A quick review. We had squirrels living in our old house for months, I’m guessing 4 or 5 months. Late one summer I tried to evict them only to realize there were babies in there. It was at this point I decided to call in the pros.

Looking back, that decision went against my basic beliefs. In the end it cost me about $300 to get back to where I started, that being having squirrels in my roof I need evict. After having their entrance blocked, the squirrels simply found a new way into the roof and the company I paid only guarantees that the squirrels won’t come back in the hole they “fixed”. Next step was to purchase the same trap the company used online for $30 and do the work myself. In the end I had to block three more exits which would have cost me well over a thousand dollars with the ‘pros’.

So what was the belief I violated? That if something has any value then do it yourself. That doesn’t mean I have to do everything myself but it does mean that I don’t call rodent removal people out of ignorance. No one cares about our home as much as we do and no one cares about your business either. Companies inevitably learn this lesson around outsourcing in general. Be honest with yourself and tred cautiously if you’re outsourcing because you lack knowledge or experience. If it’s an area that’s core to your business in anyway then keep the experiences close to you and don’t ever outsource it. If it’s not a core area then at least do it yourself once or twice before you hand it off. You’ll make better decisions all around by having the experience of having done it.

Speaking from the other side, the good service providers out there will appreciate your understanding for what they do. It allows you both to get working faster and get deeper to the good stuff.

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 2nd, 2010 at 10:16 am and is filed under Software Development. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.