“I Feel Guilty Investing In Myself” – the Entrepreneurs’ Mantra

At The Icehouse, we hear all the time from passionate owners who are so emotionally invested in making their business a success. However, they struggle to make the connection between how investing in themselves can also help their business grow.

This is often driven by powerful feelings of guilt; they are not confident in their skills, struggle with feelings of imposter syndrome or feel they are time and resource poor.

A change of mindset is dramatically required. Owners gather so much knowledge, expertise and experience from the first day of their ownership journey. They have plenty to give and need to realise that they are as much of a business asset as the cash sitting in the bank, stock, office equipment and intellectual property.

“Owners often believe that investing money and time on themselves can sometimes feel like they are prioritising themselves over staff and that by putting themselves ‘first’, the team gets left behind,” says Gareth Bayliss, The Icehouse’s Sales Manager.  
 
“But by investing in themselves, what actually happens is they develop a clearer idea on what the future looks like for the business and how they can succeed.”  
 
Businesses are made or broken by their actions. Poor decision-making, inefficiencies in processes and systems, a lack of purpose and clarity are the disciplines by which bad owners operate. Investing in yourself as an owner not only erases bad habits but gives you capacity to learn new skills. 
 
A business is a reflection of the owner, and the owner who possesses skills such as ‘delegation’, ‘shared responsibility’ and ‘communication’ are characteristics of a more creative and innovative business.  

 Bad practices aren’t always the owner’s fault. Owners, by the nature of what they do, spread themselves thinly, are insular in sharing their thinking and are fiercely independent. Learning to invest in oneself is learning to take a break, to understand that being independent, an outlier, can be a barrier to success.  
 
‘By investing in yourself to improve your leadership and systems of operations, it can sow incredible results over time across your leadership and business success.’ (megbusiness.com)  
 
Owners don’t hesitate in investing in their employees. They focus the majority of their money, time and energy on their teams and the businesses that they are trying to grow. As a result, there isn’t much left for them.  
 
So, why the hesitation in investing in themselves when there’s so much evidence to suggest that investing in yourself equips you with new knowledge and skills, boosts confidence in your own abilities, and has a positive impact on your self-esteem?  
 
Training and professional development programmes are one of the key ways entrepreneurs can invest in themselves. Often the results are transformative because professional development also equates to personal development; quashing feelings of entrepreneurial burnout, injecting new passion into the business and improving mental wellbeing. Owners reignite their desire to learn as their confidence builds.  
 
There’s another critical and practical side to owner investment – new ways of thinking. Employees and teams are more reluctant to involve owners in important decisions if they feel they are too set in their ways or outdated in their thinking. It happens. Imagine feeling marginalised and alienated in your own business?  
 
Standing still is not an option. Banish the guilt to become a more successful owner and leader. 
 
“Over the years we have experienced owner-managers who are hesitant to take time out of their business to invest in their own development. In some cases, this is because they believe they are ‘past it’ and feel it is better to invest in the development of their leaders rather than themselves,” explains Liz Wotherspoon, Chief Executive of Growth at The Icehouse.  
 
“In other cases, it is because they struggle to prioritise the investment of time and money. Others are worried about how they will stack up in a room full of their owner-manager peers. It will come as no surprise that we invest time and energy in trying to shift their thinking on this because we know how much impact we can have on them and their business when we get them ‘in the room’ – they learn, they apply the learning and they connect.”

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