This is a video from my presentation at Word Camp Phoenix. It was an event I was proud to be a part of not only as a presenter and a member of the WordPress development community, but also as a citizen of the Valley of the Sun. It brought out a ton of the WordPress heavy hitters from all around the county and had a fantastic turnout! I can’t wait until next year when we have it here again.
Below is also my slideshow notes I shared on Slideshare. Feel free to download these for free and reference as you might need.
Thanks for checking it out and I would love to know your feedback as well! Definitely let me know how I might be of help to you.
I remember one time, walking into a business and meeting a person whom I was trying to sell a website. After talking a few times with this person, they declined my offer with the response, “You know, I’m more of a do-it-yourselfer.”
I struggled with this response for a while as I thought that it was hard to show this potiential customer the value of our services. But then I myself have realized the benefits of hiring other professionals to help me in growing my business and how important it is to show the value of this to potential clients.
In late 2009, we (codyL) hired Jon Bohm of Driven Coaching, to help us build our business plan and to help us better understand how to market our business to get more customers. We’ve also had the privilege of hiring other professionals to save me time in order to focus on building our business in order to be more efficient.
As I’ve thought about it more, spending large amounts trying to “do-it-yourself,” robs us of valuable time that we need to focus on our strengths. I write this because, while I’d love for every small business owner to invest in their business by hiring a web design professional, this article is not just about selling you on the value of hiring a web design professional. I’m hoping my experiences will help you realize the value of hiring other professionals to help you gain time and effectively build your business.
Here are some applicable steps you can make in order to decide if you need to hire outside of your skillset.
1. Consider what you bill for hourly in your business. If the task takes an excruciating amount of time to accomplish consider what it would cost you directly in order to “do it yourself.” The true cost might be astonishing, which should give you us an educated guess on if hiring another professional would be more financially practical.
2. When we are not properly trained in a certain area, we don’t understand the best practices. This is a huge thing to consider. If you happen to climb that hill of “doing it yourself,” you still have to measure the value and quality of the job accomplished. In the case of web development often “do it yourself” software and free volunteers don’t follow the best design practices which will lead to long term frustration and lack of results. This is a terrible thing to risk for the success of your business.
3. Consider the long term value of what this task is. If it’s a minuscule item in your business and can be mindlessly accomplished, that’s something that wouldn’t necessarily be farmed-out. But if you consider the value of a well executed website that effectively markets your business and makes it easy for your potential customers to convert that’s a huge risk for your long term success.
In closing, I am trying to help you realize some of the hard things we’ve come to realize at codyL. It can be a great and sometimes scary ride building and running your own business, which is why it’s so important to be sure we are making the best choices we can to set ourselves up for long-term success.
If you are a business owner and have questions on this, I would be glad to help! Drop me a line @ codyl@codyl.com.
Until next time…
-Cody Landefeld
