Clean House or Change Oil? (Video)
In a previous blog I discussed work, hobbies, and required responsibilities. Required responsibilities are those things that we are responsible to do for ourselves. If we own a business or are self-employed, we have professional required responsibilities as well. These are things that we need to do, but no one is going to pay us directly for them. For example, we need to have a website, but no one is going to pay us directly for our website. We need to work our costs into our selling price to cover our business expenses.
With required responsibilities, we can either do them ourselves or we can pay someone else to do them for us. It is my responsibility to clean my house. I have decided not to pay someone else to do it. I am capable of doing it myself and it does not take that long to do. It is also my responsibility to change the oil in my car. I could learn how to do it, buy the necessary equipment, and determine where to dispose of the oil. I have decided that it is a better use of my time to pay someone else to change the oil.
When I am trying to determine the best use of my time and money related to business, I often ask myself if it is similar to cleaning the house or changing the oil. Some things, like writing and posting blogs, is similar to cleaning the house. I have the capability to do it and can make the time to do it. I also enjoy it. (I enjoy writing; I hate cleaning house. I just want to be clear on that.)
Other things, like designing a website, are similar to changing the oil. I might be able to learn how to do it, but it will never be as good as if a professional did it and it will take me much longer to do it. If I am designing a website that is time that I cannot spend elsewhere. The money I would save doing it myself would probably be small compared to lost revenue. And I would still have an inferior website.
In business, we have to decide what we can and should do for ourselves and what we need to hire someone else to do. Too often I think people see only the business “expense” and try to do it themselves. Many of these expenses are also investments in our business. If we are going to make an investment, it should be the best we can afford. This may mean contracting with someone else who can do it better and faster than we can.
Are there tasks you are doing that would be better contracted to someone else?
