Opportunity Cost: Doing it yourself can cost you
When you’re just starting your business, you’re likely to be hypersensitive to every penny spent. Cost-cutting and shrewd spending are hallmarks of smart business, but it is possible to go too far.
Often, new business owners are focused so intently on the bank account, that they forget there are other resources to consider. The one that is most overlooked is time.
There are so many tasks you can accomplish by yourself. Each one of them costs you precious time that you could be spending on other things (like making your game or exercising self-care). This concept is called “opportunity cost,” and we discuss it at length in The GameDev Business Handbook.
Let’s be honest. You started your business to make games. You’d rather be making games than handling administrative tasks, right? In fact, you might not be terribly good at the other things, and doing them may cost you more time than you can otherwise afford. Remember, your time has value, too!
Here are a few things to consider paying someone else instead of doing it yourself:
Basic accounting and bill paying
You should absolutely know how much money you have in your account, and you should always check in to make sure your cash is being handled appropriately. But when it comes to paying recurring bills and filing your taxes, you might want to bring on someone to assist. If you’re lucky, you might find the perfect person to bring on full-time when your business can support it!
Legal services
Don’t be your own attorney. It’s true that you can find templates for contracts and employment agreements online. Without an attorney’s assistance though, you could end up signing something that doesn’t mean what you think or is entirely unenforceable. It’s worth it to have your sensitive legal matters handled correctly.
Public and press relations
PR is more than press releases. You’ve spent so much time and effort building your game. It would be great if people played it. Sure, you can probably cobble together a press release and send a couple of emails, but public and press relations is much more than that. You can read more about effective PR in The GameDev Business Handbook.
