I was launching a new website, googeling one thing after another, and eventually reached the point that I couldn’t figure out what do to next.

What is my time worth? Click to Tweet

My husband took the car to the garage to be fixed, the garage was known to have lower prices than where we normally go, however, it was farther away. As I drove, I once again I found myself asking the question,

what is my time worth?

I was listening to The Art of Growth by Tara Gentile, and boy did this jump out and slap me in the face.

“…while you’re doing it, doing it, doing it, there’s something much more important that isn’t getting done.” Michael E Gerber, The E-Myth Revisited

While the Mannings, where I purchase my yarn is a solid half hour away from my home, I always refuse to order as I don’t want to pay for shipping. However, as I watched myself sprinting out of a meeting , diving into my car, and driving like a mad women trying to get to the store before it closed, I wondered what I was proving. Is the $10.00 shipping not worth the hour and half that is saves me, let alone the stress. I could instead be in my studio creating.

What is my time worth?

When you’re starting a business it’s easy to think that you can save money by doing everything yourself. You are the manager, photographer, writer, tech person, PR, accountant, and who knows what else. Don’t get me wrong, I started out this way myself. However, if you continue to be everything, you will always remain small, and you are under-valuing your skills.

I”m good at a lot things, html code is not one of them. I also hate keeping track of numbers and doing taxes. I mean just looking at a page full of numbers starts to send me into a bit of a panic attack.

So back to the question, what is your time worth.

I wasted at least 5 hours trying to get my website to do one thing, I never did figure it out. I finally paid someone to do it, who had it up and running in about 15 min.

Your time and talents are valuable, treat them that way. You expect others around you to appreciate your skill and respect your time, lead by example and do it yourself. Look at your to do list, what on the list can someone else do better than you? Let them do it.

A group of friends got together this weekend, to begin to open a friends new Yoga, Pilates and Reki studio, the owner chanted, this is so hard for me to ask for help, so hard for me to let others do the work. And we easily repeated back to her, let us all work where our skills lie. She’s an awesome writer, great teacher, and stellar shopper. The women who is the manager is organized to the max, has the knowledge as though she’s opened 10 businesses before, and quickly picks up things on the technical side. Than there’s me, the creative one. I was set lose putting decals on the wall. For a brief moment I followed the instructions, quickly got confused, and did my own thing. When we all work together and do what we’re good at. Two things happen. One ,things come together faster and better. Two we’re all happy in the end, instead of slamming our heads against the wall.