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Have you ever thought, "Why would I pay someone to do that when I can just do it myself?" Technically, you're right. But doing something yourself doesn't make it free.  In this blog, I’m sharing the real cost of doing it yourself in your business. Because even when you think "it's just easier if I do it myself," some of the most expensive work in your business might be the work you're doing yourself. Maybe you can do it. Maybe you can do it well. Maybe you even love doing it. But the "I can do it" trap holds you back from building your business, gaining freedom in your business, and doing cash-flow activities. The Resourceful Entrepreneur Trap Entrepreneurs are resourceful. Otherwise, we wouldn't have made it this far.
We can figure most things out. It's great when you're starting. When you don't have a ton of capital, doing a whole bunch of tasks yourself makes sense. But eventually, when your skills are growing in the area people are actually paying you for, keeping all the other tasks yourself will keep you from scaling your business and making more money. The Simple Math Let's do some really simple math. Imagine your CEO or revenue-producing time is worth $100 an hour. (For some of you that's high; for some of you that's low. It's just an easy number to work with.)  You spend 2 hours formatting an email, creating graphics, scheduling posts, or updating your website. You think: "Wow, I just saved myself $50 because I didn't have to pay a virtual assistant $25 an hour to do these things." But did you actually save $50? Because your hours are worth $100 an hour, you actually lost $150. You lost the $50 you thought you saved, plus the $100 in revenue you could have generated in those 2 hours. That's before we even count your time as a cost in itself. So many times business owners say to me, "I just don't have time to follow up with the people I met networking, or from that trade show." We have to think about our ROT (Return on Time), not just our ROI (return on investment). What could have been done with those 2 hours? One sales conversation could be worth hundreds, thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of dollars. That's an opportunity cost that so many people overlook while they're sitting doing all these other little tasks. I've been there. I did all these tasks myself. On vacation, I was still doing all these things myself because I didn't have someone to pass them off to. The 10-Minute Task Problem "But Diane, it only takes 10 minutes. It's just 10 minutes." Wonderful. Great. So you're going to do that 10-minute task. But what if you did six of those 10-minute tasks? That's already an hour of your time. What if you did 30 of those 10-minute tasks per week? That's 5 hours. Add that up over a year, and you're looking at over 250 hours spent on $25-an-hour tasks: tasks that are stopping you from making your $100 an hour, your $500 an hour, whatever your actual hourly rate is. That doesn't even account for context switching. You're over here editing or drafting an email, then over here making a social media graphic, then over there putting your blog up on your website, going back and forth and back and forth. It also messes with your mental capacity. The Hidden Costs Nobody Talks About Beyond the math, there are so many other costs of doing it all yourself:
Start Thinking About ROT: Return on Time Ask yourself: What is the highest value use of my time? For me, the highest value uses of my time in my business are:
 Outside of business, the highest value uses of my time are things I do for my health and things I do for my family and friends. How much of your week are you actually investing in your priority areas? What are you doing right now simply because you're good at it, you've always done it, it's easier than teaching someone else, or maybe you're controlling it and don't want to let it go? You might think, "No one can do it as well as me." Maybe that's true. But over time, could someone reach your level with the right training? Absolutely. An Important Distinction About Delegation Delegating to someone doesn't mean you do nothing. When you have a virtual assistant, a team member, a contractor, or a vendor, you don't delegate to them and then sit back and organize your closet. You start doing the things that need to be done to push your business forward. Delegating means creating more time for the work that actually requires you:
Your business still needs you. It just doesn't need you to do everything. A lot of people have the goal of eventually making themselves redundant in their business. But if you can't even hand off a social media post or have someone upload your blog, how will you ever be able to step back when the time is right? You won't get there. The Real Investment Calculation If you've been putting off getting help because of the cost, let's recalculate: It's not spending money getting help. It's investing in getting help. Because if you pay someone $25 and you can make $100, you've made an extra $75. But if you're the one doing that $25 task, you're not working with clients, so you're not generating revenue. Think about that. Ready to get support? We currently have availability through VA Made Easy. I have a team of 16 virtual assistants, and some can take on new clients right now to support a busy business owner like you. Even getting 10 hours a week of the right things off your plate, just 10 hours, is going to change how your week looks. And it's going to change your bottom line. We also have 20, 30, and 40-hour options, whatever makes sense for you. If you're wondering whether work has started to take over too much of your life, I encourage you to grab the Workaholic Quiz and see where you stand. If you have any questions about having a virtual assistant or delegating everything, reach out: [email protected] Don't think you have to have everything ready. That's where I come in. I'm going to help you know what to delegate, hire them for you, give you an easy three-step process on how to train them, have them make your SOPs for you, and share a lot of my IP, my systems, my processes, my checklists, my training videos, so you can just copy and paste. Let's have a conversation so that you don't have to lose your time and your money by doing it all yourself. https://letsmeet.io/dianerolston/meeting Until next time, stay dynamic! Diane Frequently Asked Questions What is the real cost of doing it yourself in your business? The real cost of doing it yourself goes far beyond the task itself. If your time is worth $100 an hour and you spend 2 hours doing $25-an-hour tasks, you haven't saved $50. You've actually lost $150: the $50 you thought you saved plus the $100 in revenue you could have generated. Add to that the ideas you don't implement, the leads you don't follow up with, the opportunities you say no to, the strategic thinking that never happens, and the personal time you sacrifice and the real cost of doing it all yourself is far higher than most business owners realize. What is ROT (Return on Time) and why does it matter for business owners? ROT stands for Return on Time. While most business owners focus on ROI (return on investment), return on time asks a different question: what is the highest-value use of my time right now? When you spend 5 hours a week on $25-an-hour tasks, you're not just losing money. You're losing the opportunity to do $100, $500, or higher-value work that only you can do. Thinking in terms of ROT helps business owners identify which tasks to delegate so they can focus their time where it actually moves their business forward. What is the 10-minute task problem? The 10-minute task problem is the trap of thinking that because something only takes 10 minutes, it's not a big deal to do yourself. But six 10-minute tasks equal an hour. Thirty 10-minute tasks equal 5 hours a week. Over a year, that adds up to more than 250 hours spent on low-value tasks, tasks that are stopping you from doing higher-value revenue-generating work. And that doesn't even account for the mental cost of context switching back and forth between different types of tasks throughout the day. Is it actually cheaper to do everything yourself in your business? No, and the math proves it. If your revenue-producing time is worth $100 an hour and you spend that time doing tasks you could pay someone $25 an hour to do, you're not saving $25. You're losing $75 in potential revenue for every hour you spend on those tasks. Delegating isn't a cost. It's an investment. When you free up your highest-value hours for cash flow activities, client delivery, and strategic thinking, the return on that investment far outweighs what you pay for the support. I'm Diane Rolston, wife, mom, connector, athlete, nature lover, cheerleader, and the coach for high-achieving women who want to be successful AND satisfied. I work with everyday successful women who have spent their entire lives creating an identity based on their achievements and responsibilities, and are ready to put themselves and their desires first. Through my 10-area life assessment, values work, and life design process, I help women stop measuring their lives by success alone and start measuring by satisfaction, so they can take a stand for the AND. Learn more at dianerolston.com.
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