For every business there comes a time when you need to consider outsourcing some of your operations, even if they are things you can do. After running businesses for years, and trying to accomplish all of the tasks in house we would run in to obstacles, lack the time, energy, and would put things off for too long.
After some time we found we needed to look for resources to solve these obstacles. The decision to outsource your IT comes with understanding your business and generating the most value with your resources. We speak with Alex Fields who recently outsourced an IT project on why he made the decision to outsource and the outcome.
Video Transcription
Harry Brelsford
Hey nation nation back with Alex Fields, our favorite no mad analysts. So every time we talk to you, you're somewhere different. Where are you today? And what are you doing?
Alex Fields
I am in a little town called Swan Valley in Idaho, which is just a few miles from the border of Wyoming. So I'm like 35 minute drive from Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. And also pretty close to Idaho Falls. So right between those areas right on the border there. And it is just gorgeous here. Just completely Beautiful.
Harry Brelsford
Absolutely. I I'll tell her myself, my freshman year of college, I ski raced at Montana State University in Bozeman cross country skiing and we used to go to West Yellowstone to train and race. So I know a little bit about the REIT love it know little bit about the region's spinning air there.
Alex Fields
That's great, too. I've got I've got a good friend in Bozeman. So yeah, it's a great,
Harry Brelsford
no, congratulations. So we're circling back to you as an analyst. And you told me that you have had a look in the mirror about when to outsource your own technology, activities, and you are a geek, so what's going on?
Alex Fields
Yeah, you know, it's, it's one of those things, it's kind of difficult for me to because I've always been sort of the solopreneur. You know, like, I It's not that I don't get along with people or anything like that. I just really like working alone. I just really, really like it. And I usually just tried to do 100% Everything myself, and I outsource very little, you know, or only when absolutely necessary. But, you know, I was looking at my website. And when I first set up IT Pro mentor.com This is probably like six years ago now or something, you know, that I just basically took a template off the internet, right? I just like the setup wizard for WordPress, like next next, I like that one, you know, pick the middle one. Alright, let's go. And so I just just to get things up and going just so I could write and I've been doing that for like six years, and I've never given it a facelift or anything. And I decided like, you know, it's probably time like I don't even have a logo. I don't have an official it printed logo yet, I should probably work on this, you know, and like maybe add some professionalism to the site. And as well, you know, I've gotten some feedback where people are like, I really like your guides on Gumroad. I really like your courses on teachable, but it's really confusing because I have logins to different things to go different places to get stuff. And couldn't we consolidate this, you know? And I'm like, yeah, there's a lot of problems I need to solve here. And I just I need to up the professionalism a little bit. And I probably could have because I'm a tech geek, I probably could have figured out the WordPress back end and figured out some some things and, you know, learn how to connect some of these platforms together or whatever. But I just decided that like, it wasn't really worth my time in a way because yeah, I have so many really objects I'm working on. Couldn't do it all. So, you know, for the amount of hours that would have had to put in, I think it would just made a lot more sense for me to, you know, go with a web developer. So that's what I did. I spent some time looking for web developer, I got some references from friends. And, you know, I eventually picked a guy named Brian who Dec who is in the Chicago area, actually. And he's been fantastic. It's just been so nice to work with a professional who really knows WordPress in and out who really understands graphic design, who really understands branding and stuff like that. And so, yeah, look for some big changes soon. It's gonna be it's gonna be awesome.
Harry Brelsford
Yeah, no, that's great. Yeah, you're always up to something. So two thoughts. One is, I was that guy like you in the early SMB Nation days, we tried to do everything in house and it it just wasn't a core competency. Right. And it took me far too long to realize, you know, you need to use outside resources, right? Yeah.
Alex Fields
I struggle with the same thing. Totally. And I'm not a web developer. It's not what I do. Right. So
Harry Brelsford
no. And then now, I'll say it again. I am that guy that I am now an outside resource to a couple of entities doing hopefully what I do best, I mean, no offense, but content development and writing and I did the bucks right. I quite frankly, I kind of got it down. Yeah, totally, totally. And I think I've showed you are certainly the readers but last winter, not this winter, I ghost wrote a book for a data center CEO Scott Lopez in Austin. It's your basic dummies book. Right. And you handed out at the booth. Alex, I really enjoyed it. It's working alone. I'm sitting here doing what I do best. I played Public Radio, the music station over here on the sound speaker. And I'm like, Yeah, I'm making a living. Are you kidding me? Making a living? Great. Well, hey, brother, we're gonna check in with you next quarter. Lord knows where you'll be and keep us posted on what the new projects are. Good All right thank you yeah