Why Are You Still Doing It Yourself?

I was talking to a client of mine recently. He’s an attorney, and he told me he was cleaning up his firm’s QuickBooks.

Himself.

I said, “Dude. Why are you doing this yourself?”

He’d have to learn the software, figure out what was wrong, scope the fix, and then do it, all on top of practicing law. Someone who does QuickBooks for a living could probably do it in a fraction of the time.

He knew that. Of course he knew that. But it’s his business, and somewhere along the way, “I’ll just do it myself” became the default.

I see the same thing in physician practices, on a much bigger scale.

Physicians handling payroll questions. Negotiating leases. Untangling billing problems. Reviewing vendor contracts. Building the strategy for the next five years at 10 PM.

Here’s how I think about it.

If it’s something you’re not good at, don’t want to do, eats your time, or that you’d have to learn from scratch to do well…

Why are you doing it?

Do what you do best. Use your resources to bring in people who are better at the rest.

That isn’t giving up control. It’s choosing where your time actually goes. Into patients. Into leading your practice. And, frankly, into the friends and family you’d rather be spending your evenings with.

What’s the one task you’re still doing yourself that you know you shouldn’t be?

Originally published on LinkedIn