It’s our nature to bargain shop. Why pay full price when we can score a discount, right? I don’t disagree with this mentality when it comes to shoes, handbags or grocery bills. However, there are certain instances when choosing the rock bottom price can really cost you.
There will be various times in your life when you will have to choose whether you want to pay a little more to work with a professional or save a few bucks and hire an amateur. This applies to countless services such as wedding planning, web design, copy writing, marketing and social media management – to name a few. In my experience, I have found that so many of my clients have been burned by first working with an amateur before coming to me. The small amount of money they saved with this decision didn’t come close to offsetting the quality of work the amateur produced or the headache it took to manage them.
Rather than judging a job solely based on its price tag, carefully consider everything else this “bargain shopping” stands to cost you. Here are five reasons why, when looking at the big picture, it is actually a better deal to work with a professional from the start.
- Get it right the first time
When you work with a professional, you are much more likely to be given a final product that you are happy with the first time around. Working with an amateur may be cheaper, but it will most certainly cost you time as you muddle through draft after draft of mediocre work.
Ultimately you must consider the value of your time. If you are spending business hours vetoing work that doesn’t make the grade, this is time you are not spending running your own business. Using a professional will substantially decrease the time it takes to finalize a product you are thrilled with.
- Quality work that will stand the test of time
Additionally, hiring a professional will give you a final product that will maintain its quality over the coming months and years. Think about buying clothes or building a house. Investing in quality materials will give you a much longer lifespan for these products – as will working with a professional for your marketing and content writing needs.
A professional knows how to create content and strategies that are “evergreen” and give you the biggest bang for your buck for the longest amount of time. An amateur often lacks the foresight and expertise to create something that not only functions great now, but will stand the test of time.
- Less micromanaging on your part
When you choose to work with a professional, you benefit from not having to constantly look over their shoulder, badger them with follow-up emails or micromanage every project they complete for you. Simply put, you can trust them to do the job and do it right.
A professional is an equal partner, not a direct report. While they defer to you for a final decision, they bring to the table their own skills and area of expertise that complement your own and make up for where you may lack. You don’t need to hover over them to make sure they stay on task – they are self-motivated and function as a one-person department within your business, even when outsourced.
- Expert ideas you may not have thought of
One of the most valuable aspects of working with a professional is that they offer up expert ideas that you may never have considered. Professionals are by no means a “Yes-Man” to your requests. They have experience executing countless strategies for industries very much like your own and can offer trade secrets that they know to be effective or steer you away from strategies that have proven ineffective.
While you may think you know what you want, experts know what you actually need. Amateurs are willing to provide you with whatever you ask for, but this doesn’t always deliver the most favorable outcome. Sometimes you need someone to help you see the light and guide you toward a new and even better option.
- A strategic partner to steer you in the right direction
Most importantly, when you hire a professional, you gain a strategic partner. As a business owner or entrepreneur, you can feel alone and isolated in your work. Sometimes what you really need – more than someone to simply take tasks off your plate – is someone to steer you in the right direction. I have personally found with many of my clients, that once we build a level of trust within our relationship, I become a sounding board for various business ideas that may not even relate to the services I provide.
Business owners (myself included) need a strategic partner, a right-hand-person, or just someone who understands the complexity of the decisions we must make on a regular basis and offer us some stability and reassurance when the ship really gets to rocking. An amateur cannot offer this same level of expertise when it comes to business consulting. They aren’t seasoned or experienced in the same way a professional is. To pay for business consulting services alone is a sizeable investment; when you work with the right professional, this comes as part of the whole package!
Have you found it to be cheaper or more expensive to work with a professional in the long-run? Share your personal experiences by commenting below!
The Comm Entrepreneur 
Reblogged this on Gr8fullsoul.