It can be really easy to spend money in our businesses sometimes.
There are so many amazing courses and products out there that can help us grow our businesses.
When people write their sales pages and their message just speaks to us, it’s something that we really think that we need to have, because it will help us advance in our business even further.
But we also tend to forget about all those other courses we’ve already bought and haven’t finished yet.
That teach us the exact same thing as this new course.
FOMO is a major cause of so much overspending.
I spend a lot of time looking at the spending habits of entrepreneurs, not only is it my job, but it’s also a guilty pleasure for me.
I really love seeing how people spend their money. What are they buying? When was the last time they bought something like that? How many similar courses to that do they already have?
It can be really easy to pull that trigger and type in that credit card info when the purchases are semi-cheap and quite easy, especially now with this low ticket offer explosion that has been happening in the online space over the past few years.
So what are the most common areas that online business owners overspend in?
Courses and continuing education
There are so many courses and products out there that can help us continue to learn things and expand our knowledge in our business.
And I do agree that continuing to learn new things is a good thing.
But the overspending happens because we have that shiny object syndrome. The last course that was bought didn’t work for you, so you think this one will.
When in reality, you really just didn’t do the work or even complete the last course.
What you need is a system in place to help you build habits and routines so that you can get more done in your business, not just another course that will teach you something that you think you will need.
You are really just wasting time (and money!) that could be spent somewhere else that would be so much more productive in helping you make more money in your business anyway.
You really don’t need more courses or products or masterminds to help you learn something new. You need to get a handle on your time and your routines and systems you already do have in place.
Assistants
I’ve had multiple clients of mine who have more assistants than they know what to do with. Some of them are even doing the same exact work.
This is a very good way to spend money that you really don’t need to be spending.
It is good to have people who help you in your business and can help take some of the pressure off of you with getting things done in a timely manner in your business.
But when you have too many assistants, have no idea what they are all doing, and even have some assistants doing the exact same job as another assistant, then you are wasting money and overspending on something you don’t need to spending.
Evaluate what you have going on and where the money is actually going and what your assistants are doing for you.
Memberships
It is so easy to buy a membership. They are usually low cost, under $30 for the many memberships.
The memberships may help you with something in your business.
But how many times have you bought a membership and then not logged into the portal to get anything new that has been put in the membership?
When was the last time you actually knew what in the membership?
I’ve been here too. The cost is even low enough, that it’s super easy to forget about the payment too.
There are so many memberships out there, because they are a good source of money for the business owner, especially when people buy the membership and then don’t take advantage of it.
Software to automate posting
There are so many softwares out there that can automate posting to social media for you.
And a lot of the softwares also offer special deals where you can get a lifetime offer to the software.
Those lifetime offers are very enticing. Then after you buy and start using the software for a little while, you either forget about it, or find something you don’t like. Then you go buy another software.
Or you have a subscription to Buffer, Hootsuite, MeetEdgar, and Planoly all at the same time. But don’t always use all of them, but are paying for each of them.
These software costs really do add up.
Maybe you do need to have all of these different softwares. But you probably don’t.
Figure out which ones you aren’t actually using. Cancel those.
Figure out which ones you can combine the functions into one piece of software. Then cancel the others.
Template systems
There are so many different types of templates out there.
Instagram templates, Pinterest templates, ebook templates, facebook post templates, caption templates, Instagram story templates, and so many other things too.
But do you really need to buy 18 different sets of instagram templates? How many of the templates are duplicates or very similar between the sets you’ve bought?
They may be pretty low cost, but there are only so many different types of templates available before they start really being duplicated.
Plus you are pretty smart as a business owner, you can make your own templates, you can evolve some of the templates you do have into something new.
What can we do to help curb this overspending?
Track your expenses
The one big thing that most business owners do not do, is track their expenses.
Therefore, they have no idea what they are really spending their money on.
They have all of these memberships and subscriptions and they don’t even know that they do.
Not only will tracking your expenses help you with your overspending, it will also help you see where you are spending money that you really don’t need to be spending money.
Give yourself an allowance/budget for spending in your business
I know that many people do not like to budget or have an allowance.
But if you just keep looking at your bank balance to see if you have enough money to make a certain purchase, then your business will go broke.
If your business goes broke, you will basically fail to have a business. Yes you can bring it back by making more sales, but you really should have a plan for your money in your business.
Know exactly where you are spending your money and how much you have available in all of your different buckets at any given time.
Audit your business spending and the courses and products you already have
Not only is tracking your expenses important, but you should also conduct regular audits.
What all have you bought? Where exactly are you spending money? What are you buying that you may not even be using?
How many of your purchases fall into the categories above?
You should do an audit quarterly at the least. I get that you don’t like to look at your numbers, but unfortunately, you have to. It’s one of the many hats you signed up to wear when you started your business.
How many of the most common areas of overspending do you fall into?
Be honest with yourself. You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, but at least be honest with yourself.
Where are you overspending in your business? Where can you cut back on some of your spending?
Just think of all the other things you can do with the money that you have that you aren’t spending on things you really don’t need, or aren’t even using.
What other things could you spend that money on that could actually help you grow your business?
