DIY with Caution

As your building your business, you’ll hear people tell you that you need to “wear multiple hats” and that you’re the CEO, CMO, and the CFO all in one. 

While in most cases this is true, it is also important for you to understand when you absolutely shouldn’t be wearing that many hats and often that comes down to 3 things. Your capacity, your skillset and your zone of genius. 

Capacity

Consider this common scenario: A business owner time each week manually scheduling client meetings because they are saving the money from a $15/month scheduling software. On paper, this looks like a smart financial decision, but here is the math. 

• Time spent per booking: 15 minutes of back-and-forth emails

• Average bookings per week: 10

• Total time spent: 2.5 hours weekly

• Value of business owner's time: $100/hour (conservative estimate

• Monthly cost in time: $1,000

Suddenly, that $15 monthly subscription to Calendly doesn't look so expensive.  As far as DIY vs work with a person or a software it comes down to time management. If the time isn’t there, it doesn’t make since to DIY. Every case is unique, but consider this example. 

Skills

Sometimes you just don’t have the skills. Websites are the best example of this.  I have edited my own websites for years, so I've owned the scale so I can make contact edits fast. Over the years, I've worked with different designers to redesign the website and have learned from them. There's still certain things that I don't do myself. When it comes down to custom animations on the website, I'm an engineer in that way, and I just like to get things done but there are certain times where I know it's better for them to have to do it rather than fight whatever website builder that I'm using at the time. This type of understanding of your skill set requires radical honesty  and understanding where you're at on the scale spectrum before you begin a task. It can save you from overestimating your skill set.  I want to be very clear that I am not saying don't learn a new skill if you don't have it, but I think through what skills you are primed to learn quickly versus something that just doesn't come to you naturally, and you'll have a better idea of when to use the skill sets that you have or build skill sets along the way. 

The hidden operational costs of learning a new skill while you are DIYing, mental bandwidth consumed by task-switching, the opportunities missed while managing minutiae, and the professional image impacted by manual processes.  This is why we are building tutorials, and the articles that we are at Base Builder Labs.  We want to make it easier for you to build up the skill sets, and make things happen in your business.

Zone of Genius and Excellence

This chart is great at explaining the zones and as you think about doing anything your business I want you to consider this graphic from the big leap. Sometimes, when you need to know when to do some thing yourself versus work with the software or a person, it's about understanding is that skill in your zone of incompetence, excellence, competence, or genius. Placing things in this framework can help you make decisions on what to do.

For example, my zone of genius is in helping others accomplish their dreams, but my zone of excellence that brings in money is in procurement. Learning the difference between those 2 changed my life and gave me a lot of opportunity.