I found myself in conversation the other day with a woman who was frustrated that her condo association was considering hiring a professional management company. “Why should we pay someone else all that money when we can just do it ourselves?” she said somewhat angrily.
I don’t know that much about condo associations or professional management companies, but I suggested that maybe a professional manager would have more knowledge and experience than the volunteers in her association have. “Pshaw,” she said. (That’s really what she said!) “Isn’t all of that knowledge on the internet now? Can’t we just go online and find out whatever we need to know?”
This line of reasoning was a little amusing to me, since it was coming from a woman who doesn’t even own a computer, but I agreed that the internet does make a vast ocean of knowledge accessible to everyone. “It’s true,” I told her. “If I wanted to change my own oil, I’m sure I could do it. I could Google it, and find a YouTube video, and watch all the steps, and figure it out, and do it myself. The knowledge is available, and I’m perfectly capable.
“But, frankly, it’s worth it to me to pay someone else to do it. Someone who has all the equipment, and all the experience. Someone who can do the job better and faster than I can. It’s worth it to me to pay a professional.”
“Well, that’s true,” she said.
Maybe you don’t need a writer
The same argument applies to writing. You can do it yourself. You know how to write. You learned it in grade school! You’ve been doing it all your life!
Why hire a professional?
I understand. You can do it yourself. The knowledge is available.
But for those of you who don’t want to sort through Google results each time you need to use its or it’s, you might find it’s worth it to hire a professional.
(I’m just a click away.)
Related:
• Cost and value
• Poor writing costs
My late mother’s condo association went through management companies like water. They finally created their own board who hired the landscapers, snow removers, painters, etc. But… they had a team of experts living in their building of 24 units. My mother was the board secretary (she was a former legal secretary for a State senator and purchasing agent in her day), another resident was the board treasurer, she was a retired CPA, and a young lawyer and a construction manager were also on the Association team. That worked well for about 12 years, until some became too aged (my mom did kept the position for the entire time she lived there, 14 years, and she was 81 when she retired and moved to HH). When Mom retired, they decided then to hire the management company to handle everything. All the association board had to do then was manage the management company. They did end up saving a lot of money; however when the expertise started dwindling, so did the care of the buildings. Something to think about.
Yeah, you have to find the right balance of knowing what you CAN do, knowing what you WANT to do, and deciding whether you’d rather spend TIME or MONEY to get something done the way you want.