Splurging in the Right Direction

When you make the transition from employee to entrepreneur, it can be quite a lifestyle transition to make. Maybe you’re even bootstrapping and taking risks by living off personal savings or digging early into retirement funds.

It was a rainy April evening when things took a turn and threw a wrench in my hustle and flow. I never really began thinking about what exactly that transition and sacrifice meant until I was faced with splurging for (or rather after) a rainy day. Before I knew it, I’d be presented with a splurge or save dilemma that got me thinking about shamelessly investing in things that contribute to my productivity and ability to create and innovate.

There was a torrential downpour that evening and I found myself stuck at the office — a thirty-minute walk from home. It was usually a delight to walk home on a “not-too-hot not-too-cold, just right” kind of day. But as I said, this rain really threw a wrench in my day and my productivity for the next few days as I knew it. I could catch a cab, but instead I heard my partner’s voice echoing into my head, “We’re bootstrapping!”. This meant we needed to tone down on our expenses (both personal and business) as much as possible.

I did not hail a cab. Instead I decided to suck up the rain, slid my hood on and made the trek in order to make it to an evening webinar. I was also hangry and just couldn’t afford to wait until the showers subsided. I quickly stuffed my things into my backpack and started the commute home.

When I got home, I unpacked my things and set up my laptop to tune in to the webinar that would begin in only 3 minutes. Instead of being greeted with the familiar Mac startup sound, I was faced with a dark screen that ceased to light up. I fumbled and realized that even though it seemed like my MacBook was dry, a few raindrops probably found their way into my backpack and settled into an open port in my laptop after I hurriedly stuffed it into my backpack without a sleeve.

Immediately we put it into a big bag of rice. I was praying that this $5 bag of rice would save me thousands to revive or buy a replacement.

Within 24 hours, it turned on and then would die again. 

?? Back in the rice it went. 

After 48 hours, it turned on and stayed on but the keyboard letters were all jumbled and produced gibberish symbols instead of the QWERTY alphabet lineup.

?? Back in the rice it went.

After 3–4 days, I turned it on and things went seemingly fine! Keyboard worked. It didn’t suddenly turn off. But the wifi was broken and would only stay connected for up to 20 minutes at best ??.

After all that, I was frustrated and was beginning to believe that this was something that the healing properties of rice wouldn’t be able to fix. I was particularly torn because Apple had just released drastic changes to its MacBook Pro line and I possessed the last Retina version before they introduced the latest Touchbar models with nothing but USB-C ports.

The next few days, I scraped by while working on my tablet and keyboard and spent whatever time I could troubleshooting. I lined up at the Apple store, googled up solutions in forums, and it was painfully time consuming. Aside from the hours of troubleshooting and time wasted on hacking a solution together, it was difficult to be able to work while out and about. I couldn’t have my laptop reliable and ready to go. I went out of my way to find creative solutions — like purchasing a USB wifi adapter and then spent hours finding a driver to install it on my MacBook. This situation was really killing my vibes. After several hours of daily troubleshooting and cursing at unreliable technology, I bit the bullet and got myself a shiny new MacBook Pro with a Touchbar and I am so glad I did.

Allowing myself the permission to upgrade and not look back was a great decision that led me to really reconsider what bootstrapping could really mean.

Sure, I could have went for a hack solution or found myself a cheaper hardware alternative to yet another hefty-priced Apple machine in order to save money. I actually own a PC tablet and other Microsoft products for my own personal use, but when it comes to business and work needs I have my entire workflow built out on the Apple environment ready to go and synced with my iPhone. I could have even saved a few hundred and bought myself the exact same Retina model I had before. I already spent tons of timeseeking savings and solutions. Instead I chose to stop wasting more time and just upgrade and splurge on as many new specs as I could — e.g. went from 8GB to 16GB RAM and also from an i5 to i7 processor for a little more. I didn’t want more of the same, I wanted to kick it up to the next level in order to meet the next level I also wanted to reach in my business.

I was even lucky enough to pick up a deal on a new model from the Apple Certified Refurbished store (one of their best kept secrets) and had 3 months to pay it off interest-free. And you know what? I survived #donglelife and the transition was seamless. As soon as I booted up that new laptop, I logged into my account, was synced up and ready to go.

After weighing the pros and cons, it came down to a splurge that made sense as an investment in the machine that I stare at and work on for multiple hours daily in a caffeinated stupor. In terms of value and usage, it was well worth the splurge.

I wanted the best specs on the best new machine that I could make the stretch to afford because this splurge was an important investment in amplifying my productivity, creativity, and potential for innovation.

Working countless days and nights as a tech entrepreneur means that I want to be inspired and motivated each and every time I turn on the machine that is the portal to my startup’s growth and innovation. This was definitely a splurge in the right direction that I was willing to make.

In making the transition to bootstrapping, I know that there is still way more I could be doing in terms of lifestyle spending shifts…

• I could stop paying the cost of living smack dab in the heart of downtown Toronto with a gorgeous and inspiring skyline view and move into a basement apartment that is a 30–45 minute transit commute into the city instead
• I could stop eating out or spending time and money in new coffee shops and only brown bag it daily
• I could ‘optimize’ my time by opting to wear the same thing every day and forgetting fashion — (a simple black turtleneck à la Steve Jobs, perhaps?)
• I could cut down my social life spending and save money by spending even more time at home
• I also could have taken a cab that rainy night but chose to walk instead because we were bootstrapping.

Realistically I can opt into making two of the five cuts above but to deprive myself of all five is a bit too much. My new take on bootstrapping is to transition my mindset into one of making big investments in my lifestyle and business vs. seeing it as frivolous #YOLO ‘splurging on big ticket items’. I find ways to give and take when it comes to my bootstrapping budget. I prioritize choices like expressing myself through fashion and exploring new cafes to work from because they contribute to my creativity and positive vibes. On the other hand, I don’t mind walking everywhere most of the time and I don’t mind finding other ways to socialize on a shoestring budget while living downtown or even spending a night in with friends! I even enjoy making my own graphics and writing some of my own blog posts instead of outsourcing everything.

Splurge here, save there. Don’t underspend, but don’t overspend. Find the right balance you’re willing to take on.

It just won’t work for me to make a stark transition to go from a mindset of ‘have’ to ‘have-not’. Instead of taking on a lack mindset, I want to take on an abundance mindset and make smart choices that really add up to allow me to feel like I am not only investing my money, but more importantly my time into things that are going to motivate me to stay high vibe, creative, and push my innovation forward.

As someone who is building a tool for entrepreneurs everywhere to have a better overview of their company’s financial health, I don’t want to be spreading fear of spending money and preaching that you need to scrounge up every last dollar to save. Part of being an entrepreneur is taking on risks and I want you to be able to take calculated risks and by all means — splurge, but ‘splurge in the right direction’ and find savings on things that might not be a priority at the moment.

I want to create a sustainable lifestyle and business. Cutting myself off on expenses drastically for the sake of ‘bootstrapping’ to the max is not my way to win. There’s got to be the right give and take so I make that transition seamlessly and smartly.

So… tell me about a time when you splurged in the right direction? Fellow founders, let me know what you think about this concept of splurge mentality while you’re bootstrapping in the comments!

P.s. This article originally appeared in Cost Canvas' recently launched blog! Want to hear more about Cost Canvas? Subscribe to our newsletter below in order to get our exclusive juicy updates in your inbox!