Opportunity Costs and Why You Should (almost) Always Hire a Professional Web-Designer

[Tamgerine]

I wrote this recently to try and get people to think about time as a limited resource and to better spend it on things that bring you more value.

I constantly see on forums and Facebook groups:


“I’m a professional _____ and I need a website! How do I design my own?”


Whatever it is. Professional photographer, professional gardener, professional beer taster – it’s all the same. Everyone wants to do the work themselves for free – why not? It’s so much cheaper to do it yourself than hire a professional!


It’s free to build your own websites, your own cabinets, fix your own car! The options are limitless! Everything for free!


I’m here to tell you today that it’s not free. It does cost you something. It’s called an opportunity cost.


An opportunity cost is the value of what you gave up to do what you chose instead.


Time is a limited human resource. We only have so much of it and economics states that resources should always be used in the most efficient way possible. Opportunity costs apply to pretty much everything a business or person chooses to do. They are monetary or non-monetary.


When a corporation chooses to focus their efforts on print advertising the opportunity cost is what they would have made devoting those resources (time + money) to online advertising. Resources should be allocated to whatever brings the most value.


When someone decides to begin a career straight out of high school instead of going to college the opportunity cost is the money that person would have made with a degree. However, if the chosen career has a high salary that outweighs the time it would take to obtain that degree the first choice has the most value.


When the employee chooses to work additional hours every night at the office the opportunity cost is the time he would have spent tucking his kids into bed.


The question you should constantly ask yourself if this:


Could I be doing something else that brings me more value than whatever it is I’m doing right now?


Instead of watching late night TV could you be reading a book? Instead of spending money on Facebook advertising could you spend that money on education? Instead of learning to do your own accounting could you spend that time networking with other professionals in your field?


Back to web design. If you don’t know how to design a website you have to spend the time to learn. Reading books, taking classes, experimenting. Keep in mind that professional web designers sometimes spend months or even years getting good results from their craft.


Let me ask you this: If you don’t want to be a web designer, why are you spending all of your time (a limited resource) learning how to design websites? Isn’t there something better you should be doing?


The opportunity cost of learning to build your own (decent-looking) website is everything you COULD have done instead – building your photography portfolio, networking with clients, learning the things you DO want to do, getting better at those things. Would all of those things bring you more money in the end game than the money it would have taken to hire a professional web designer?
So often in the world where you learn to design your own website is a mediocre result, time wasted, and foregone opportunities.


Often those mediocre results cost us more money in the end than if we had just hired somebody in the first place. (Ever see a terribly designed website? I wouldn’t buy from those people and neither would your clients.)


Granted, the key is to spend that time doing something MORE valuable. If all you're going to do instead of learning to design a website is sit on the couch and watch House reruns then a terrible website is better than no website.
So when do you hire someone for something and how do you decide the best way to spend your time? Here is a handy-dandy flowchart to help you with your consideration:

View attachment 77722

And a link to the original article if you would like to subscribe to my blog: Tammy Hineline Photography

 

[CuriosityHouse]

Opportunity Cost in Econ 101 absolutely changed my life. It rules my life and my decisions now. It can be applied to absolutely any decision you might need to make in life. Not just a time is money aspect. Everything.