The Real Cost of Not Starting

Feb 10

Let's talk about the thing that nobody wants to say out loud. You're scared to invest in yourself. And listen, I get it. Investing money in yourself and your dream can feel a little nerve-wracking at times, especially if you've never done it before. But today I want to flip the script and talk about the cost you're not seeing. The real cost isn't the investment, it's staying exactly where you are. We just had one of our free workshops last weekend. I talked about this in the workshop. It was something that I really felt pressing on my heart and something that I started talking about with the gals that were there live. And I just felt like there was someone else that needed to hear this too.

And it's this idea that investing in yourself and your dream and your skills is scary. And that a lot of times that is the thing that's holding people back is the investment. It's actually paying to get started. And I get why this feels hard. You obviously can have these things come up, like these mental blocks that is like, okay, what if it doesn't work? What if I'm wasting money? What if I'm not ready? You might even have the guilt of spending money on yourself when you have bills and kids and responsibilities, right? So, what I want you to know is that that hesitation is completely normal. It's something that I see often and it's something that I experience myself at times. Money mindset stuff is very real, especially for moms who have been conditioned to put everyone first, right? We are way more willing to spend money on our kids than we are to spend on ourselves.

I think about the trope of, you know, buying clothes for ourselves often doesn't feel very fun, but we'll go spend money on our kids' clothes, no problem. I know you've been there if you're a mom. It's so backwards because when we as moms invest in ourselves and invest in our growth and invest in what is best for us, it actually serves everyone around us better. That's the whole idea of, this blog is looking at, what is the ROI, not just financial, but just the ROI of us investing in ourselves in general. It could be financial, but there's also an ROI that's emotional that has to do with time, right? But when there is an ROI, there's also a cost to not getting started at all.

I want to talk about what is an investment? Or what is the difference between just spending money or investing money. To me, an investment isn't just an expense, right? An expense is something that you pay for and you might get something in return, but there's not like a huge ROI, right? Like an expense could be paying a bill or getting takeout or paying for childcare. That's an expense. It's a line item on your budget. But an investment really has an ROI on the other side, a return of investment. It's something that returns something else to you. And you could argue, especially if you're really good at girl math, like I am, I can see the ROI of things all the time, right? I can see how, investing in some part-time childcare, there is an ROI to that because it allows for me to make more money because I have some more focused work time. I can see how, there's an ROI to spending money on healthy groceries because it is going to allow us to fuel our bodies in a way that is good and can actually help us avoid health complications down the road. Same thing with a gym membership, right? There's an ROI to that when you use it. But that's the difference between just spending money, maybe it's one of those times where you go to Target and you're browsing the aisles with your Starbucks and you're just finding things to spend money on. I know so many women that are willing to do that, but then aren't willing to actually invest in themselves where there is something that returns to them, right? And there's so many examples of investments that we don't question.

The biggest example that I can think of is college tuition. I have my undergrad, so I have my bachelor's and I also have a master's degree. And never once did I question if it would be worth it. The tens of thousands of dollars that I spent on college, never once did I think that it wouldn't be worth it on the other side. And I mean, that's years to see an ROI, right? Undergrad, let's say you go undergrad for four years, and then maybe your master's degree program is another two years. That's six years before you really see an ROI on your investment. And unfortunately for me, my degrees that I got, the ROI on the other side, wasn't very high in terms of financial return. As most of you know, teachers don't make a whole lot. And so, it's six years of investing and putting a lot of time and money into a college degree to come out on the other side making, maybe $40,000, $50,000 a year, depending on where you're at. You could be making more if you live in a higher income or higher cost of living area, and you could be making less if you live somewhere that doesn't pay their teachers very well at all. So at the same time though, I never questioned that. I never questioned the investment that I was making in my college degree because it was important to me. I don't question, or a lot of other people don't question professional certificates or licenses, right? Because it's something that might be able to help you get ahead in your career. It's an investment opportunity for that.

So my question is, why are there these things that we don't question about these investments? We don't question, you know, what's on the other side of them, but we do question investing in a business that could replace your income, could give you more time freedom, and could honestly change your family's future forever. And, we think it's too much, right? Or it's not worth it. It's not something that you want to invest in, even though it could be the very thing that helps you get to where you want to go. And honestly, here's what I think. I think that it's actually not about money at all. At the end of the day, I think oftentimes it's about belief. I think it's belief that it's possible for you to see success, at least the success that you want to see. I think that it's belief that it's going to work out for you. I think it's belief in what is possible on the other side. It's all the what ifs that keep us stuck. What if this doesn't work out? What if I can't be successful? What if, you know, X, Y, and Z fill in the blank of whatever your what if is. That is where people get hung up on the investment because they don't want to waste money. They don't want to spend money and it not work out. But there's a real cost to not getting started. Like I mentioned earlier, there's more than one type of cost. There's financial cost, there's time cost, and I think there's emotional cost too.

I think back to when I was first looking at starting my business as a VA, I was actually pivoting away from a different business. It wasn't necessarily like I was investing anything because the whole reason that I ended up creating Beginner to Booked VA was because I couldn't find a program or find the support that I needed and that I really connected with. So I didn't invest in a program in the beginning because there really wasn't anything like what we've created today available. But there was a financial cost to pivoting because I was changing businesses. I was leaving behind a business that was very lucrative and it was working and I was successful, but it wasn't something that I was aligned to anymore. And I just remember being afraid of that. I do remember wondering if it was going to work out. But I knew that the cost of staying where I was at, was greater. And I think that is what I want to come across in this blog is that the cost of not getting started outweighs the cost of getting started. Especially when it comes to starting as a virtual assistant. With financial cost, what you're costing is missing out on another, $500 a month,$1,000 a month, $2,000, $3,000, you name it, dollars a month that you could be making as a VA, but not getting started, you're not seeing that income, obviously, because you haven't started. It's like, okay, what if you could make an extra $2,000 a month as a VA, which you could do in as little as two to three hours a day, that's $24,000 a year. Think about that. If waiting another year to start costs you $24,000, what's really the expensive choice, right? Getting started or not starting at all.

