937: ACTION SATURDAY (establish a GROWTH FUND!)
Have you ever wondered how setting aside just a small percentage of your income could revolutionize your business? Brace yourself for an Action Saturday episode that could change the way you think about business growth forever. Our host Brian Lofrumento shares the life-changing advice he wishes he had received a decade ago: create a growth fund. Learn how committing even 1% of your income to a separate account dedicated to future investments can transform your entrepreneurial journey.
Brian passionately discusses his own experience with this simple yet powerful strategy, which has enabled him to invest in branding, strategic hires, and essential tools without touching personal or operational funds. Inspired by the principles of "Profit First" by Mike Michalowicz, this episode is a call to action for entrepreneurs at any stage to start building their future today. Tune in to understand the significance of a growth fund and how it can propel your business to new heights, ensuring you are always prepared to seize growth opportunities as they arise.
WEBVTT
00:00:00.100 --> 00:00:00.742
Hey, what is up?
00:00:00.742 --> 00:00:02.850
Wantrepreneurs and entrepreneurs all over the world.
00:00:02.850 --> 00:00:27.370
It's Brian LoFermento here, host of the WANTrepreneur to Entrepreneur podcast, and this is an Action Saturday episode that, honestly, when I really think about what has been most impactful for me personally and professionally over the past let's call it 24 months-ish, maybe two and a half years it's today's action and, fortunately for you, today's action is a very, very simple one.
00:00:27.370 --> 00:00:30.153
It's really a commitment and there is one step that you can take.
00:00:30.153 --> 00:00:35.609
Of course, we love action, so we love steps here in these Action Saturday episodes, so I'll share that with you.
00:00:35.609 --> 00:00:40.969
But first things first, I wanna talk about the action, and that is to create a growth fund.
00:00:40.969 --> 00:00:42.445
Create a growth fund.
00:00:42.445 --> 00:00:44.405
I feel so strongly about this.
00:00:44.405 --> 00:00:51.314
This is the one piece of advice that I wish I got 10 years earlier in my entrepreneurial journey.
00:00:51.314 --> 00:00:59.194
Honestly, I genuinely think that since the day that I've taken this action, it has transformed all of my businesses.
00:00:59.579 --> 00:01:01.043
So what is a growth fund?
00:01:01.043 --> 00:01:05.093
For me personally, my growth fund it is a completely different account.
00:01:05.093 --> 00:01:13.629
It's a bank account where 10% of every single dollar that comes in across all of my businesses goes straight to the growth fund.
00:01:13.629 --> 00:01:17.969
And for me, that growth fund you all know I love building things.
00:01:17.969 --> 00:01:18.751
I love growing.
00:01:18.751 --> 00:01:25.007
My word of the year for 2024 is building, and I just find that it's so much easier to do.
00:01:25.007 --> 00:01:36.563
Growing and building is so much easier to do when you have money to do it with, and so I'm like most of you listeners in the fact that I started with nothing.
00:01:36.563 --> 00:01:45.899
In fact, I started my first business with about $100 when I was a college student and I was really scrappy, and I still still, to this day, I'm very scrappy.
00:01:45.899 --> 00:01:50.108
It's something that I'm really grateful that I've learned in life, not just in business.
00:01:50.108 --> 00:01:55.227
And, with that said, we all have limited resources, especially when it comes to money.
00:01:55.227 --> 00:02:18.804
A lot of you, I know that you relate to my story and my journey of starting out with literally nothing, and along those lines, that's why I think a growth fund is even more important, because if you start putting to the side 10% and if you're thinking to yourself, brian, I need that 10%, I needed to cover expenses, I needed to pay for my life, well then, okay, start out with 5%.
00:02:18.804 --> 00:02:23.052
If that's too high, okay, start out with 1%, one way or another.
00:02:23.180 --> 00:02:30.872
Today's Action Saturday is about getting you to make that commitment of saying look, 10% of what I make, 5% of what I make, 1% of what I make.
