Every business owner reaches this point. Marketing is eating your evenings, you're not sure it's working, and someone on LinkedIn has offered to "take it all off your plate" for a monthly fee. Is it worth it?
Sometimes yes, sometimes no — and usually the best answer is somewhere in between. The trick is to stop thinking "me or them" and start thinking "which jobs are worth my time, and which aren't?"
Start with three honest questions
If you have time and skill but little money, do it yourself. If you have money but no time, get help. Most people are somewhere in the middle — which is why mixing the two usually works best.
It's not just "me or an agency"
There are five realistic ways to get your marketing done. Each suits a different stage and budget.
What to keep — and what to hand over first
Some parts of marketing need you. Others just need skill and time. Keep the parts nobody else can do as well, and outsource the skilled, time-hungry tasks.
- Deciding who you're for and what you offer
- Showing your face and personality
- Replying to customers and reviews
- Sharing stories from the business
- Approving anything that goes out
- Website design and build
- Logos and graphic design
- Video editing
- Running paid ads
- Technical SEO
- Polishing important copy
Work out the true cost of doing it yourself
"Doing it myself is free" is the most expensive myth in small business. Every hour you spend struggling with a design app is an hour you're not serving customers, quoting jobs or resting.
Put a value on your hour — what you could earn doing paid work in that time — and compare. If paying someone £300 frees up ten hours you could bill at £50, you're £200 better off and the work is probably done better. Use the calculator below to run your own numbers.
How to hire well
The difference between a great and a terrible hire usually comes down to how you start.
- Write a clear brief with goals, budget and what success looks like (template below).
- Ask for results, not just a portfolio: "What happened to sales or enquiries for a similar client?"
- Start with a small paid trial or a short project before committing to anything long.
- Agree what you'll measure and how often they'll report, in plain English.
- Keep ownership of your website, domain, social accounts and ad accounts — always in your name.
- Check the notice period and avoid long lock-in contracts at the start.
Red flags to watch for
- Guaranteed Google rankings or a promised number of followers
- Reports full of likes and impressions but nothing about enquiries or sales
- Setting up your accounts in their name rather than yours
- Pressure to sign a 12-month contract before you've seen any results
- Lots of jargon and very few straight answers
Why a hybrid approach usually wins
For most small businesses, the sweet spot is splitting the work. You own the strategy, the personality and the customer relationships. A specialist handles the skilled, time-heavy jobs: the website, the ads, the editing.
List every marketing task you did last month and how long it took. Highlight anything that took over two hours and that a specialist would do better. That's your first thing to outsource.
Keep the parts only you can do. Pay for the parts someone else does better and faster.
The true cost calculator
Compare what DIY really costs with what help would cost, including the time you'd still spend managing it.
Doing it yourself
Hiring help
Uses 4.33 weeks per month. "True cost" adds the value of your time to anything you pay. Hiring cost subtracts what you'd earn from freed-up hours. It doesn't account for quality — a specialist may also get better results.
Copy the brief template
Send this to any freelancer or agency before they quote. It saves time and gets you more accurate prices.
- About usWhat we do, who for, and what makes us different.
- The jobExactly what we need help with (e.g. run Facebook ads, redesign our homepage).
- The goalWhat we want to happen (e.g. 15 enquiries a month from local homeowners).
- Our customerWho we're trying to reach and what they care about.
- BudgetMonthly fee range, plus any ad spend.
- TimelineWhen we'd like to start and any deadlines.
- ReportingWhat we want to see each month (enquiries, sales, cost per customer).
- OwnershipAll accounts, files and logins stay in our business's name.
The bottom line: DIY isn't free, and hiring isn't magic. Keep the parts that need you — strategy, personality and customer relationships — and outsource the skilled, time-heavy tasks. Run the numbers, start small, keep your accounts in your name and judge every hire on results, not reports.