I was on the phone with someone the other day chatting and we were talking about the concept of being a chronic do-it-yourselfer. During that discussion, I realized that all DIY has a hidden cost associated with it and I thought it was interesting and wanted to share.
Now I know a lot of service providers love to bash on DIY, but I’d be a total hypocrite if I did that. If you know anything about me, you’ll know I’m really hands-on with my business and like to try all the things before I decide to pass them along to someone else or not. So, I completely understand why some of my clients love my Jumpstart Branding and Design Consulting Calls – they’re DIYers too!
I know the perception of DIY is that it saves you money, that it un-complicates things in your business because you can be sure it’ll be done your way. This is true to an extent, but all DIY has a hidden cost, your time.
When my business was a lot newer and I was a lot greener, I truly believed I could run my business without any help at all. After a particularly brutal day (and half the night) of trying to set up and run my own SEO, I learned you either spend money or you spend time. Typically, you have more of one than the other of these resources.
But the questions that are worth really thinking about are: What is your time actually worth? What are you giving up in order to DIY this thing? Why are you “DIYing” this project in the first place?
Are you missing out on family time, or ignoring your friends. Maybe you’re damaging your health due to high stress and lack of sleep because of the insistence of doing all the things.
Also, really think about how much money you’re losing doing this yourself. If you charge $100/hr for example and an especially tough DIY project takes you 10 hours that’s $1000 worth of time you could have used to serve clients. I know sometimes that the money to hire someone really isn’t there, but if it is…then what is actually stopping you from getting extra help?
I know that feeling of accomplishment when you do something for yourself and if you’re in it for that, then do all the things. If you’ve got it figured out how to do it all and balance your off time then go for it.
For those that are doing it all on your own because you don’t want to seem weak (a big problem I had early on) here’s your permission slip to hire the help you need. Hiring someone to help you isn’t a weakness – it’s the sign of a good leader and the money spent is an investment you’ll hopefully make back in the future. If you’re constantly put off doing that one DIY project for your business or it feels like it takes forever to do – either scrap it, automate it, or create a budget for it and hire someone in your budget to do it for you.
By the way, I’d love to invite you to a FREE 30 minute 1:1 Getting to Know You Strategy Session full of tips tailored for your business to help you now. I only schedule these via email, so if you want one, email me today! Let’s chat about how branding and design can get your business where you want it to be! Talk to you soon!