Stay In Your Lane

Last weekend, I got the idea that I needed to paint a small area in our house, and I wanted it done quickly before school started. Although I have used a fabulous professional painter in the past, it was too late to get his painting crew scheduled… and since it was a relatively small and non-complicated area, I figured I’ll just do it myself. It will be a great weekend project. Easy peasy. I painted a few rooms about 10 years ago and still had some supplies. All I needed was a few gallons of paint and I’d be good to go. Might even be fun.

Well, much like everything else in life...I forgot just how long it would take. I forgot about ALL THE STEPS. And there are many.

• Take everything off the walls and find a space to store them
• Clean the walls and patch the holes
• Go the paint store and grab the paint
• Move the furniture
• Put down the drop cloths
• Go back to the paint store when you realized you were missing something
• Tape everything off

Then, you have to paint the ceiling separately from the walls separately from the trim. You’ll need two coats, so that adds some time. Then the cleanup... I forgot about the cleanup! Getting those brushes completely clean seems to take forever. And I had to somehow get the drop cloths out of the house without getting a stray drop of paint anywhere. Ooops.

As much as I love a good project - about halfway through, I was ready to be done. I was ready to spend some time with my family, relax, maybe go for a run or work on my business. We needed groceries. It was getting close to dinner time. And I was only halfway through.

Boy, did I wish I hired someone.

When I hired my favorite painters last fall, they arrived first thing in the morning. I went about my day as normal, and in the evening, they left without a trace and I had a bright new beautiful room. It was magical, like a fairy godmother waving her magic wand.

The point is, just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should.

I can do my own taxes, but I much prefer to hire my CPA, because I know it will be done right and it will take him half the time it would take me. It’s his job to know all the laws and the changes. In the time it would take me to research my first few questions, he would have my taxes done.

I say this to you because I get it. As small business owners, sometimes we try to do it all. Sometimes it’s to save a buck, but really...you always pay for it. You either pay for it with money or you pay for it with time. If you hire a specialist, they’ll do it in half the time (and do a much better job) than you can if it’s not your core competency. Same with your marketing. Sometimes it’s better to spend our time on the high-value revenue-generating activities, and leave the peripheral (but necessary) tasks to someone else.

Content marketing is one of the BEST ways to reach new ideal clients, and become the business that they know, like, and trust simply by producing valuable and genuine content on a consistent basis. Guess what? Just like painting, it takes a lot more time than you think it will.

It doesn’t have to be a time suck. Call me. I’ve got a process that makes it easy for you. We’ll have short convenient strategy sessions to generate timely content… then it’s my job to organize the ideas and write them up in a compelling way.

If you’re planning for a busy end of year, pushing new products or services, and would rather spend more time making money or relaxing at the end of the day, then let’s talk. We can start small and go from there. When working with me, you can use content marketing to connect with new audiences and potential customers, without hours and hours of work. I’m at [email protected] or book a consultation call at bit.ly/mcshaneconsult.