Also, there's the time cost. A lot of people that come through Beginner to Booked VA specifically, they want more time, whether they want to, go part-time at their jobs or they want to be able to quit their jobs and be at home with their kids, whatever that looks like. They are looking at it in terms of time. Like, I want to get time back because time is our most valuable currency. Time is something that we don't get back. We can't make more time. Once the time is gone, the time is gone, right? So the only way that we can make more time is by creating more time. And the only way we can create more time is by making our work support our life versus our life having to surround ourselves with work. And for me, the time cost that I would have to pay if I was working full time as a teacher still, and only being able to see my kids, a couple hours at night and then on the weekends, that's just it, it's too high of a cost for me. And I know that not everyone can relate to that. And I know not everyone, that's their goal. But for me, I wanted to be able to have a flexible schedule. I wanted to be able to provide financially for my family, but also spend most of the time with my kids. I also remember as a teacher, just like constantly living for the weekend, constantly waiting for Saturday to roll around, constantly waiting to get stuff done on the weekends or on breaks or whatever. And I just didn't want to continue to live like that. That cost was too high. I wanted to be able to take family vacations whenever we wanted. I didn't want to have to wait until summer vacation or spring break or whatever that might look like. There's a cost there.

And then there's the emotional cost, right? Like the resentment that can build within you when you're not betting on yourself is real. I think oftentimes there's resentment that can build when you're looking at other people who are doing what you want to do and you're not going for it, right? You're seeing other people see success because they went for it and they bet on themselves and you're staying on the sidelines or you're in the same spot. And then there's also the emotional cost of all the what ifs, right? I always say that at the end of my life, I would rather have a lot more, oh well, that didn't work out the way that I planned for it to, than have a lot of what ifs. A lot of what if I would have gone for it? What if I would have started sooner? What if I fill in the blank? I would much rather have those moments of it didn't work out the way that I wanted it to. And trust me, I have plenty of those in the last eight years of entrepreneurship. But I have far less what if I would have tried, or what if I would have started sooner. I think about what if I would have started sooner with my VA business all the time because I wanted to start about a year before I actually started. I think back like, man, what if I would have started that whole year earlier? Where could I have been? What's interesting is that when we do invest in ourselves, we often show up differently. I have invested a lot in my business in 2024 specifically.

I invested a lot in some growth opportunities to be able to help me refine skills and get some coaching and all that kind of stuff. And I show up differently now because I made those investments. You also show up differently because you have skin in the game. You're not downloading a bunch of free resources or all this free content and or like low-ticket content even and just letting it collect dust in your inbox. When you invest something, you put skin in the game and you take it more seriously because it costs you something. You also commit instead of just dabble when you put money down for something. Let's think about a gym membership, for example. If you're paying like $15 a month for a gym, or even if you have access to a free gym membership, how often do you use it? Some of you are probably really disciplined and you do use it often, but I've had moments where I have access to a gym and never used it ever. But when I'm paying $150 a month, you betcha I'm gonna go show up at those classes, right? I'm gonna commit instead of just go once in a while because I'm investing in it. I'm putting skin in the game. When I think about the women who invest in Beginner to Booked VA in particular, they are investing in not just knowledge, but also speed to help them get to where they want to go faster. So there's a ton of knowledge on the internet, YouTube, Google, all of those things, right? That's one of the best things about our online space now is that you can find anything anywhere. But investing in a program that helps you step by step get to where you want to go is not only going to teach you exactly how to get to where you want to go, but it's going help you go there faster.

Now, here's the thing: I can't guarantee that you'll make $10,000 your first month. And I won't, I won't do that. I can't guarantee that it will be easy because it's something new. You're learning a new skill, you're learning something new, you're learning how to be a beginner again. But what I can tell you is that if you don't try, the outcome is guaranteed. You will stay exactly where you are. There is risk in investing. Of course there is. But there's certainty in not investing, or not getting started. And that certainty is that nothing changes. In a year from now, what will you regret more? Trying and learning or not trying at all. So if you've been on the fence about starting your business as a virtual assistant, and maybe you know that looks like investing in Beginner to Booked VA to get you started, I want you to ask yourself, what is staying stuck actually costing me? Not just in dollars, but in time with your kids, in peace of mind, in the future that you want to build. The program is an investment, of course, but it's an investment in you and your skills and your income and your freedom and the ROI, not just financially, because you legit can make your investment back in a month or two with clients, and it's so worth it. Time and time again, I've seen how the women who succeed aren't the ones who have perfect circumstances. They're the ones who decide that the cost of staying stuck was higher than the cost of starting. I believe in you. I believe that you have what it takes. I believe that one year from now, you won't regret betting on yourself. But you might regret not starting at all. So don't let any more time pass you by. Just get started. And maybe it's not even starting your business as a VA, maybe it's something else entirely. What is the thing that you are not starting because you're afraid of the investment when really it's the not starting that's costing you so much?

As always, I’m rooting for you. 🤍