Part Three: Do you do everything yourself?
If you’re the kind of person who doesn’t ever delegate anything unless you can possibly avoid it, then the words “do it yourself” are probably written right through the core of you like a stick of rock.
Personally, I’m a big believer in leaving stuff to the experts where possible. Because I value my life, I like my wiring to be fixed by a trained electrician and because I want to make the best of my finances, I trust my money to my financial adviser and my accountant.
Of course, sometimes you can’t afford an expert, as much as you’d like to. So you have a stab at tiling your own bathroom, say. And it might take a really long time and be a steep learning curve, but eventually, after a lot of swearing and a few broken tiles, you end up with something you can be proud of. It might be a bit amateurish, but you did it yourself.
But does the analogy translate to the business world?
Let’s look at a profession that’s not distantly related to mine – commercial photography. Sure, we can all take a photograph. Most of us can even take one with our ‘phone these days. And occasionally, with favourable lighting and a compelling subject, they look really good. But that’s more luck than judgement. It takes a professional with the right equipment, experience, a talent for composition, training in a variety of techniques, a thorough knowledge of the technology and of course imagination to get results like that every time. They can take a picture of a cardboard box and make it look enticing. And more to the point, if they had taken the photo you were really pleased with, they’d have done it even better.
There are two big problems with doing it yourself in business.
First, you’re spending a lot of time on something that is not your job. So it’s taking you away from directly building your business and working for your customers.
And second, while you might be relatively proud of what you’ve achieved, you look at your competitors and there’s no disguising the superiority of their efforts.
But you might say “My customers won’t be able to tell the difference. They’re interested in price and service, not looks” and on the face of it, that’s true.
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Part One: You would say that, wouldn’t you?
Part Two: Do you have any experience as a designer?
Part Three: Do you do everything yourself?
Part Four: If you think you think it's expensive hiring a professional...
Read on...
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| tripod | ucoz |
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