#payforspecialists

[victorialouisehansen]

Why You Should Pay For Specialists

I am currently setting up my online training portals, the first being associated with my food education website and business – Victoria Hansen Food.

In readiness for the classes and courses I am putting together, I decided to create a simple graphic ad in Photoshop with some imagery I already had and match the font colour to the colours in the image.

Needless to say I am no graphic designer, although, given guidelines (a layout and design idea) I can replicate layouts relatively well, as I have a basic understanding of Photoshop.

But when you look at the two ads below, my attempt and the one my graphic designer's, you’ll see why we pay them the big bucks.

But let me step back a bit and tell you the whole story.

So I create this ad that I knew wasn’t great, but that would in fact do the trick, at least basically. I show it to my designer, who comments “excellent – would you like me to tweak it?” which is her polite way of saying it’s really bad shall I redo it for you LOL.

I said OK.

So 10 minutes later she sends me this…

Now the two look nothing alike. I took more than 30 minutes to create mine. It looks 100% better than mine and she took a 3rd of the time to do it. Why we even attempt to do things we are not qualified to skilled to do really amazes me, although I do it all the time.

Now most people think graphic designers are expensive, and good ones are, mine is $200 an hour. But if she can do what takes me 30 minutes to do, in 10 minutes, she’s actually would be saving me money.

If my rate was $200 an hour, and I spent $100 doing my ad ( and not very well), and she took 10 minutes, then my cost for her would have been $33 and the impact and success rate of her ad would definitely be better than mine for a 3rd of the price.

We often try to save money by doing things ourselves, but in reality, unless we have all the skills, chances are we actually cost ourselves more money by wasting the time to do something someone else could have done in far less time, and way better than we could.

Most people when presented with a $200 an hour supplier would gasp and deem them too expensive, but if they can execute their craft quickly because they have all the tools and knowhow, and also have the creative gene, then spending the money is well worth it.

This is not just a wise move for a swift execution, but as you can see from the two ads above, my creative ability and my designers are far from equal. Whilst I may have Photoshop skills, my ability to piece together graphic elements leaves a lot to be desired. I’d compare this to making a basic cake or creating a Black Forest Gateau. Both can be made from the same basic cake recipe, but one is far more appealing and dare I say tastier than the other.

We all have skills and attributes but no one can be excellent at everything.

Do what you do well and leave the rest to those that do what they do best, and be prepared to pay for that genius, because in the end, you’ll actually save a lot of money, time and effort. That's Why You Should Pay For Specialists.

And if you'd like to use my graphic designer, contact me by leaving a comment below, and I'll put you in touch.