How to Use Social Media to Get More Sales
Entrepreneur Office Hours - Issue #252
Let’s kick off this issue of Entrepreneur Office Hours with a quick announcement about a class I’ll be teaching in a few weeks.
The good news: It’s free! The bad news (for most of you): It’s in-person.
However, if you’re in the Raleigh/Durham area on October 17th, you won’t want to miss it. It’s a half-day event being hosted by Raleigh-Durham Startup Week (RDSW) called “How to Use Social Media to Get More Sales.”
Definitely right up my alley, huh? I’ve been invited to run the first session, where I’ll be teaching the fundamentals of leveraging social media for customer acquisition. Then there’s a session about content production, a session about building your marketing/sales stack around social media, and a panel of people who are successfully using social media in their businesses.
You all know where I stand on this topic. Social media isn’t just some silly thing the kids do. It’s become core to how everyone forms their beliefs and desires, which means entrepreneurs need to learn how to leverage it.
So if you’re in town October 17th, come meet me and spend a hugely valuable half-day learning how to use social media to get more sales. And if you’re not in town… well… you’ve got some Googling to do 😉
(Or send me a message. If I hear from enough people from outside the Raleigh-Durham area who want help learning how to leverage social media in their businesses, maybe I’ll get off my lazy you-know-what and pull together an online version of the class for an hour one evening.)
-Aaron
This week’s new articles…
The Ridiculous Lie Founders Tell Themselves When They’re Trying to Get Their First Customers
There’s one way founders are great at tricking themselves, but self-delusion will cost you time, and time is your most valuable resource.
What to Know When Investors Don’t “Get” Your Pitch
Every founder has given pitches where the other person just didn’t “get it,” but not many know what that really means.
Office Hours Q&A
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QUESTION:
Aaron,
As we start generating revenue, I’m torn between reinvesting profits back into the business or saving some for a rainy day. What’s your advice on balancing reinvestment with building a financial cushion in the early stages?
Thank you for all the great articles!
- Abhishek
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Interesting question. There’s not a perfect answer here (shocking, I know), but here’s how I tend to think about the topic.
In the early stages of a startup, momentum is everything. If reinvesting profits can help you build more momentum — whether that’s improving your product, increasing your customer base, or ramping up marketing — it’s usually worth doing. Startups live or die on growth, and reinvesting gives you a shot at scaling faster. That said, reinvesting doesn’t mean going all-in without a safety net.
A financial cushion is also important because unexpected things happen — product delays, market shifts, or even just slow sales months. If you burn through all your cash trying to grow and then hit a rough patch, you’re left scrambling.
So, what’s the balance? My approach is to keep a “runway buffer” — enough cash to keep the lights on for at least a few months if revenue slows down — while reinvesting the rest. You can adjust the size of that buffer depending on your industry and risk tolerance. If you’re in a more volatile space, maybe keep a bigger cushion. If things are more predictable, you can afford to reinvest more aggressively.
Also, be strategic about where the reinvestment goes. It’s not about throwing money at every part of the business. Focus on the areas that directly contribute to growth — like improving your product or scaling customer acquisition.
At the end of the day, it's about striking that balance between driving growth and ensuring you’ve got enough room to maneuver if things go sideways. Don’t leave yourself totally vulnerable, but don’t be too cautious either. After all, startups are about growth, and you’re not going to grow without some level of risk. That’s the game you’ve decided to play, so you might as well accept that you’re playing it and play accordingly.
Got startup questions of your own? Reply to this email with whatever you want to know, and I’ll do my best to answer!
