Paying Up vs Investing: How a single word can hold your business back

Investing in your fashion resale business can be stressful. Especially because a lot of us have grown up with this idea that spending is bad, and saving is good. There is absolutely some truth in this idea when you are talking about your personal finances, but in business, it really does take money to make money. It doesn’t have to be crazy amounts of money, but you will need investment capital and a new mindset. Whether you are a new reseller or a seasoned one, investing in your business is always a good idea. The truth is, in business, the more you invest/spend, the more you make.

 

Do you ladies believe in the power of words? Well, you should. We are constantly guided, affected, influenced, inspired, manipulated, and impacted by words. Every day, certain words will make you unexplainably happy, and others will bring you down. Think about the impact of negative words in your life...

 

If you wake up tomorrow, and it is rainy and cold, you have two choices; you can wake up and complain about the shitty weather, how cold it is, how annoying it is that you will have to go outside and get wet. How much this time of years sucks. Or, you can say that even though it is cold, the rain is good because it is the perfect weather to stay indoors and read a good book, nature needs it, you don’t want to be in it but you love the smell etc.… Newsflash! It is the same occurrence either way, but the actual experience of it transforms depending on what words you assign to it.

 

“The words you use to describe the experience become the experience.” Tony Robbins.

There has never been a truer sentence. So, why am I bringing this up now? Because this is what happens when you call investing in your business “PAYING UP”. You take an essential part of the growth of your business and assign words with a negative connotation to it. You have already set yourself up to hate the idea, without understanding the amazing benefits of this step. Do you see what I mean?

 

What do you think of when you think of the word PAY? Do you associate it with amazing things that happen in your life? Or annoying things? Like say, PAYING BILLS? Yuck. Not only that, but on top of the word PAY, some of you have decided to add the word UP right behind it. So now, not only are you associating paying bills, aka spending your hard-earned cash, with the growth of your capital, you are now assuming it will be a high price. You are PAYING UP. To me that sounds like you are burning cash out on your front lawn.

 

Now tell me how you feel about INVESTING capital into undervalued assets? I don’t know about you, but I feel like a slick Wall Street broker, yelling on my cell phone and making big money all at once. Would I hesitate to PAY UP on a pair of Chanel boots? Sure, I don’t want to pay for anything in life, really. But if I told myself it was a great investment that would at the very least double my money within a month?... SOLD! I’m in! Where do I sign?

 

My point is, we need to start looking at our business as a serious enterprise and our business cash as capital. We are not resellers finding trash and flipping it online. We are businesswomen, investing capital in undervalued assets and growing our wealth.

 

MONEY IS WORTH MORE OUTSIDE THE BANK

So, now that we are over the whole “paying up” thing… Let me tell you how I look at my business by giving you some examples of why I am perfectly fine investing my money in undervalued designer goods and waiting for the right buyer to come along.

 

(Important note: I don’t wait on every single piece. Sometimes, if it is an item that did not perform the way I expected it to, I will just sell it to get my money back, even at a small loss, so I can take that money and try again).

 

When I do wait, this is my reasoning: My money is worth more in undervalued designer items than at the bank.  I have gotten to a point where I keep a pretty decent cash reserve. I did not start this way but, I currently have thousands invested at any given time. I have my little safety net to cover payroll and store emergencies, but a lot of the money goes right back into product.

SCENARIO 1: A CHLOE PURSE VS A BANK CD 

Let’s talk about the Chloe purse scenario and I will explain why my money is worth more in a purse than in the bank. I purchased a Chloe purse in excellent preowned condition, authentic with cards, serial number and receipt a year ago for $150! Insane, right? It was just one of those online, right place right time things! $150 is not a scary number for me, but I know some of you might be getting the sweats right now lol. I had no idea if this would sell right away, it was not one of their super popular styles, and there were no comps. Why did I buy it? Well, it was an authentic designer purse, in excellent condition, a practical style, at a ridiculously low price (it was originally $2200). It had crazy potential.

