What Is the "I Can Do It Myself" Tax and Is It Costing You?
"I can just do it myself" might be one of the most expensive sentences in your business. Yup, I said “one of” as there could be just as many more.
It doesn't feel or sound expensive. It feels like the smart, thrifty choice. Why pay someone to do a thing you're perfectly capable of doing? Why pay someone to do something that you’ll have to guide them on for a bit and lose some hours? Why pay someone and learn to trust them with learning your systems and precious business? That's the trap, so you just do it yourself.
All of the invoicing, the scheduling, the inbox, the formatting, the chasing, the client comms, the FAQ development borne from the numerous questions from prospects and clients. All of it, yourself, because hiring feels like a cost and doing it yourself feels free.
But it isn't free. You just pay for it somewhere you're not looking.
Every hour you spend on a task someone else could have done is an hour you did not spend on the work only you can do. The actual work that brings in the kudi! The strategy, the client relationships, the high-value offer that would actually move your income. That's the tax. Not the money you saved by not hiring, but the money and growth you never earned because your hours were tied up in admin and client comms.
Let me give you an example, because feelings are easy to ignore and facing this truth can be difficult.
Say your time, in the work only you can do, is worth even a modest amount an hour. Now count the hours you spend each week on tasks worth a fraction of that. Formatting documents. Copying data between apps. Booking things. Sending the same reply for the tenth time. If that's ten hours a week, you are not saving money by doing it yourself. You are spending your most valuable hours to avoid paying for your least valuable ones. That is a bad trade, and you would never advise a client to make it.
The "I can do it myself" tax has a few line items, and they all compound.
There is;
- the time, obviously,
- the mental load,
- the headache and forgetfulness that comes with holding every small thing in your head.
And there is the opportunity cost, the bigger work that never gets done. And there is the ceiling, because a business where everything runs through one pair of hands can only ever grow as far as those hands can reach.
Imagine skipping the one conference that could put your business in front of the right investors or clients, not because you don't see the opportunity, but because going would mean coming back to a mountain of admin and unfiled taxes you can't afford to leave. The tasks you kept doing yourself could end up costing you not just an afternoon, but the room.
Here is the part that stings. You can absolutely do it all yourself. You are capable. That is exactly why it is a trap. Capability is not the question. The question is whether it is worth what you are actually paying for it.
Doing it yourself was the right move when you were starting out and money was tight. But at some point "I can do it myself" stops being resourceful and starts being the thing quietly holding your business at its current size.
So do the small, uncomfortable maths this week. Pick one recurring task you do out of habit, not necessity. Work out what your time is really worth, and what that task is really costing you. NOT what it would cost to hand it off. What it is costing you to keep it.
You might find that the cheapest-looking option in your business has been the most expensive one all along. Make up your mind today and choose growth over ego, because the business you want can't and really shouldn’t fit in one pair of hands.