The solopreneur’s ‘build vs. buy’ decision

When I worked a corporate job, I was often in charge of purchasing decisions. At one company, my team had inherited a lot of homegrown solutions. I saw the limitations of these products and was quick to replace them if the budget allowed.  

In corporate settings, “build vs. buy” is a well-known decision framework. Companies weigh the cost of developing something in-house against purchasing an outside solution. It’s often simple math: how much time and resources does it take to maintain this internally versus what does it cost to buy or outsource?

Solopreneurs face the same decision constantly. However, the stakes are a lot higher when it’s your own time and own money as decision factors. 

Knowing when to DIY and when to hire out is one of the most important operational decisions a solopreneur makes—and one that’s hard to figure out until you’ve been through it a few times. 

When to DIY

Not everything needs to be outsourced. Some tasks or projects are worth learning yourself, even if the learning curve is steep at first.

The strongest case for DIY is when you’ll repeat the task often, and it touches a core part of your business. Updating the basics on your own website or maintaining your project management tool—these are things you’ll do over and over. If you outsource them, you’ll either keep paying someone else or find yourself stuck when you need to make a quick change.

There’s also value in the learning itself because figuring something out makes you a better operator. An example of this might be understanding your business’s financials. Even if you pay a bookkeeper to prepare them, you still need baseline knowledge about your numbers. If you outsource and don’t take the time to understand the output, you’ve created a blind spot in your business. 

And sometimes, the budget just isn’t there yet. That’s a valid reason to DIY, especially when you’re starting out. But it helps to set a time limit, especially for one-off projects. If you’ve spent a few weeks trying to make something work and you’re no closer to a result you can actually use, that’s a signal to stop and reassess.

When to hire it out

When I first started my solo business, I created all kinds of assets in Canva. Banners, social graphics—you name it, I made it. But eventually I realized that I’d hit the limit of my design abilities. There was no easy way for me to learn those skills, nor were they a core part of my regular business. So I hired someone to do a design overhaul and create everything for me.

Hiring help is a trade. You’re exchanging money to gain back your time (and, quite possibly, your sanity). Often, for a better result than you’d produce on your own.

The clearest case for hiring is one-time, high-skill tasks where quality matters. In addition to design, you might hire for legal contracts or tax setup. These aren’t things most solopreneurs will do repeatedly, and the cost of getting them wrong can be higher than the cost of hiring a professional.

It’s also worth hiring when a poor DIY result could cost you credibility or clients. A clunky website or an amateur-looking proposal might turn away the exact opportunities you’re working to attract.

Here’s a quick filter you can use. Ask yourself:
How often will I do this?
Does quality matter a lot?
Could I earn more in the time it would take me to learn?

If the answer to that last question is yes, hiring almost always makes sense.

The real cost of ‘I’ll just figure it out’

When you’re solo, your time has a direct dollar value. Every hour you spend learning website design or wrestling with accounting software is an hour you’re not doing client work. That’s a real cost, even if it’s not reflected in your business’s financials. 

Of course, solopreneurs sometimes can’t afford the upfront cost to hire. That’s a very real consideration, especially in the early days. There’s no universal right answer to DIY versus hiring. But being intentional about the decision—rather than defaulting to “I’ll just figure it out”—is what separates solopreneurs who stay stuck from those who move their businesses forward.