I have started multiple businesses (most of them have failed), and one important thing I learned is the importance of doing things yourself. It is so easy to feel like you have to outsource work or start hiring. As soon as things get a bit tough, you probably will start thinking, “maybe I should outsource this.”
You can, of course, outsource some things, but a lot of things are vital for you (or the co-funding team) to do yourself. It will help you to understand the process and your customers + it will save you a lot of money. This will help you to avoid the two biggest reasons why startups fail:
1. Lack of market need (42% of startups fail because of this).
2. Lack of cash (29% of startups fail because of this).
Doing things yourself will, for sure, help you understand the market need. You are the one making the decisions, so it is crucial that you get the insights from talking to customers, measuring marketing results, etc. Not anyone else. And as a bonus, saving a lot of money by doing things yourself will, for sure, help you avoid the lack of cash problem.
These two failing reasons sum up to 71%. 71%!?!. So by doing things yourself, you will have a much better bet on avoiding the reasons that are causing 71% of all startups to fail. Of course, you might still end up bankrupt or not finding a market fit, but you will for sure have a better shot at succeeding.
But shouldn’t you outsource some things at least?
Even though you could outsource a lot of things, for example, website and logo design, I believe that doing it yourself will help you understand your customers and your marketing. Everything that in any way will be seen or heard by customers is a part of your marketing, so if you can, do it yourself.
And again – you will save a lot of money. $1000 for website design is probably something you could afford, but, often things go wrong, and costs end up being much higher. Since you are in an early stage, you probably will want to change somethings every now and then, and there goes $1000 again.
What I think you can and should outsource (if you have the possibility) is everything else. The things that don’t matter for the customer or your team. For example, paying taxes or web hosting. That’s it.