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Martin.

Business Head - Can I save money and do it myself?

Stange title to a post, right? All will become clear in the fullness of time.

I'm talking about paying people to do things instead of doing those things yourself. Which is the best option?

Things like designing a logo for your business, you could do it yourself, but if you're like me, it would look like a blind, one-armed pygmie drew it instead of being the professional message that you had in mind. By the way, no offence intended to blind onearmed pygmies!

What about your books? You could put all your receipts in a bad, then give them to the accountant and hope that they will end up all being okay. Well, that's not likely, you're unlikely to get the tax credits that you might do if you were a little organised. There's also the problems of sorting through the receipts and throwing away all the pizza boxes and beer cans too. You got the wrong bag, again!
One thing that is a great thing to be across, is what money you are making, and how you could make more of that money. Probably when you first start out, your fiscal affairs are going to be fairly straight forward, but once you start to make a bit of money, it is a good idea to at the very least pay the accountant to print out and check your accounts for you. It means that you're a lot less likely to get unexpected visitors in the future, and I didn't mean mice or cockroaches.
It's good to get the stamp of approval on the books, and also to know that a professional has had a look at what you're doing, and hopefully advised you if you can save money by re-arranging how you do things in the future. Accounts are like the log book for the car, good to always get it stamped after having had a the service.

So what about marketing and sales? Can you do that yourself? Well, it really depends on the business that you're in. Regardless of that information, you're more likely to know about the business than anyone else, unless of course you have a business partner, or resident ninja spies. That means that you will need to convey exactly what you want to the paid professional to make sure that you get what you're really after. That can be really difficult in the begining, as you probably are a little unsure of where the business is heading. It is good to take a look at your business plan from time to time, and figure out if you're still on the same track, or you need to refine where you're at. If all is in order, then you can use the business plan to give to the paid professionals.

But, I don't have the time? You have choices, you can get someone in as an employee to organise things for you, they'll also come in handy for other stuff too, and they can organise whatever it is for you, perhaps. You could get your camp bed under the desk, and work some insane hours, or you pay someone. Could you do it for a cheaper price if you did it yourself? Quite possibly, but would it be as good a job, or lose you more sales than you would have had you paid someone for the work?

Finally, am I good at? Acting like an idiot? Harsh but fair. What I mean by that is, are you really good in one area, and so can concentrate on that area whilst paying people to do the other stuff? It might cost you a little more initially, but is the end result going to be that much more impressive for having the proper job done?