We’re always trying to find the right balance between opposing things. In business, this is critical, as being unbalanced can lead to serious problems. Examples may include:
- Spending time on marketing your products and services vs delivering those products and services to customers
- The time spent learning new tools vs the productivity of using existing tools you’re comfortable with
- The expense of getting someone else in to do the work vs attempting to squeeze it into your existing workload
There’s no right or wrong answers for all of these examples, except that everyone will find a different balancing point for each that they are comfortable with.
For me, I’d currently like to be spending a greater proportion of my time on my marketing materials but at the moment, there’s client work to be done and billable work now is hard to give lower priority to than potential billable work in the future. I know there’s a long game to consider, but this is what business decisions are all about.
In working with others, I’ve learnt about a few new tools that could aid my productivity. In some cases, the learning curve is small and the ability to jump in and start being productive immediately is a huge bonus. For other non-essential tools, they seem so convoluted that I’ve decided to give them a miss until some point in the future when I can justify the time and requirement to expand skillset.
I don’t use subcontractors myself when I’m fortunate enough to be overloaded with work. The time taken to explain what’s needed, and the risk of a low quality return is usually too much unless you’ve got someone you can rely on, and who understands what your company wants to put forward to end-clients. I do, however, use subcontractors to do tasks where I simply haven’t got the ability at this moment in time, and any attempt I would produce would not be at a sufficiently high-quality for my clients.
These balancing acts are all interlinked – if one spends more time on marketing, then they have more work and more money to pay subcontractors to do that work if necessary. If they have more time, then they can learn the skills necessary not to require subcontractors for specific tasks. Using subcontractors to complete some work means more time for marketing and learning new skills. Repeat ad infinitum.
Thanks for helping me with the my CSS Drop Down Nav. I stared at the code for a week trying to figure out why my rollovers extended to the right in Firefox. Of course you gave me the answer within an hour. I would never be able to build halfway decent websites (or want to) without guys like you there to help.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Gary, I concur with what you say. Finding the balance and pay-off from investing in yourself is a tough choice to make. The older I get, the more inclined I am to settle with what I am good at and what I am not and just outsource it.
In terms of growing a business, the value relationship is in the sale rather than the deliverable.
To that end, I have invested my resource in getting better at selling. It’s an ‘art’ that is very much required for any business, large or small. The ‘doing’ can take care of itself.
But, I also appreciate it’s subjective. What works for one, is not for the other. The big question is, what is the intention… short-term and long-term. That should determine the focus.
Thanks for your comments Craig.
My difference, like many others in my position, is that being self-employed means I have to be the marketeer, salesman, developer and customer service – I’ve not yet got the point where anything can take care of itself. To that end, your comments about it being subjective are spot on.