Say you found $20,000: What’s the best way to use it to help your small business grow?
Hypothetical situation: you find an extra $20,000 and all the stars align so you get to keep it, tax free (remember, this is hypothetical). Being the smart business person you are, you decide you want to put it back into your business in a way that’s going to help your business grow, but it needs to be something you’re not already doing. So how do you spend it?
Good question. While it depends on your business and the stage of business you’re in, any of the five following ideas could be a good investment that you may not have considered.
1. Update the office space. My own company just moved into a new office last year after years of working in a space that really didn’t fit our needs or our style, suffered from poor location (doubly bad because our clients frequently send their staff to our location) and, in general, wasn’t ideal. For us, it was a great move, albeit a pricey one.
Updating offices isn’t right for every windfall, though, because costs can quickly add up to 10x what you were expecting. Still, if you do have a little extra cash, redecorating or remodeling may do more than look pretty — it may actually help your company grow in the following situations:
a. You need to be able to have all-hands meetings but have no space that holds the entire team at once. Knocking out a wall and joining two large offices to make a single large meeting room might do the trick.
b. Your office furniture was amazing … in 1987, when Herman Miller actually assembled it himself. But chairs squeak, backs ache, and stand-up desks look suspiciously like stacks of unabridged dictionaries with lunchroom trays on top. In short, your furniture is killing productivity.
c. Video conferencing between your home office and offsite team members consists of two cellphones and a Skype connection that keep freezing.
d. Clients drop by for visits and you’re either out of space or leaving them with the wrong impression.
A good-looking office can make a great impression on a prospective employee, too, but that’s only one part of the equation. (In some industries, as Inc.com noted, “especially in creative, architectural and design fields, having a cool office isn’t so much a question — it’s a rite of passage.”) Still, the real reason to remodel isn’t to keep up with the Joneses. Spend the money on an office facelift only if the update has the ability to make your business more productive and profitable. Period.
2. Add an expert. While $20,000 won’t go far in terms of salaries, it could be a fast-track to getting you the expertise and assistance to help members of your team get their real work completed (especially if they’re currently spending part of their week pitching in on tasks that aren’t really the best use of their time). You can outsource just about anything today — creative, management tasks, administrative, you name it. Determine where your biggest bottlenecks or deficits are and put your money to work or focus on new initiatives that your team hasn’t been able to clear their calendars for yet. Depending on the task, you may have a few bucks left over to try something else on this list, too.
3. Say “thank you” to your employees and boost morale. Yes, a $20,000 thank-you gift probably would be excessive when you’re trying to build your business. But if the “thank you” comes in the form of a morale-building event (or a full morale-building initiative), it’s likely justifiable. Put this accidental cash towards a series of team events that bring the team closer together in a non-work setting to help everyone connect. Throw a fantastic “thank-you” party. Cater team lunches a few times a month. You can be as creative as you want to be with your morale-building ideas. In my own company, we have the team help us select an employee of the month, and each winner is entered into an end-of-year drawing for an all-expense-paid trip to the destination of their choice and accompanied by yours truly and the company’s cofounder (my spouse). It gives us an opportunity to really get to know our employees, and it gives employees the opportunity to recognize the contributions of each other. We also post every entrant’s dream trip on a board for all to see, which gives us all plenty to talk about. Thank-you efforts help the bottom line, too, since boosting employee morale is frequently linked to productivity and employee retention. It’s a win for everyone.
4. Sponsor a group or attend an event that can get you in front of new businesses. You may already send a team to industry events, but when extra cash comes your way, it could be time to try something new — like sponsoring a group of up-and-coming businesses or exhibiting at an event where you could meet niche clients. Consider events that aren’t directly related to your business but where your ideal clients might be found. If you’d rather sponsor a group, look for ones that give sponsors the opportunity to meet one-on-one with members throughout the year. Or try a different approach: commit to attending 10 events as an attendee only and start mingling. Avoid putting this cash into advertising-style sponsorships, however. While ads are important (and you probably already have a budget for them), your “newly found cash” may go further if you use it to gain face time instead.
5. Let the team decide. Use the $20k help your team’s minds wander. Set an afternoon or two aside for an innovation challenge and let your team come up with your company’s next great idea. Want to raise the stakes? Have employees form small teams to compete against one another to see who can come up with the best ideas. Give them a target budget ($20,000) and other parameters (ex: must be able to launch within 18 months without adding more staff) and set them up with a goal. Your own team may point you to your company’s next big idea. Since it’s right in your budget, your “newly found cash” could be exactly what you need to make it a reality.
John Farnsworth is the co-founder and CEO of Stratus.hr, a full-service HR outsourcing company that couples tech tools with human expertise so businesses of all sizes can grow smartly, practically and affordably.
