Picking Investments For Your Business For 2025

Written by Ashish Gupta

Planning to invest in your business in 2025? Here’s how to figure out where your money will move the needle—and where it might not, as explained by ScaleUpExec Founder and CEO, Ashish Gupta.

As the year comes to a close, many founders will be asking themselves whether or not it’s time to take their business to the next level through various investments.

Let me walk you through how I approach these decisions.

→ Is your goal growth or protection?

Before you invest, decide whether you're looking to grow or maintain.

If the market is still favorable to your business, now might be the time to scale. But, if the market dynamics have shifted or there are external pressures, investing to maintain/protect your current position could be needed.

→ Does this investment align with your vision?

This is where things get personal. Before making any investment, I ask: Does this align with my goals for the business—and for my life?

Take a step back and revisit your purpose and long-term vision.

Be honest about whether the investment requires more time and energy than you’re prepared to commit, especially given your personal and professional goals.

→ Which investments will move the needle?

You can invest in many areas, but not all of them. Gather your team and have a brainstorming session.

Write down every investment idea and group into those that can:

- Increase revenue
- Reduce costs
- Improve team effectiveness/performance

The goal is to identify the investments that will have the most significant impact with the least amount of effort.

→ Rate each opportunity

Once you’ve identified the possibilities, I suggest doing a quick assessment.

Each team member rates these on a scale of 1-10, with a mindset of understanding: how much will it help your business, and how much effort will it take?

This will give a clearer idea of which opportunities are the most promising, and ideally take the least effort.

→ Run tests before fully committing

Before you dive in, try taking 2-4 of your top ideas and run some small tests. It’s important to set clear KPIs and define a timeframe for testing each investment.

This phase will help you figure out what’s actually working and whether it’s worth the larger investment.

→ Double down on what works

After running your tests, it’s time to dive deeper into the best-performing ideas. Invest based on your financial capacity and team bandwidth. Make sure you have the resources to execute effectively.

It’s important to remember that investing isn’t always for the sake of growth. In general, it’s about making the right choices that align with your long-term vision, while being mindful of how much time, energy, and effort you’re willing to put in.