Friday, June 6, 2008

"Do It Yourself" vs. Delegate

One important question seems to pop up in every area of business on a regular basis:

"Is this something I should do myself or should I delegate?"

No matter who you are or what role you play, you have to deal with this every day.  Balance is key in getting the most out of your time, money, and energy.  One of the main reasons I see SMBs suffer is from misallocation of resources.

In-Housing

Many businesses start out trying to do everything by themselves to save money.  This is a natural instinct for small business owners who assume they have to wear every hat.

The downside is obvious: the more time you’re spending away from your core competency is time you’re not utilizing your advantage.  An amazing lawyer shouldn’t spend half of her time marketing and accounting.  Likewise, a stellar painter shouldn’t spend too much of his time writing contracts.

Out-Sourcing

At the other end of the spectrum, many businesspeople lose perspective of their business through over-delegation.  Their first instinct for every problem is to throw money at it instead of doing it in-house.

This may seem like a non-issue for growing companies with large piles of capital, but the more work you outsource, the less you really "own" your business.  When you're doing things yourself, you’re gaining valuable skills and experience.  Further, if somebody else is doing all of your work, what’s stopping a competitor from stepping in and hiring them instead?

Allbase, Inc.’s Approach

At Allbase, we focus on doing a few things and doing them well.  Our decisions boil down to maximizing the effort we put into our top efficiencies.  Like all businesses should, we know our strengths and weaknesses, which dictate how we get things done:

What We Do (Strengths):

• Software-as-a-Service – We have the best team out there when it comes to creating powerful, user-friendly, and scalable SaaS solutions.
• Windows development – Our team is expert at every aspect of Windows application and service development, from low-level to high.
• Data replication and migration – Through the years, we’ve dealt with data synchronization and backup with hundreds of different architectures.

What We Rely On Others For:

• Mac and Linux development – Eventually, this will be done in-house, but for now we rely on our top-notch partners to develop for these platforms.
• Payroll management – Due to the constantly-changing regulations and rates, the Allbase Suite doesn’t currently support payroll, so we interface with other vendors.
• Data Center / Networking – We know software and systems inside and out, but when it comes to networking decisions, we team up with experts from all over.

Our policy is to focus on these specialties and allow our clients to focus on theirs.  Our products and services are designed to let companies spend their time building their business instead of managing it.

Lessons Learned

As your company grows, this crucial decision becomes more frequent and even more vital.  Always evaluate the costs of doing-it-yourself vs. contracting out.

There are two key questions that can help clarify which path to take. "Can I financially afford to have somebody else do this?" and "Can I afford the opportunity cost not to?"

Balance in business, as in life, is paramount.

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