00:02:30.872 --> 00:02:35.729
Whatever it is, it's not for me, it's going to my future growth plans.
00:02:35.729 --> 00:02:41.484
It's going into all of the things that I want to execute on in the future to make even more money.
00:02:41.484 --> 00:02:49.350
And since I've started this, it's really been about two and a half years since I started my growth fund and I've just long committed to 10%.
00:02:49.350 --> 00:02:50.252
I don't even think about it.
00:02:50.252 --> 00:02:54.515
When money hits my business accounts, 10% automatically goes to the growth fund.
00:02:54.515 --> 00:03:12.024
And so you know, two and a half years later, that's a nice amount of money for me to pull the trigger on different investment things, whether it's working with branding specialists to focus on a rebrand, or making strategic hires to grow my team, or investing in tools that are going to move my businesses forward.
00:03:12.063 --> 00:03:22.252
Whatever it is, it's much easier to pull from that growth fund that has been set aside for that very reason, rather than, at worst, dipping into your personal expenses.
00:03:22.252 --> 00:03:23.140
That's never fun.
00:03:23.140 --> 00:03:24.723
Dipping into your personal accounts.
00:03:24.723 --> 00:03:32.903
It's a much more difficult proposition to say I really want to grow, but I don't want to see my personal accounts shrink, and I get that.
00:03:32.903 --> 00:03:35.611
That's exactly where I was before I had a growth fund.
00:03:35.611 --> 00:03:45.467
So at worst it's really difficult to pull out of your personal funds and at best it's really hard to also pull out of the same account that does cover your monthly business expenses.
00:03:45.467 --> 00:03:50.074
I think it's really important for you to have a healthy operating expenses account.
00:03:50.719 --> 00:04:00.170
And if you've ever studied Profit First by Mike Michalowicz, I think is how I pronounce his last name incredible author who wrote Profit First, then this is familiar to you.
00:04:00.170 --> 00:04:02.747
It's not me reinventing the wheel, this is very much.
00:04:02.747 --> 00:04:17.482
I'm a big advocate for the profit first approach and at the cornerstone of a lot of that yes, profit first, but I guess one of the byproducts it's not at the cornerstone is having a growth fund, having those funds automatically get deposited.
00:04:17.482 --> 00:04:21.050
So you might be thinking, brian, what does that look like?
00:04:21.050 --> 00:04:21.913
Well, it's really simple.
00:04:21.913 --> 00:04:31.276
Just have a different account, open a different checking account, whether it's a personal account because you haven't got your business finances set up just yet, or you do have business accounts already.
00:04:31.276 --> 00:04:35.749
Just create a different account and call it your growth fund account and that's the only purpose of it.
00:04:36.170 --> 00:04:45.694
And on a weekly or monthly basis, whatever it looks like, just transfer the appropriate amount based on that top line revenue and again, you need to know your numbers.
00:04:45.694 --> 00:04:49.035
Of course, if 10% is too much for you, don't do 10%.
00:04:49.035 --> 00:04:52.026
Maybe 5%, maybe 2.5%, maybe 1%.
00:04:52.026 --> 00:04:57.908
Whatever it is, it's going to feel and it should feel inconsequential today.
00:04:57.908 --> 00:05:09.970
But the point of the growth fund is that if you do it over time, a year from now you're gonna be sitting on a growth fund and thinking all the way back to this Action Saturday episode, thinking gosh.
00:05:09.970 --> 00:05:13.449
I'm so glad that Brian gave me that advice when he did.
00:05:13.449 --> 00:05:15.740
That's my goal from today's Action Saturday.
00:05:15.740 --> 00:05:18.482
But this only works if you do it.
00:05:18.482 --> 00:05:21.644
So go out there, take action, start your growth fund.
00:05:21.644 --> 00:05:24.026
I'll see you right back here tomorrow.
Listen On
