I talk to a lot of business owners who are looking for ways to grow their businesses. It seems that everybody wants to be more successful and is eager for advice on how to do it.

However, I’m surprised at how many of these business owners are looking for magic.

Magic can come in many forms. How about a Facebook fan page? That will bring lots of new customers, right? How about showing up at the occasional networking meeting and exchanging a few business cards? This will lead to lots of great prospects, right? Maybe launching a great new website will do the trick… people will come buy things, right?

I personally don’t put much faith in magic. I prefer to invest either money or time.

When people do one small thing (usually something trendy and related to technology) and expect it to grow their businesses overnight with minimal effort, they are investing in magic. A beautiful new website is a great investment, but it takes time and/or money to make it effective and bring traffic to it. Social media may be a good fit for your business but it typically takes an investment of time to make it really effective.

Some examples of investing money to grow your business:

• Paying a qualified SEO firm to run a search marketing campaign for you
• Hiring a ghost blogger to write quality content that grows your tribe and SEO visibility
• Paying a star employee to run your marketing
• Paying a qualified website design firm to create a website that encourages conversions and sales

Some examples of investing time include:

• Scheduling time to consistently post optimized blogs to your website
• Maintaining a regular, strategic presence on social media with specific goals in mind
• Investing time into your network by consistently giving quality referrals to others
• Writing educational articles for your email newsletter and sticking to a schedule

It takes either money or time to grow your business. Sometimes it takes both. Those who are looking for magic may end up disappointed.

Where are you making your investment?