Is DIY Right for your Business? 5 Questions to Ask

By / July 19, 2021 / Digital Transformation, Tech Baseline
Pictured: A variety of DIY related items, including tape, pliers, screwdrivers, clamps, a vise, and books.

The Benefits of DIY and the Pitfalls

The term “DIY” is most often associated with home improvement.

If you have the experience and know-how, you can tear down a wall or add a deck or install a new sink. Retail stores provide the materials and tools for you, and then you do the work.

The benefits of a successful DIY project are twofold: you save money by doing the labor yourself, and if you’re successful, you get to bask in the pride of knowing you built it all. 

What if you’re unsuccessful though or don’t have the experience to do the job correctly?

There are many reasons why your DIY Project can fail.

  • You meant to tear only one wall down, but the ceiling comes down with it.
  • Halfway through building your deck, it all falls apart.
  • The sink you tried to install doesn’t match up with your water pipes.
A DIY failure
Oopsies

What Do You Do Now?

Now you have to restore your home to a starting point and begin again.

You face a difficult choice.

Do you continue on your own or pay an expert to finish the job?

There’s no guarantee you can fix it if you already messed up.

If you do hire an expert, they not only have to finish the job that you started but do all the extra work as well.

Meanwhile, your home is BROKEN, and your family is SAD.

You wouldn’t take risks with your own home and family, so why would you take risks with your business?

The outcome of a bad DIY project.
They’re sad because they have to live at the Motel 6 for months

DIY IT Solutions and Your Business 

At TechHouse, we provide a DIY model for our customers who have an IT team or expert and only need the materials and tools. 

This model works well for them, but now and then, a customer will go this route to save money and end up in an analogous scenario to one listed above (without the broken home and sad family). 

If you’re unsure of whether to go the DIY route, you should be able to answer “Yes” to the following questions before beginning a project:

  1. Can you identify the problem? 
  2. Do you know how to design the solution? 
  3. Do you have the necessary skills to build the solution?
  4. When you launch the solution, does it work as expected? 
  5. After launching, can you continue to support the solution?

If you answered “no” to any of the above, you’re going to want an expert to do the work for you or at least be available to consult along the way.

TechHouse has three Gold and six Silver Microsoft competencies in nine specialized areas of business technology: 

If you need help in any of these areas and don’t have an expert on your team, give us a call.