How to Know If a Big Purchase Is Right for Your Business

Welcome to the Creative Mind Smart Money Podcast where we turn financial confusion into creative confidence. I'm Samantha Ek, the keeper and fractional CFO for creative entrepreneurs. Each week I'm sharing my financial expertise and actionable strategies to help you build a thriving creative business. Plus, you'll hear from industry experts who bring fresh perspectives on growing your business beyond the numbers. As building a successful creative business starts with strong financial foundations, your next chapter starts now. Hello, hello friends and I cannot believe that we are already in February. I mean, if you're like me, January has already flown by and we're already in the second month of 2026, which is insane. But that's what we have to start talking about some of these other topics that we kind of avoid, but are very, very necessary when it comes to all things that we do with our business. And one of those things is big purchases and I'm not talking about like a hundred dollar or a two hundred dollar purchase. I'm talking about those two thousand three thousand even thousand dollar purchases that are things that you may think, okay, if I buy this, it's going to save me time. It will help me scale. And this is what real businesses do. Now, big investments are fantastic because oftentimes they're a new computer or a new piece of equipment that's going to be really, really great for us overall. And we're so excited to buy this new piece of equipment. But the problem is is that there's twofold with the excitement of these, right? When we buy big things, our cash flow is saying, hey, what the heck do you spend more than you brought in this month? That's not necessarily a bad thing. But it's definitely something you want to be keeping at the back of your mind and thinking of, especially if you have like a target number, you want your bank account to stay at or something like that. When you see that you have a negative cash flow, sometimes that does impact your confidence levels because you're looking at everything and you're saying, well, I brought in like $10,000, but I spent 12, like what's going on? And of course, occasionally, sometimes there is a little bit of regret when you have this big item that you purchased in six months down the road, you're like, why did I do that? Purpose did it serve. Now we want to talk about all of these kinds of feelings, but also the dangers and the positives and everything like that in between. Let's really get into thinking about how big investments impact our business, not just how to buy them, but like the emotional and the impact that they will have on our business overall. Okay. So now we want to think about what actually counts as a big investment. And we don't just want to think about the dollar amount because of course, you know, a $3,000 purchase is a big investment, but a big investment is more than just, okay, $3,000. It's big if it changes your monthly cash commitments, if it reduces the flexibility that you have in your cash flow and your business. And if you really feel that decision in your body, to relate on that on like kind of like a note for myself, some big investments that often come up for me are things that I've invested in in January for my business and December, which was a new MacBook, a new work iPhone and a new work, I'm at all of those things are not cheap and when combined, I'm looking at my cash on saying, okay, well, do I want to invest in my business or do I need this money on like a personal standpoint because as a single member LLC, a lot of my money goes to our personal bank account. So again, that's where you're kind of thinking of this and common examples for service creatives as well, obviously are the equipment, but there's also things like hiring or software ecosystems, like if you are spending a lot of money on certain softwares that are being built out for you, maybe you have someone you're paying $3,000 for a click up build, coaching or masterminds and maybe even equipment. These purchases are so normalized and they're very rarely actually thought out. You might go on threads and see a post from a coach who seems like a good fit for you and you just instantly purchase it, right? And all of a sudden your cash flow is really, really poorly portrayed during that month and you're like, wait, what did I just do? That is the kind of big investments we're talking about and I just want to make sure that that's clear that that is the topic that we're really, really digging into today. Why do these big investments often feel so emotionally charged? I mean, one of the biggest points is because they're rarely financial decisions, right? We see the money in our bank account, we know we've got $3,000, we know we've got $2,000, we know we've got whatever amount it is. The money is there, but they're often wrapped up in our identities, a business owner thinking, okay, you know, I need this coach because I should be at the point that this coach is telling me I should be at by now, but I'm not. So I really need to make sure that I'm investing in this and this is something that I'm actually getting. There's a fear of being behind. Like if I don't invest in this now, six months down the road, I'm not going to be as far ahead as someone else who is in my same industry. There is, if you're missing the next level, again, similar to being left behind, you're worried that if you don't invest in this thing, you're not going to be able to get to the next level in your business. So there is this pressure to decide to buy this investment now or you don't get anything. Like you need to buy it now. And that urgency often replaces the clarity and the thought process that we need to have in order to invest in these big things. Because if you just invest and you're like, oh yeah, I'm just going to get, I'm just going to get something. That's where you're all of a sudden you're thinking, okay, maybe I shouldn't have invested in that six months down the road. Because now you're like, oh my gosh, what did I learn? What was the benefit of that? And that's sometimes, that's on every time. Sometimes you are like, wow, that was so worth the investment. And we're going to talk about investment reflections in the next episode, which is kind of like a tie into this one. We talked about it a little bit last year, but I really want to kind of deep dive into some more of those reflecting on your investments. So of course, you know, there is that and there is a pressure to decide now. There's just so many things to think of and emotionally, it plays a big part. Money is a huge part of this. Yes, but emotionally, it is also something that we need to think about. There is oftentimes where I bar myself from purchasing big things because I'm like, do I really need this? Do I