DIY – NOT

In my opinion the most dangerous phrase in business is DIY. I’ve never had the pride that comes from having done it myself. I’m the opposite, I’m proud I paid the expert to come in and get it done right. I want the guy that’s got the right tools and experience to get it done properly as quickly as possible. My job is to deploy resources where they can be of maximum impact, including, and especially, my own time.

Self-employed or small businesses are the most fragile of all business models. They’re almost entirely reliant on one person (or a couple), and they’re only ever one minor problem away from disaster. For a business to be successful, they almost always need scale. There’s stability in scale, with the best people working on the right stuff. Everyone’s got the same 24 hours, so we increase capacity by employing others. I never wanted to be self-employed, or the owner of a small business…I always wanted to level up, to play in the big leagues.

As entrepreneurs grow, the biggest distraction are the DIYers. “Employees are problems” they preach…“stay below the tax thresholds”, “my auntie’s neighbour could help with that”, etc…there’s always noise coming from those telling you to stay small…beware of the DIYers, they don’t know how to create growth. The odds are stacked against the small guy, the system is easier to navigate when you’ve reached a bigger level.

I hear people claiming they can “just do it themselves”, and they might spend 50 years running a business to prove it, but there’s a cost. Your business is un-investible, it’s too reliant on you so it becomes too risky for anyone putting money in. We’ve been approached by many owners over the years trying to sell their business so they can retire but there’s simply no value, they ARE the business, it doesn’t work without them, so almost all of them end up turning the key, and shutting up shop.

Too many entrepreneurs fall into the trap of thinking small. They create a job for themselves. They believe that managing every single aspect of their business themselves saves them money and keeps overhead low. But the reality I’ve learned is, when you stay small, you stay vulnerable. When you're busy wearing ten different hats, you're not focused on scaling, or the big picture, and you’re going too slow, and that’s dangerous. In order to create value, we move at a fast pace and work with advisors, and teams of people who are deployed appropriately, where they make maximum impact.

We don’t play at the low levels. My focus is on growth, and bringing in the team and supporting advisors to make it happen as quickly as possible. Even when I first started out I wanted to pay the big fees, because it meant I was playing at the higher levels. We now work with the best teams from across the World, teams that create value for our businesses. Driving the business forward, and predicting what’s coming down the road…that’s my job. I don’t waste my time on tasks that someone else can do better and faster.

A DIY mindset is a liability. It keeps you focussed on the wrong? things. Unlike the DIYers, I get no satisfaction from hanging the picture on the wall, I can get it done although it probably won’t be perfect, but it’s the time wasted that I could have put into something bigger that bothers me.

Our team have expectations of me, just as I do of them. I want my employed experts focussed on what they do best, whilst I focus on the big picture. I’m focussed on return on time, more so than return on investment. I engage ways to save time, rather than money so DIY, it’s not for me!