Growing Your Business with Smart Investments: Focus on What Really Matters
Growing your business is one of the most exhilarating things out there. Watching sales come in, building a community of customers, seeing people start to know who you are, rely on you, and even get excited to work with you—it’s an unmatched feeling. They tell their friends about you, they come back, and eventually, your bank account starts to grow in sync with the hard work you’ve poured into it.
Growing Your Business with Smart Investments vs. Flashy Expenses
But sometimes, in the excitement of growth, we get caught up in what we think we should be doing to reach the next level. We get fixated on these images of success, certain milestones we believe will “prove” we’re making it. For me, one of those milestones was having a warehouse or office space. For the first four or five years, we didn’t have any kind of indoor space. We just rented a couple of parking spots for the trucks. The guys would meet there in the morning, park their cars where the trucks were, and get on the road. No building, no bathroom, no storage—just trucks in an open lot.
Back then, I always felt like not having a “real” space made my business seem smaller, maybe even less legitimate. I imagined the day I’d have a big office with all the trappings—desks for admin, computers, maybe even a ping-pong table or a fridge full of snacks and drinks, a place with real company culture. You know, the kind of environment you see on TV or read about in business magazines. I thought that was the true marker of success, that once I had that, I’d feel like I’d “made it.”
My First Office Space – A Lesson in Growing Your Business with Smart Investments
Eventually, I did get my first office. It was actually a cleaned-out storage closet—no windows, just four walls and a door. The landlord even cut a hole through the cinderblock wall so I could access the parking lot. It was like a bunker. You’d go in during the day, and it was pitch black inside. But I was so proud of that space. It was my “office,” a sign of progress in my mind.
After that, I moved up to a small warehouse in the same building, with a garage door and a couple of windows. It felt like a big upgrade. But here’s the lesson: once I had the office space, I realized that all those status symbols I was so focused on were just that—symbols. They didn’t actually make a difference in the day-to-day operation or success of my business. My customers? They don’t care if I have an office. They never come here. My team? Sure, they appreciate having a bathroom, but they’re not in the office anyway—they just get in the trucks and hit the road. My admin staff works remotely. And during the day, my warehouse sits completely empty.
Re-Evaluating Costs for Growing Your Business with Smart Investments
So now I’m paying $3,000 a month for what? A space I barely use. I started asking myself: what if I went back to just having a parking lot? Would anything really change? Do I actually need this indoor space, or is it just an expensive ego boost?
When I really looked at it, I saw that fighting so hard to reach this “next level” has me paying $36,000 a year for something that has no direct impact on my bottom line. It’s just overhead. A monthly expense that could be going to something that actually helps the business grow.
The Key to Growing Your Business with Smart Investments: Think Before You Commit
The point is, what you think you need and what you actually need can be two very different things. Sometimes, what we’re chasing doesn’t bring us any closer to real success—it just adds more weight, more expenses, more things to manage. So the next time you feel like you need to make a big move, pause. Really look at the numbers. Think about how this decision will impact your profit and loss, and ask yourself if you’re willing to work harder to cover that cost without a clear return on investment.
In business, lean and simple beats flashy and complicated every time. Growing your business with smart investments is all about focusing on what truly drives progress. Stay trim, stay focused, and only commit to those big expenses when you know they’re worth it.
Don’t let the idea of “what success should look like” tie you down with unnecessary costs.✌️
Justin Hubbard
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