Hire a firm or do it myself.....

When pondering the question..... "I could hire a firm or do it myself in house...." the thing that immediately pops to my mind is reality. While you may be thinking .... gee ... I could save a few bucks if I had some of my staff handle this "in-house" ... here are a couple points to consider:

- What is the learning curve

- Who is going to handle it and aren't they already busy doing what they should be doing

- If you hire someone, what is the ramp up, how much will it costs and is it comparable?

The reality is that while many things sound like a good idea to "handle in-house" - you most likely will way under-estimate the time and money involved.

You should always spend you time and money on your core competency only - which is whatever it is that you do best. The other stuff should be left to specialists like accounting firms, public relations agencies, ad agencies etc. Why work harder when you can work smarter?

Be realistic when looking at initiatives within your company and estimate the situations correctly before making bad decisions related around the "idea" of saving money. It's easier to pay the money and spend your time making more money anyway. Don't waste precious time and resources on initiatives that you really shouldn't be spending any time on

-Robert Cornish