- Price is what you pay and value is what you get.” -Warren Buffet
Are you willing to pay the price?
I was already exhausted after a 6-hour training program, but I knew that it was my job to help this person. I started by asking them if they were feeling okay and what the problem seemed to be. They found out that they had spent a lot of money to publish their book through an unreliable Vanity publisher. They were promised that their book would be published globally and distributed. After six months, the only website they found it on was a free listing site.
I listened patiently without interrupting the victim who had attended one of my publishing workshops some months ago. Although I advised him against such mouth-watering offers on the internet, he failed to heed my advice and got scammed.
After listening to an expert’s advice, he failed to take it into account and went for a cheaper and unrealistic method to get the desired result. This time, I was able to get him on board with my book publishing services and he paid dearly for the service to get the desired results.
In this era of Do-It-Yourself, hiring an expert may seem expensive. However, everyone would be wise to the expense of the “do-it-yourself” approach. While it might seem economical at first, in reality, it typically ends up costing more money and time in the long run. Even though that may be helpful in certain instances. The truth is that it may end up costing you more trying to fix everything by yourself for not hiring an expert.
For startups and small business owners, it’s advisable to start small, in many ways, however, that does not negate the value of hiring an expert. I had a friend who started a small business and it seemed to be successful. Clients visited his restaurant often. One of the major problems for my friend is that his bookkeeping was not up to snuff. He knew very little about accounting practices, which ended up costing him quite a bit.
This business owner did not know how to budget their cash flow so they started using sales revenue to cover expenses. Eventually, this caught up with them, causing the business to collapse. He started another restaurant and it was thriving. But then, due to cash flow problems, the restaurant had to close its doors.
When he reached me for branding advice, I asked him a couple of questions and realised that the problem was not a branding problem, so I quickly referred him to a business development consultant to help him restructure his business.
You see, running a business, especially your own, is no small feat. It can be hard to know where to start, and you may think that you can handle everything by yourself. But when it comes to tax preparation, liability insurance, and other important decisions for your company’s growth, it pays to get an expert in the field.
Many small businesses try to cut costs by outsourcing their work to other countries or using cheap labor to save them time and money. However, the more they try to save, the more they end up spending. Many hidden costs come with hiring cheap labor such as poor quality and a lack of flexibility.
About a year ago, someone contacted me to help resolve a pending issue with their Amazon book publishing. The client’s Kindle book had not been published after a month and he was puzzled by the process. So, he found an expert to fix the issue. During a discussion with a colleague, I was mentioned and contacted.
Having been in the digital publishing space for more than ten years, I knew the ins and outs of the most common challenges that digital publishers faced. When I received the call from the client, I asked a few exploratory questions. I then asked for immediate access to their book publishing files and account.
When I accessed the account and diagnosed the problem, within 10 minutes, I resolved the issue she had been battling with for over a month, and the book got published in a few hours. The client was surprised that they got their solution so quickly.
Yeah, that’s the touch of an expert. If you consult or hire the right people for the right job, that will save you tons of time and money. I will admit that the solution wasn’t cheap, but it was well worth it.
Hiring someone to do a job for you that they’re suited for, rather than the type of person you want, is one of the best ways to save time and money. The client would have still been stuck trying to figure out the solution using “trial and error” methods, whereas just paying someone who knows how to do it best would have saved her from the hassle.
When Amartey approached me about releasing his book online, I was ecstatic. I offered him our expert book cover and layout design services, but he declined. His justification is that he knows a graphic designer who can do it at a reasonable price.
So, I explained the difference between a Graphic Designer who only does general creatives and a Book Cover Design Expert who understands how book covers affect book sales.
He went ahead and used the low-cost designer from Newtown, spending only $10.
He had his book published with a horrible cover that he was completely enamored with.
The book, on the other hand, did not do well in both print and online sales.
The design was a major contributing component.
What’s more, a professional book cover might cost anything from $350 to $1000.
Yes, Coralie Bickford-Smith of Penguin Books and Isaac Clad, one of Ghana’s best Cover Designers will not settle for anything less for a professional cover design.
There is always a price to pay for not hiring an expert or authority in any field. When you hire a professional, they will know best practices, time-saving shortcuts, and tips for getting things done that will dramatically increase your productivity.
It’s unfortunate but true. If you hire an expert for x amount, others in the same field will offer their services for less because there are always competing expert providers for any given service. But the question is will it be worth it?
I leave that for you to decide.
The question is, you will and ready to pay the price?
Let’s talk…
Bernard is an Author, Speaker and Corporate Trainer. Africa’s foremost authority on Personal Branding and Digital Book Publishing. An Amazon bestselling author of over 50 published books.
As a speaker & trainer he has been known to simplify complex ideas about branding and life and present them to audiences in clear, actionable steps. He has over a decade experience in digital publishing and has globally consulted for entrepreneurs, pastors, and people like you to write books and build brands.
He hosts the number one ranked Career & Business Podcast in Ghana. Bernard is a brand strategist at BKC consulting and runs the monthly Branding & Publishing Masterclass. visit www.BKC.name
