I'll give you a "for instance". As I was planning my product mix and break-even points in more detail today, I decided to offer an assessment via my website, and this was going to require an e-commerce solution.
As I have been starting Auspex up on a (very) limited budget, I have been searching for as many open-source and free options as possible, provided that they don't detract from the company's image. I was able to purchase my web domain and hosting through Go Daddy and ended paying less than $4 per month. I designed the website myself and created all of the images. E-commerce, though, was beyond my purview to create, so I had to seek some other options.
CoolerSmart uses osCommerce, so I figured that I would check that out. It is open-source and free, so provided that it worked properly, the price was right. I downloaded it and started the process of getting it uploaded, something that I figured would be a relatively pain-free process.
I was wrong.
I'm not sure if it was simply an issue with the way that I uploaded it, or there are issues between osCommerce and Go Daddy, but things did not go as smoothly as planned. I spent the majority of my afternoon trying to get the system up and running (while multi-tasking with more break-even analysis and updating Facebook). I went about fixing it several ways, but to no avail. I think that I will have to bring in some outside help on this one.
As I was trying to suss out the issues with the application, it dawned on me that most people will probably just go ahead and either pay for some kind of solution so that they don't have to think about it, or delegate this responsibility to an out-sourced firm. While I can understand the appeal in this, of getting the additional benefits of more time and fewer headaches (hopefully), I think that from my perspective as a budding entrepreneur that by passing this along to someone else I would miss out on a valuable learning experience. Not to mention, I can keep my bottom line down.
I want, nay, need, to know how things work. Its really the only way that things make sense to me, and if I don't, I feel genuinely uncomfortable. I, at the very least, need to have a basic working knowledge of something to have that discomfort to dissapate.
Part of it is my Type A, controlling side that just doesn't like to cede responsibility or control to anyone, something that I have to attempt to overcome almost daily to be effective. The other side is that I want to be able to have an intellegent discussion with someone should I ever have to have someone take over that responsibility. Its probably a trust issue.
I know, as I attempt to teach all of the managers that take my courses, that one of the tennants of management is being able to get work done through others, through solid delegation. At this stage, however, with it only being me wearing all of the hats, I relish the ability to learn so much about all aspects of the business. I know that eventually, I will probably have to begin begging off some of the responsibility of running every aspect of Auspex (if I don't, then I'm in real trouble); if an when that day comes, I think that I will be better for the experience and be able to avoid other pitfalls later when they could potentially cost more.
Oh, and I still get to keep that bottom line down.
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