Why Get a Consultant Before You Try “DIY?”

Confessions of a Serial Boy Scout!

The Set-Up

Saving money does not always save you time.”Why I consult and why I know that the drive for FULFILLMENT is going to drive EVERY LIVING BUSINESS until the end of time. Will you be prepared?” Sure making money is the key. But all the A.I., automation, and auto attendants in the world CANT replace that friendly voice or face walking you through something new. On a side note where are all the “Walmart” greeters? What I have been paying attention to in my extended breakup with the “internal structure” that will continue to make budget cuts where ever they can to save shareholders money. But they are cutting their own throats.

The Result

The less highly trained staff combined with an overreliance on phone trees and auto-attendants leads to frustration and dwindling loyalty from their customer base. So the immediate “BAND-AID” fix on the arterial wound is let’s offer bundled services and push even more features and benefits on the customers that are stuck on hold pushing “1” trying to get a human to help with the last bundle of features. I consult because I know exactly what this feels like and instead of admitting what I don’t know I would rather research the heck out of it until I do know and then get it done. This is an effective strategy to validate why I consult. But it can be a death sentence for a business.

Here is my story. Please, don’t do as I do.

The Confession

So finally, after being in biz for over a year and wrestling with my former email provider to get them to make their email interact with Microsoft 365. “Disclaimer here” I am not endorsing MS 365 nor saying it is bad but for my business model use of integrated applications like ZOOM, Yesware, Asana, Calendly, LinkedIn, etc. is PERFECT. I just needed it to be perfect on day one. and now, I am FINALLY fully up on MS 365, where I have more than 2 terabytes of storage since I have maxed out 3 google Drive. AND added bonus after many restless nights of trying the good old “DIY” integrate my apps so I can do campaigns and grow my biz so I can hire another me. 

What was my problem

The problem for a service-based business such as mine that is constantly growing, and changing with my diverse base of customers, I needed this to work as close to day 1 as possible not day 465. OUCH! I think about all the people that I did not help because I did not get help. Luckily I have been doing other work such as various “Business Accelerators, working with Mentors, coaches, and trusted colleagues to keep me going. Because I don’t get to call a time out while I am building my biz. And we know our online world has grown thanks to the pandemic. Up until now, I was just talking about “Web Content Accessibility Guidelines” for those with disabilities. But on May 13th our President said we need to think about “HIGH SPEED” access FOR ALL. This includes the rural and urban areas of our country. The White House took it one step further and said “here is 45 Billion dollars for it.” And on May 18th, 34 states said, um “HECK YEAH” So if you are a business owner that has

• Software as a Service (SaaS)
• Streaming Content
• Online Services
• Digital Technology
• Digital Media

Your customer base is about to explode. and if you took the steps I took to figure things out you are out of business reading this thinking to yourself “Oh, that’s what I missed!” or you are bleeding money because your competition has a consultant that is helping them navigate the waters

The Take-Away

Moral of the story. Always hire a consultant to do the things you don’t know how to do. I tell my clients, from my experience, that I do believe that people can figure things out on their own without my help. My question is always the same. Can you afford the pain and loss of time, customers, and money that I lose when “Marti goes rogue” and wants to do it himself? In this example, it is clear that DIY saving money does not always save you time. Because in the end, I always end up getting help.  “Always be prepared!”