Just because you can do something yourself doesn’t mean you should. That time-saving, cost-saving, hassle-saving writing project you think you can manage could end up costing you dearly.

You know that stain on the kitchen ceiling you meant to paint over six years ago? That water feature you fitted one weekend that only worked for a day? That case study you wrote yourself that took the best part of a month and almost cost you a previously happy client?

When we can get by with what we have, or we have the wherewithal but not the budget, doing things ourselves can seem like the best solution.

Virtually no cost at all!

Hiring someone to do a job we can do ourselves always seems a bit of a waste. A waste of our time looking for and finding someone. A waste of our time and energy briefing them when we could just get on and do it ourselves. And a waste of money paying them to do something we could do for virtually no cost at all.

I get it. I do. I did the same thing with my accounts.

For years, I’d spend hours trying to remember which invoice or payment or bank transaction related to which job. Then there were the Excel spreadsheets. I’d invariably bugger something up and have to call my brother (an accountant) to sort it out for me. And don’t even ask me about VAT and income tax returns. Long days of my life I could have spent doing some real paid-for work.

Eventually, a smart friend and business acquaintance mentioned a well-known online accounting system. (Okay, it was Xero.) “I’m not paying £300 a year for something I can do myself,” I naively thought. But she swore by it. So, I signed up for a free trial and never looked back.

Free your time and save your sanity

Had I really been quibbling over £300 a year? With the time it has freed up, I have earned so much more and saved my sanity.

But content is different, isn’t it?

How can someone who doesn’t know your business write about it effectively?

I never claim to know a business, product or service better than my clients. What I can claim is that I can think like their target audiences, ask the questions they would ask and write a compelling piece of content that would interest them.

Let others do it or teach you to do it

And if a client still prefers to do it themselves, I can run a suitable training course to show them how to think like their target audiences, ask the questions they would ask and write a compelling piece of content that would interest them.

Now, about that patch on the ceiling…