 

The bag got attention, likes, comments, but it never really sold. I relisted it multiple times on the platforms and same deal. Why did I hold on to it? Well, #1. For the reasons mentioned above regarding it being incredible undervalued #2. I did not need that cash to keep my business running #3, the most important point, those $150 would continue to be $150 for the rest of their life in my bank, but in this purse, they could be worth anywhere from $300 to $500. It was a "no brainer" for me! I put my money where it has growth potential.

 

The bag sat there for a full year! And then, one day, RANDOMLY, without questions or likes, it sold for $400 on my website! If I had passed on that piece and just left the money in the bank, I would still only have $150. Because I put it in this undervalued asset, a year later, my money had almost tripled!

 

Let’s take it a step further. In a year, I managed to make $250 from $150. That not sound like a lot in your current reseller mindset, but we are business women now. We look at the complete, big picture. 

 

Do you know how much money I would have to have tied up in CD, at the current interest rates, for 5 years to make that $250? YOU WOULD NEED TO INVEST $3500 FOR 5 YEARS AT A 1.5% (WHICH IS PRETTY CRAZY HIGH) TO MAKE THE MONEY I JUST MADE IN ONE YEAR ON A $150 INVESTMENT.

We need to start looking at the potential of every dollar bill we earn. Every single dollar you earn should be like a little employee that you send out to make you more money. We need to learn how to make our money work for us and not the other way around. Do you understand why it is important to invest in items that have the potential to multiply your money? Do you understand how, even though it seems counterintuitive, your money might actually be worth more in the right items than in the bank?

SCENARIO 2: DESIGNER BOOTS VS A BANK CD 

Let’s take a second and final example. I bought a pair of Philosophy di Lorenzo Serafini boots a while back. They were the most beautiful boots I had ever laid eyes on at that point. Again, there were no comps, no solds, only one picture of them being sold on Lyst from a couple years ago. I bought them because I knew this was a very expensive Italian designer, the suede was the softest suede I had ever touched, and the boots were just really unique.

 

I bought them for $90. I figured, worst case scenario, I can definitely sell these for $90 again, but I am pretty sure if I put the money in these boots, I will at the very least double my money at some point. I swore they would fly off the shelf, but no! They sat there for like 7 months! I was personally insulted! Why was nobody buying the most amazing boots ever made?

 

Well, fast forward 7.5 months later, they sold for $250! Again, I was able to turn my $90 into $250 within 7 months. I would have to have at least $2000 in a CD for 5 years to get that money! So, with the world we are in today, and the kind of laughable interest rates the banks give us on our money… why not put it where it could be worth double or triple?

 

I know this is a different way of thinking, but do you understand my point? If you have built up a cash reserve and can go in for the long run and not need the cash right away, why not have it tied up where it could grow exponentially?

 

To answer your question, when should you make bigger investments on product?

ANY TIME YOU SEE AN OPPORTUNITY WITH AN UNDERVALUED ASSET. How do you know if it is worth the time and if it is undervalued? Go back to the IMPORTANCE OF BRAND AND MARKET VALUE lesson from a couple weeks back.

 

Do your research. Figure out what items are worth holding on to. I believe in velocity! Don’t get me wrong. I think you should have items in your business that literally fly off the shelves. Maybe not at the highest profit, but if they are constantly selling, it means your money is constantly multiplying itself. But on the investing side, why not put money where it has the potential to multiply itself in time? Why not look for a way to make your money work for you?

 

Does this work every single time for me? No, but it works a big majority of the time, which means I am outpacing the banks and the stock market at rocket speed. 

 

IN SUMMARY....

1. We HAVE to stop saying paying up and start thinking of buying higher priced goods as investing in assets. When you buy a piece to sell, the money is not gone, you just traded actual paper notes for a good. 

 

2. We need to understand that in business, it is not good to hoard all of your money. We need to make that money work for us, and not the other way around.

 

3. It is always a good idea to put your money where it has the potential to be worth double or triple. 

 

4. Your money sitting in the bank is making you $0.

 

What do you think of this lesson? Please reply to this email with questions, comments, thoughts, debate topics... I am thrilled to hear from you ladies.

 Thank you for your time, ladies! See you soon.

 

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