I have some very loyal readers. Thank you! I’ve also had some visitors that didn’t hang around long. There’s a whole other group that subscribed for a while, but unsubscribed when they got their nose out of joint about something that I wrote. When a new visitor includes their url on a comment, I always check them out. If I think they might be fun, informative, or beneficial in some way, I subscribe to their feed for a while.
The most relevant recent example of this is Elliot Ross. Elliot is a different kind of IT guy up in Canada. When he made this comment, I thought, “Well OK”. I read his bio and few of his posts. When I read this post, he reminded me of my post from July 2007, but gave me a different twist to explore. So, here we go.
His line that got me was, “You don’t need to be a chartered accountant to run your business. That is why you hire or use one.” Then he drew an analogy to IT services. Great analogy and applicable to many of us.
Would you try to build a car yourself?
Would you try to sew your own suit?
Do you have a cow in your backyard so that you don’t have to buy milk?
You don’t need to be a lawyer, but you need to know one.
You don’t need to be a doctor, but you need to know one.
Etc. Etc. Etc. Etc. Etc. Etc.
Here’s the twist!
Some of you might know what a megabyte is, but do you really know enough to fix your computer when you open Outlook and your data isn’t there? Do you really know the questions to ask when you’re standing in the big box store or on line at Dell talking to the high school kid that’s about to ‘sell’ you the computer that’s gonna be responsible for keeping you going for the next year (or decade if you’re that kind of person)?
Some of you know what a blog is. a website. a key word. Google rank. Yada yada yada, but do you really think that you can do it better than Pete Caputa and Hubspot?
If you are an expert at what you do, you may feel the same way about people that Do-It-Themselves” rather than engage you.
Here’s my questions for DIY-ers in my world?
Have you tried to determine whether you have any compelling reasons to hire me/us?
Do you have enough opportunities in your pipeline to stay in business this year? Does your selling process tell you which one next? What next? When to quit? How many opportunities passed by your nose last year and you didn’t have what it took to get the business? How many of your former customers, prospects, or ‘should-be suspects’ are doing business with a customer even though you could have done it better, more efficiently, cheaper, or with a higher ROI?
Do you know what the consequences are for not using me/us?
Do you know what referrals from me/us might be worth? What’s it cost you to have me/us not remember you?
Who holds you accountable? Who questions you? Who debriefs you when you don’t close a sale? Who strategizes with you when you’ve got a ‘big one’ coming up? Remember this guy? Does he remind you of you?
Thank you Elliot!
RainMakers & Sales Rock Stars 
Makes me think yet again, Rick, about not only whether I CAN do some of the things that are not practicing law, but whether I should even be spending the time doing them. Whether we’re talking about spending time paying bills, sending out invoices, and finding the best deal for, say, phone service, or whether I should just be hiring someone else to do it. Yes, I can do those things and do them very well, but do I enjoy them or do I just have difficulty giving up the control? I have to say it is usually the latter reasoning… Thanks for always keeping me thinking!
Thank you , Brett, for being one of those loyal readers and for your typically thoughtful comments. Your comment reminded me that I left out one important note. That nobody should ever delegate reading this blog. I write it for you all to read it without someone filtering the message.
Would someone actually do that? Maybe I have blog naiveté, but reading something like a blog just seems like something you kind of have to do yourself.
You know, when I replied to your comment, I had my tongue in my cheek, but now that you mention it, I bet there are people out there that are so busy that they have readers summarize for them. As an example, I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that President Obama doesn’t read my blog himself, but has someone read it and provides the President with a ‘What Rick’s Thinking’ summary.
Peter tells me that at HubSpot they use the phrase “Do it With Assistance”. It basically means that you’re going to do the work yourself, but that you’ll have help when you need it; you’ll have someone guiding you as you get started, and you can optionally hire HubSpot or a partner to keep you on track.
Great and precient post (GPP). My 40 plus years of business experience has taught me that people owning/running successful businesses over time need and engage help over time. On the other hand, DIY’ers generate mediocre results at best, often fail and are always frustrated that there are not more hours in the day. They tend to lack vision, underperform relative to their expectations and often appear impatient, disorganized and angry. Their EGO’s simply won’t allow them to reach out. They spend the bulk of their days reacting and never have enough time to truly run their businesses and consequently never have enough CASH. I’ve decided to stop with the CASH observation.
Do you acknowledge that this is correct time to get the loan, which would realize your dreams.