I'm investing $550 of my tax return into my small business. Here's exactly what I'm spending it on.

• Jen Glantz is an entrepreneur and the founder of Bridesmaid for Hire.
• She's planning to use her tax refund this year to reinvest in five aspects of her small business.

When I got the news from my accountant that I'd be getting a several-thousand-dollar tax refund this year, I wanted to find ways to reinvest it into my business.

In past years, I used my tax refund for personal expenses like vacations, home decor, and helping to pay for a wedding celebration.

This year, I'm going to use part of my refund to help my business grow. My plan is to put half of it aside to invest in other businesses (from friend's side hustles to real estate) and use the other half to invest in my own business as a solopreneur. Here's what I'm going to spend my refund on and why.

1. Online courses to learn new skills

It's always high up on my to-do list to make sure that I'm learning new skills and leveling up my knowledge on emerging industries, technologies, and trends.

I like to budget time to take two or three courses every quarter, whether they're two-hour courses or four-week courses. However, some of the courses I want to take can be expensive, ranging from $49 to $3,950.

While I do try to budget for these courses to ensure I can afford them, putting some of my tax refund toward covering the bill is helpful. I decided to put $50 of my refund toward a more expensive course that I want to take.

2. Freelancer help

One of the biggest changes I've made in recent years has been hiring one-off freelancers to help with quick jobs or tasks, such as a graphic design project or setting up ads on social media platforms.

I plan to take $200 of my tax refund to hire freelancers for three different things. First, I want to hire someone to design an NFT for my business (around $60). I also want to hire someone to help with social media analytics reporting ($35 for the project), and I plan to hire a virtual assistant to help pick up the slack on tasks I can't get to (around $80 for five hours). I usually use Fiverr or Upwork to find freelancers in my budget, or search relevant Facebook groups.

3. Ads

After launching a new newsletter and a card game, I wanted to test out using Google Ads for the first time to target potential clients who are searching for relevant topics. I decided to run these ads in February with a budget of $10 a day for two weeks. While the ads were useful and effective, they did drain my monthly budget.

I plan to use $100 from my refund to help fund these ads to drive more sales and subscribers.

4. Product development

As someone who launches a range of services and products, I've found there's quite a hefty cost that goes into product development. The problem is, for some of these projects, it requires putting money down to create something with no guarantee that it'll sell.

To help offset the cost of printing a book I'm putting out this summer, I'm going to contribute $50 to the production fee. While it's not a lot (the fees are more than $1,000), it does help me lower how much I have to budget each month.

5. A new website

One of the things I'm actively working on in 2022 is a website redesign. This is something that's costly and time consuming, and for the first time I'm hiring a professional designer to work with me. While the cost of the new website is a few thousand dollars, I'm paying for it in small installments and plan to use $150 of my refund to knock off part of an installment in May.

While it's tempting to use my refund on fun personal activities or vacations, I'm hyper-focused on the growth and expansion of my business this year. I know every penny I reinvest on behind-the-scenes work will ultimately pay off down the road, and I'm glad I can use my tax refund to help.