As a small business owner, you’ve likely caught yourself saying “I’ll just do it myself to save money” more times than you can count. On the surface, this makes perfect sense. Why pay someone else when you can do it yourself for “free”?

But here’s the crucial question we often forget to ask – is your time actually free?

We need to talk about the value of your time

When you do something yourself instead of paying someone else, you’re not eliminating the cost – you’re simply shifting it from a monetary expense to a time expense. And time, particularly for business owners, has a real monetary value.

Every hour you spend on tasks that could be delegated is an hour not spent on activities that directly grow your business or generate revenue. It’s also potentially an hour not spent with family, friends, or taking care of yourself – all of which have immense value beyond mere finances.

Let’s look at some common “free” activities that might actually be costing you more than you think.

The DIY LinkedIn trap

Creating engaging LinkedIn posts seems simple enough. Just write something clever, add a hashtag or two, and hit publish – takes 15 minutes, right?

Not quite. When you factor in brainstorming topics, writing thoughtful content, finding relevant images, scheduling, and then responding to comments and engaging with others – you’re easily looking at 5-7 hours per week for a proper LinkedIn strategy.

If your effective hourly rate is £75 (and for many business owners, it should be much higher), that’s £375-£525 per week spent on LinkedIn. Meanwhile, many competent social media managers might handle this for £300-£400 per month, potentially saving you both money and significant time.

“Free” blog writing costs more than you think

“I’ll just write a quick blog post” often turns into a half-day project. Consider the full process:

Researching topics and keywords
Drafting the content
Finding or creating images
Editing and proofreading
Formatting for your website
Publishing and promoting the post

For a decent 1,000-word blog post, you’re typically looking at 6-7 hours of work. At that same £75 hourly rate, each “free” blog post costs you £450-525 in time value.

A professional content writer might charge £350-500 for the same piece, delivering higher quality content in less time, while you focus on tasks only you can do.

DIY SEO – gambling with your visibility

Many business owners tackle their own SEO, figuring they can learn enough from YouTube tutorials and free guides to get by. After all, how hard can it be to add a few keywords here and there?

The problem with DIY SEO isn’t just the time it takes – there are also delayed consequences of getting it wrong. Unlike most DIY tasks where you immediately know if something’s broken, SEO mistakes often don’t become apparent for weeks or even months.

You might spend hours optimising your website, only to discover 3 months later that your changes actually hurt your rankings. By then, you’ve not only wasted the initial time investment, but also lost months of potential traffic and leads.

What’s more, search algorithms change constantly. What worked six months ago might be ineffective – or even harmful – today. Professional SEO specialists stay on top of these changes as their full-time job. You could be reading or watching SEO advice that sounds perfectly reasonable, and WAS perfectly useful when it was written or recorded, but id that was 2 years ago, it might now be the right advice NOW.

Think about this – a basic SEO audit and implementation might take you 20+ hours to research and execute (that’s £1,500 of your time at £75/hour), with no guarantee of success. A professional might charge £750-£1,000 for the same service, with a much higher likelihood of positive results based on tested experience.

And unlike your DIY attempt, they’ll know exactly what to measure and when to make adjustments – before you’ve lost months of visibility.

The expensive reality of “free” networking events

Networking events can be valuable, but they’re far from free when you consider your time investment.

Preparation time (researching attendees, preparing materials)
Travel time to and from the venue
The actual hours spent at the event
Follow-up time with new contacts

A “two-hour” networking breakfast can easily consume 5-6 hours of your day when all is said and done. That’s £375-£450 of your time for an event that may or may not generate business.

Sometimes this investment is worthwhile, but other times, targeted paid advertising or hiring a part-time business development person might generate more leads with less time commitment from you.

DIY bookkeeping – false economy

Many small business owners handle their own bookkeeping to save money. But let’s look at the real cost.

What takes you 8-10 stressed hours per month might take a professional bookkeeper 2-3 hours. At your £75 hourly rate, you’re spending £600-£750 of your time on bookkeeping monthly.

Meanwhile, a professional bookkeeper might charge £150-£300 per month for the same service – and likely with fewer errors and less stress for you.

The website update you’ve been putting off for months

That website update you’ve been meaning to get to for the past six months? There’s a reason it hasn’t happened yet. Technical tasks often take business owners three to four times longer than they would take specialists.

A task that might take a web developer 2 hours (at perhaps £100ish per hour) could easily consume 8 hours of your time. That’s £600 of your time versus £200 for a professional – with a guaranteed better result and none of the frustration.

Plus, what’s the cost of having an outdated website for those six months you’ve been meaning to get around to it?

Email marketing – another “free” time sink

Creating and managing email marketing campaigns involves:

Planning the content calendar
Writing compelling copy
Designing visually appealing templates
Setting up automation and segmentation
Analysing results and optimising future campaigns

A typical monthly email marketing effort can easily consume 8-12 hours of your time (£600-£900 value). Meanwhile, many email marketing specialists would handle this entire process for £400-£600 per month, potentially delivering better results due to their expertise.

How to decide what’s worth your time

Not everything should be outsourced – some tasks genuinely are best handled by you. Here’s how to make smarter decisions about where to invest your precious time.

Calculate your true hourly rate

To make informed decisions, you need to know what your time is actually worth. This goes beyond what you charge clients.

Calculate your true hourly rate by:

Determining your desired annual income
Dividing by the number of working hours you want to have (remember, you shouldn’t be working 24/7)
Adding a premium for opportunity cost

The last point is crucial – it’s not just about what you earn, but what you could be earning. If you’re doing bookkeeping instead of client work, you’re not just spending time – you’re losing potential income.

For instance, if you want to earn £80,000 working 30 hours per week for 48 weeks per year, your baseline hourly rate is about £55. But if during that time you could be doing billable work at £100 per hour, then every hour spent on administrative tasks is actually costing you £100 in lost revenue.

This is why many tasks that seem “cheaper” to do yourself actually come with a hefty price tag when you account for what else you could be doing with that time.

Questions to ask before doing it yourself

Before tackling any task, ask yourself:

Is this within my zone of genius? (Tasks you’re exceptionally good at and enjoy)
Would someone else do this better or faster than me?
What revenue-generating activity could I do instead during this time?
Will doing this myself lead to burnout or resentment?
Is this a recurring task that will continue to consume my time?

The answers will help you to decide whether DIY or outsourcing makes more sense for each specific task.

Valuing your time is good business

Understanding that your time has real value isn’t about being too important to handle certain tasks. It’s about making strategic decisions that benefit your business, your clients, and yourself.

When you focus your limited time on the activities that only you can do – the ones that directly drive your business forward – everything else becomes more efficient. You’ll likely find yourself less stressed, more productive, and possibly even more profitable.

Remember: Just because something seems free doesn’t mean it is. Your time is valuable – treat it accordingly.

Ready to stop wasting your valuable time?

Those “free” tasks costing you hours each week? I can help with some of them. If you need SEO help or content creation, I can take these time-consuming tasks off your plate.

I’ll handle the details while you focus on what truly matters – growing your business and serving your clients.

Get in touch today to discover how I can help you reclaim your time and increase your profitability. After all, the most expensive way to run your business is trying to do everything yourself.