What My Backyard Renovation Taught Me About Doing It All Yourself
Ready to gather around our new fire pit.
We hired out the whole backyard renovation. Gas line install to the fire pit, hardscape, the fence rebuild, irrigation, planting. Every bit of it went to people who do this for a living.
Then, right at the end, Geoff and I talked about sealing the pavers ourselves.
The case for it was solid. A few gallons of sealer cost less than the contractor's add-on rate, and doing it ourselves meant not waiting two weeks for the crew's schedule to open back up for one last step. Real money, real time. Not a small consideration on a project this size.
We Chose the Expert Anyway
Here's what settled it, though. When we actually weighed it out, the sealer cost wasn't the only item in the equation. There was researching the right product for our stone; finding the time and managing the dogs in the process; and doing it well enough that it wouldn't need redoing in a few months. None of that showed up in the "just buy the sealer" version of the plan.
We found the extra money in the budget and called the crew back. What we were actually paying for was convenience: no research, no guessing, no free time lost to a project we'd already handed off, and a finish we knew would be done right the first time.
The Same Trade-Off Shows Up in Marketing
Small business owners make this same call constantly, usually without naming it. DIY-ing the website, writing every social caption, handling the email newsletter between everything else on the to-do list. It can look like the frugal choice, and sometimes it is.
But the real cost of doing it all yourself usually isn't the dollars you'd spend hiring it out. It's the time, the research, the trial and error, and the mental space it takes up while you're also trying to run the actual business. Outsourcing isn't giving up control. It's trusting someone who does this for a living so you can spend your energy on what you're actually good at.
Read next: Deciding When to Outsource Your Marketing
Not sure yet about outsourcing your marketing? You don't have to start with everything. A Marketing Strategy Consult, a Brand Identity Audit, and a Digital Presence Audit are three smaller ways in.
