question-types, like Net Promoter Score which measures customer loyalty and profitability and Importance/Satisfaction questions to help you put your resources where they make the most impact. Surveys are a good way to find out what your readers are thinking and how you can serve them better.