When you first start your business, there is a good chance you’re bootstrapping. You end up doing a lot of things on your own and looking for creative ways to save money.
DIY business solutions seem like the clear winner for many entrepreneurs looking to establish themselves. However, at some point, it becomes necessary to looking into the benefits of possibly outsourcing some of your business functions. As your business grows, you can no longer do everything. And it may not be worth it to do everything yourself anyway.
Do You Have Time to DIY?
The first thing to consider is whether or not you have enough time to mess with DIY business solutions. When you start out, it doesn’t matter whether or not you have time; you don’t have any money so you have to suck it up and do it on your own.
As your business grows and you start making money, though, the situation changes. You need to figure out whether you are spending your time on the right things. Is the time you spend doing things yourself cutting into the time you should be spending on growing your business even more or engaging in other more profitable activities.
Once you have some cash flow for your business, it’s possible to outsource on a budget. You’ll be more effective in the long run if you aren’t always bogged down with work and you’ll be able to maximize your time when you aren’t trying to make DIY business solutions work.
Could Someone Else Do It Better?
Even if you think you have the time to handle the DIY business solutions, the reality is that there is a good chance that someone else could do it better. If you want to grow your business to be the best it can be, your best bet is to focus on what you do best, and outsource your weaknesses to someone who can do it better. I have a business partner who handles the things I’m not great at. Could I run the backend of my websites and monetize them? Sure. But it would take a lot of time and energy and it’s not my strength.
My business partner, on the other hand, does a great job and has had great success. Letting him do that stuff while I do what I’m good at makes sense. There’s a reason that people hire me to write content. They don’t do it as well. While I’m not perfect, and there are better writers, the reality is that I still do it better than others. Outsourcing content to me can make sense for those who want to concentrate on their strengths and grow their businesses.
While bootstrapping and DIY business solutions can help you learn new skills and get established, after a while, you just end up spending too much time and money on things that aren’t actually moving your business forward effectively. That’s when it’s time to ditch the DIY stuff and partner or outsource what you don’t have time for, or what someone else can do better, so you can focus on making your business the best it can be.
