When should you DIY vs. hire?
There are two types of people.
Those who value time.
And those who value doing it yourself, no matter what.
K. So we’re going to walk through a little thought experiment here. Imagine you notice your bedroom needs a paint job.
Is your first thought:
“I’ll hire a painter”
Or “I’ll do it myself”
Be honest here. What’s your knee-jerk reaction?
Got it? Great. Now let’s talk about the difference between hiring and doing it yourself.
Hiring a painter means researching local painters, getting an estimate, and scheduling a time to take care of it. Of course, it also means you’re going to pay some money to do it.
Now, here’s the fun part. DIY. When you think “I’ll just do it myself” you think it’ll take a couple hours, max. You tend not to think about DIY as a whole.
When you’re painting your own walls, you have to purchase paint, brushes, rollers, painter’s tape, and plastic. You have to pick a day to lay painter’s tape along your baseboards, door frames, and windows.
You need to lay down primer, let that dry. Roll on paint two or more times and let that dry between applications. But oops! You’re paint roller dried out, so you have to head back to the store to get another one.
See where I’m going here?
What you thought would be a quick fix, and way more affordable option than hiring it out, ended up being an entire weekend ordeal.
DIY almost never means “one hour and it’s done” (but we like to think it does.)
I think it’s in every ED’s nature to want to figure things out. You wouldn’t have said yes to the role if you didn’t enjoy problem-solving and getting your hands dirty.
And doing things yourself is half the fun!
DIY as an ED means…
You get to go down lots of rabbit holes. As often as your heart desires, you get to spend hours of your afternoon researching the perfect peer-to-peer software, website platform, or Canva graphic. Yay! Fun!
You also get to be seen as someone who gets stuff done. Look at you, printing donor thank you letters! Sharing a new Brene Brown quote on your Instagram page! You’re doing things!
You get to avoid the things that feel scary. Instead of calling that donor you’ve had on your list for a month… or crafting a media pitch to your local newspaper… you get to learn a new skill! Like editing the code on your website to get your homepage exactly how you want it.
I know you enjoy learning. I know you love feeling like you’re an expert across several disciplines.
But…at what cost?
In this post, we’ll talk about how to decide whether to DIY or hire. Here’s the podcast episode if you prefer to listen:
What’s the impact of DIYing everything?
You experience true burnout.
If you’re working 12+ hour days and constantly feeling like you’re falling behind…you’re on the fast track to burnout. And burnout isn’t just a cute term we throw around to get you to take self-care seriously. It has real health repercussions that can lead you to falling ill, needing to take a leave of absence, or worse.
Your nonprofit becomes unstable.
If you leave the organization tomorrow, will it be the end of the organization? That’s a sign you have to start letting things go and hiring a team. You need to prioritize the longevity and sustainability of your organization.
You can’t lead your nonprofit to scale.
How in the world are you going to meet your annual goals if you’re busy tweaking website copy 10 hours a week?
How will you…
Create corporate partnerships and sponsors
Land media coverage
Expand your monthly giving program
…if you’re still doing everything yourself.
How to decide where to invest
1 ➜ time vs. value
Focus your energy on the high-value tasks. What will bring you the highest return on your time investment?
When you lead a nonprofit, everything feels like a high-value task. There are programs to run. Board meetings to lead. Emails to send. How can you decide what’s high value vs. lower value?
Enter the $1 or $1,000 rule.
Decide whether each task is a $1 task or a $1,000 task. Sharing a last minute post on Instagram? That’s $10. Yes social media is important, but it’s not going to bring as much value to your organization. At least not immediately.
What about setting up a call with a corporate partner? I’d say that’s closer to a $1,000 task. Or maybe even $20,000.
Your area of focus should be on the higher dollar tasks. If you’re stuck working only on the $1 tasks, you’re either in reactive mode or it’s time to hire.
To switch to proactive leadership, learn to say no and take control of your calendar. Or, if you’re ready to hire, check out our guide to hiring.
3 essential resources
➜ How to take control of your calendar for good
➜ Time to hire? 4 things to know before you grow
➜ Why you need to learn to say no (like…yesterday)
2 ➜ value vs. impact
Weigh the impact of each task on your overall organization. Make sure you start by covering your bases—ex: taxes, finances, and donor stewardship—before you worry about distractions like social media.
A strong social media presence says nothing about the health of an organization. You could be super active on social media and look like you “have it together” but have an organization that’s crumbling behind the scenes.
What’s the impact of not posting 3 days a week on social media? Not much, honestly. But the impact of inconsistent books? Pretty significant.
My advice: be strategic about who you hire. Focus on the areas with the highest impact on your organization.
Hire a bookkeeper to help you reconcile your numbers and keep your organization on track for tax season.
Hire a development coordinator or virtual assistant to manage your donor database.
3 ➜ knowledge vs. expertise
Knowing how to do something isn’t enough of a reason to do it. Just because you “know” how to write an email campaign doesn’t mean you’re right for the job.
Think about the last time you created your monthly newsletter. You spent something like 10 hours putting your message together. Then you wonder why no one clicked the donate button.
Was your subject line enticing? Did you include a story? A clear call-to-action?
If you hired a copywriter, chances are, her email would have more opens and clicks—because messaging is her area of expertise.
Imagine what you could do with an extra 10 hours a month. With emails off your list, how many more donor calls could you make?
Remember: just because you “can” do something, doesn’t mean it’s the right financial decision.
You can’t do everything yourself
The best leaders know when to take ownership and when to delegate.
If you’re hesitant to invest in help… start small. You don’t have to completely relinquish the reins. Find the repetitive tasks that constantly take up your time, and get support!
