What Value Do You Place on Your Time and Knowledge?

What Value Do You Place on Your Time and Knowledge?

I learned a valuable lesson this week about Allan keys, knowing my limitations, valuing my time, and outsourcing.

Six weeks ago, I ordered an exercise bike, due to be delivered five weeks ago. After multiple emails, phone calls and text messages over the last five weeks, the 30 kg exercise bike was delivered by the courier on Thursday around 1.15 p.m. Excitedly, I opened the large box only to find that there was an exercise bike chassis, an Allen key,  plus around 20+ parts, needing assembly and no instructions. This had to be done, before I could actually sit on the bike and start pedalling.

As I read the situation:

·       I could attempt to assemble the 20+ parts myself. And based on past experiences, I knew that technically assembling anything is not part of my skill set. Past assembling experiences had ended up in tears of frustration, chaos and stress and excess adrenaline and cortisol flooding through my body. And that is definitely not my preferred state.

·       I could phone a friend, disrupt their working afternoon, and hope that their assembly skills were better than mine. And that they had nothing better to do than assemble my exercise bike within my preferred time frame.

·       I could run upstairs in the units where I live and ask a neighbour to assist with the assembly project now or when it was convenient to them.

·       I could locate and outsource the task to someone who was skilled in bike assembly and hopefully start pedalling sooner rather than later.

Prior to Thursday afternoon, I had never used Air Tasker or any similar services.

The way I saw it, what did I have to lose? I quickly familiarised myself with Air Tasker worked, entered my task description and requested the job be done preferably Thursday afternoon and put in a budget of $50.  Amazingly, within minutes – literally, Col (an Airtasker regular) had responded to my message, quoted $80, told me he lived 2 suburbs from my home and could be there in 15 minutes.

You can imagine how quickly I accepted his quote. True to his word, Col arrived at 2 p.m. sharp, quickly surveyed the parts and set to work. At 2.10 p.m. Col finished the task, asked me to sit on the exercise bike so he could adjust the bicycle and handlebars to suit my height. Gave me a quick demonstration on how the computerised tracker work tracking kms pedalled, calories expended, time expired, etc. and suggested getting some padding for the seat.

At 2.15 p.m. Col advised Air Tasker the task was completed; I released the funds on Air Tasker and thanked Col for doing a great job.

Exactly one hour had passed from delivery of an unassembled exercise bike to me pedalling the exercise bike.

What did I learn from the exercise bike experience?

1.    Had I not chased the supplier with emails and finally a phone call, I may never have received the exercise bike delivery. When suppliers advise delivery of a product within the week, even in Covid-19 time, it pays to follow up. Six weeks was an unacceptable time frame delay.

2.    Know your skill set. If you are faced with a task that you don’t know how to do and potentially will only have to do that task, once in your life, consider what it is worth to you to outsource.

3.     Decide on your budget range. Mine was $100, so I thought I would start at $50 and see how that was received.

4.    Locate someone who can do the task within the time frame. Air Tasker was the provider for potential exercise bike assemblers. State your preferred time frame and hope for the best.

5.    And from the service providers side, meet the potential clients brief and appreciate what skill you have to offer. There was no way I was going to argue over another $30 when the job could be done so quickly.

6.    As a service provider, do what you say you are going to do. Col was a bike rider; he knew exactly how to assemble an exercise bike. And the bonus was he could offer added value by adjusting the bike seat and handlebars to meet my requirements.

7.    Appreciate someone’s worth. Air Tasker offers the option of giving a tip to the service provider. I happily gave Col a $20 tip for his professionalism, flexibility, and speed in completing the task and doing a great job. The cost of completing the job was exactly the budget that I had allocated.

Later that night, I mentioned my exercise bike assembly to a friend who told me I was crazy, I could have just downloaded the instructions and done it myself and saved $100. That was definitely an option, though not one I chose.

What about you? How many times do you attempt the frustration of Do It Yourself rather than value your worth and your skills set and outsource?

Do you need to know how to assemble an exercise bike (or the equivalent) in any of your future income producing projects in the foreseeable future?

If not, may I suggest that it may be time to start valuing your time and worth and consider outsourcing.

For more articles by Robyn Henderson, visit her LinkedIn profile or her website www.networkingtowin.com.au