When you're building a business from the ground up—whether it's a side hustle, a solo creative venture, or your first official brand—it’s tempting to start outsourcing right away. Maybe you’ve heard you need to “delegate to grow,” or you just want help handling the things you don’t love doing. But before you start handing off your hard-earned dollars, there’s a step that often gets skipped: investing in yourself first.

Master the Basics Before You Hire Help

In The Richest Man in Babylon, George S. Clason shares timeless lessons about growing wealth wisely. One of the book’s key teachings is to invest in knowledge before spending or risking your gold. In modern terms? Learn how to manage and understand your business before paying others to run parts of it.

If you hire someone to build your website, manage your inbox, or run your marketing without understanding the basics yourself, it’s easy to overspend—or worse, end up with results that don’t match your goals.

Start With What You Can Learn Quickly

You don’t need to become an expert in everything. But learning just enough to be dangerous (in a good way) helps you stay in control. That might mean taking a free workshop on email marketing, learning how to update your website, or testing out your own sales process before bringing in help.

These skills are like Clason’s “purse that stays full”—they give you the power to make smarter decisions and protect your budget.

Your Time Is Valuable—But So Is Your Growth

Eventually, yes—outsourcing is incredibly helpful. But if you’re still figuring out your offers, your audience, or your messaging, investing in your own clarity is the best first step. It leads to better results when you do outsource, because you’ll know what to ask for and how to measure success.

Final Thoughts

The most successful business owners didn’t start by delegating everything. They started by learning enough to grow with confidence. Before you pay someone else to do the work, invest in the skills and knowledge that help you lead well. It’s an investment that pays off long after the task is done.

 

This article is part of our Business Coaching blog series. At Dataczar we talk to a lot of small businesses. We’ve found a few books that we keep recommending time and again. To better help our customers, we’ve added a Reading List for Small Businesses to our website. We encourage every small business owner to read and keep these timeless business books on their office shelf.

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