Your time isn't free: The real cost of DIY

Last week, I watched a business owner spend three hours fighting with design software to create a simple social media post. "I'm saving money by doing it myself," she told me. But was she really?


Why This Matters to You


If you're like most business owners I work with, you wear too many hats. You're the CEO, the bookkeeper, the marketing team, and sometimes even the cleaner. You tell yourself it's cheaper to do things yourself rather than pay someone else.


But here's the thing: doing everything yourself isn't free - it's often the most expensive way to run your business. You're just paying with time instead of money, and time might be your most valuable resource.


Why Most People Struggle With This


The main reason business owners get stuck doing everything themselves is simple: the cost of their time isn't obvious. When you pay someone £50 an hour, you feel that cost immediately. But when you spend an hour doing low-value work yourself, the cost is hidden.


Think about it: if your time is worth £100 an hour (and for many business owners, it's worth much more), then spending three hours on basic admin tasks just cost your business £300.


That's not savings - that's expensive DIY.


Understanding Your True Hourly Rate


Here's a quick way to figure out what your time is really worth. Take your target annual income and divide it by your working hours in a year. If you want to make £100,000 and work 40 hours a week for 48 weeks, that's £52 per hour.


But that's just the start.


Every hour you spend on low-value tasks is one you can't spend on:


  • Finding new customers
  • Improving your services
  • Building valuable relationships
  • Developing your team
  • Creating new revenue streams


These high-value activities could be worth many times your basic hourly rate. Suddenly, that "free" DIY work doesn't look so cheap anymore.


The Hidden Costs of DIY


When you do it all yourself, you're not just losing money - you're also:


  • Slowing down your business growth
  • Increasing your stress levels
  • Reducing the quality of your work (because you're overworked)
  • Missing opportunities that need quick decisions
  • Making your business dependent on you (really bad long-term)


Breaking Free from the DIY Trap


Start by tracking everything you do for a week.


Write down each task and ask yourself:


1. What's the true cost of my time doing this?

2. Could someone else do this for less?

3. What could I be doing instead?


You might find you're spending £100-per-hour time on £15-per-hour tasks. That's like using a Ferrari to deliver newspapers - it works, but it's not exactly efficient.


Making Smart Investments


Think of hiring help like buying time. If you pay someone £25 an hour to handle tasks that free you up to earn £100 an hour, that's a 300% return on investment. You'd take that deal in any other part of your business, right?


This doesn't mean you need to outsource everything at once.


Start with tasks that:


  • Take up lots of your time
  • Don't require your specific expertise
  • Have clear processes that others can follow
  • Keep you stuck working IN your business instead of ON it


Building Value Beyond You


Here's another way to think about it: every task that only you can do is a liability for your business. If you ever want to sell your business or step back from day-to-day operations, tasks that depend on you actually reduce your business's value.


By investing in help, you're not just buying time - you're building a more valuable business that can run without you.


Takeaways for Smarter Business Growth


Before you do your next DIY task, ask yourself:


  • What's the real cost of my time?
  • Is this the best use of my expertise?
  • What more valuable work am I not doing instead?
  • How does this affect my business's long-term value?


Most importantly, remember that "saving money" by doing everything yourself often costs more than it saves. Your time isn't free - it might be the most expensive resource in your business.


Ready to break free from expensive DIY?


Start by listing three tasks you do regularly that someone else could handle. Then calculate what your time on those tasks really costs. You might be surprised at how much your DIY habits are costing your business.


What's one task you could stop doing yourself this week?