already know the information that this course is going to teach me? And if I buy this course, am I just spending money that I could have been keeping? It's something that we always have to think about, right? So we've talked about what the investments are and why they feel so emotionally charged. But we really want to talk about the story that we tell ourselves when we are looking at these bigger investments. And of course, there is this will fix everything. So if I get a coach, if I get a piece of equipment, if I buy office space, if I get a hire, it will fix everything in my business. And the other story is if I don't do this, I'm going to fail. Like I'm failing my business. I'm not doing good enough in my business. My business isn't good enough. And neither story really asks the right questions when you're thinking about making an investment in your business. Investments are not emotional band aids. They can't just fix the anxiety that we feel. They can't fix the underconfidence that they feel they can't fix those things. It becomes, again, that emotional band aid instead of a strategic choice. So instead of thinking, okay, I'm behind, this will fix everything in my business, things like that. We're not if you give the greater, bigger picture and taking the time to actually consider all angles. We're thinking really of those only emotional points that we don't really need to be thinking of. The next one I want to talk about is probably a little bit of a hot take, a little bit controversial. Tax benefits don't equal affordability. Tax write-offs are often romanticized. I understand that there is a benefit to them, especially when you're a bigger business, but when you are a smaller business, you're a small service creative business, the tax benefits are beneficial, but they're not beneficial. If you know what I mean, sure, it's deductible. Do you still have the cash to pay for it? The tax logic often overrides the cash reality that we have. So a lot of people are like, okay, you know, it's a tax benefit. So whatever I'll get it, and then all of a sudden your cash flow is really, really, really harsh. So there is a difference between a very smart tax move and something that's going to be a landmine to your cash flow. So we don't want to really just think about what our taxes are going to be like at the end of the year. We also want to think about what's going on in a month to month basis. This is mainly why I'm not focused on taxes, right? Because you can be focused on taxes and say, okay, you know, I'm only thinking about how this item is going to be taxable at the end of the year, but realistically, you're not thinking about how that's going to impact you today. And we need to think about what's going to impact us today, not just what's going to impact our taxes. Taxes are such a small part of your business. Like they are a big part, sorry, they're not a small part. They are a big part. They're also a very small part. Like if you know what I mean, they're big, but they're small. So you want to think about the bigger picture and not just for the tax purposes, right? Now of course, there are the hidden costs of bigger purchases that no one talks about. If you purchase something on monthly payments, it does lock you into decisions that are made by a previous version of you. So maybe you're someone who's in January and you're like, oh, yeah, yeah, I have. I want to make all these big purchases. I've got all this big stuff that I want to buy. And you're locking yourself into a version of you that was excited to get all this stuff. And now maybe six months down the road, you're like, I don't know why I did that. Obviously, there is less room to pivot. If you. need to pivot in the middle of the month. If you have made a bigger purchase, there is less margin for mistakes, especially if you don't have a lot of cash. And there is less ability to respond to slow months. So if you do slow month and you take a lot of the money out of your account, obviously, you know, that is going to impact you quite a bit. Flexibility, obviously in your business, especially with your cash flow is a huge asset. It's not a luxury to be like, oh, I have $5,000 stocked in my bank account. Like that is a huge asset because you have the flexibility to do with what you want for it. Of course, we want to be able to make those decisions, but it is just something that is also good to have and make sure that we have a cash kind of backup. So what do good big investments usually have in common? They usually solve a clearly defined problem. They support something that already exists and they don't rely on a future version of you to magically make them work. So, you know, like when you're saying those monthly payments, now if you can afford the monthly payments, obviously a future version of you doesn't matter because you could afford them. But those big investments also very rarely save a broken system. They rarely replace something like clarity that we need and they very rarely create some sort of instantly. If there's usually a lot of work that needs to go into them, whether you're hiring a coach, whether you're hiring a bookkeeper, whoever it is, there's good big investments usually have those in common. Big investments aren't necessarily good or bad. They are very contextual because we really need to think about it. The real question isn't, was this a very good investment? It was this the right investment for this version of my business? And that's what you really want to think of, right? When we're kind of taking that time to really think of things and that's where we're going to kind of really dive into in the next episode is how to actually reflect on past investments without sort of spiraling yourself and getting into something that we really want to kind of take a look at. Big investments don't fail because you choose wrong. They fail because the decision didn't have enough context for where your business was in that moment. And that's where we really want to think of those things. So when we talk about this investment reflection in the next episode, it's really going to tie this together and make you think at the end of the year, hey, looking back at all these investments, how did this impact my business so that in future years you can make smarter decisions? Otherwise, you guys, I hope that you enjoyed this video and a little bit more of a personal side for me. I really appreciate you dropping by and swinging by. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to share it with friends, share it in social media, and always come back for more. Subscribe. And of course, if you have any topic suggestions, please make sure to let me know using the form in the description box or shooting the message. Otherwise, I wish you guys the best week ever. We'll see you next week. Farewell, fellow travelers.