Hey big spender: Entrepreneurs reveal their biggest business purchases and why they made them

Emma Koehn - SmartCompany - 3 May 2018

You gotta spend money to make money. It’s a phrase so cliched that many a founder would roll their eyes at hearing it, but there is no getting around the fact that to get a million-dollar idea out there, you have to have some initial monetary firepower.

Economists and analysts have long studied how some businesses are able to to successfully leverage spending opportunities, while others haven’t seen as much growth. For example, when Deloitte crunched the numbers on more than 25,000 US companies between 1966 and 2010, it found businesses with strong revenue growth tend to have a specific mindset.

As Deloitte director Michael Raynor explains, truly successful businesses consistently make decisions based on future revenue, rather than cost reductions. These companies aren’t afraid to spend when necessary and are always focused on how they can sell more, rather than lowering their cost bases.

Even with this encouragement, deciding exactly how to invest within your business can be a tough process. We asked four entrepreneurs to share their largest or most significant business purchases — and what led their companies to decide it was the right time to splash the cash. Read more