Many tools look the same, but not all tools cost the same, work the same in all situations or work the same. Consider the photo above with various sizes and types of drill bits. Some are meant for drilling pilot holes in wood, some are for concrete, others for high speed and some for low speed situations. They are made of steel, titanium, and various other alloys.
I just need to hang a picture
If you know you need to drill a hole. How do you decide which drill bit to purchase? Naturally, you can hit Google and try to find more about the drill bits. Once you find out the brand names, you can check out the vendor websites to see what the various properties are. There are also blogs about drills, drilling and drill bits you have available and which work best for what you want to drill. But when push comes to shove, you'll simply have to try some of them to see if they work the way you want.
Buy the tool, or buy experience with the tool?
If the walls behind your picture frames at home look anything like mine, you'll probably see some pencil outlining the "horizontal line" and several trial holes before I actually hit the wooden stud in the wall. Those first few drill holes and YouTube videos prepared me for my most superior drilling experience. What I didn't take in to account was the value of a stud-finder and a laser level. The stud-finder would have saved my walls from extra holes in my wall. A laser level would have made it so I didn't need to mark up with my walls.
To be honest, if I think about it, it's a job I can do myself. And, the picture frame hides the imperfections of my handyman skills. Could I see myself hiring someone in to do it? Probably not. I mean, the picture is hung. And, as I said the photo's covering the wall, so to me it's not a big enough problem for me to dole out cash.
but, don't forget about...
The time I start to have "builder's remorse" in handling my handyman project is when I go about selling the place. Those pictures come down, and now I have a problem. If I start with an eraser to remove the pencil, I probably notice more paint on the eraser than the wall at this point. Then, I find that filling those nasty little holes is a bit of a nightmare - plaster, sanding, repainting that doesn't colour match. Now, I am feeling the pain. And, after all, these hands are delicate "hands of business," not meant for such hands-on tasks that demand dexterity! Did I mention the mess!
In the future...
Now knowing this, I find it very important to hire-in a professional as I take possession of my new place. The fella shows up and doesn't even bring a drill. With the flick of a wrist, he's inserted some oval metal hook thing into my new walls at my new place.
And, in my mind, I'm thinking that 5 minutes of work is worth 5 minutes of pay, and then I see a bill for an hour of service and I am not afraid to say I'm a bit shocked.
We've all been there
This story is a bit hypothetical, but not too far from the truth. The fact is when we look at problems in business, we tend to go through a similar process.
When we hire a professional, we are buying into the tools they bring to the job, for sure. But since they are experts (or at least very experienced) in a specific area or areas, we are able to get value simply from their knowledge of what has and what hasn't worked for others. In my story, I found out that I didn't even need a drill or a drill bit. I'm sure at some point I could have meandered my way to the same conclusion, but that's kind of the point? Hiring a professional, I didn't have to meander. Some bloke shows up with the solution in hand.
Speaking of which. I'm not going to let just any bloke in my house.
There's a good deal of straining and stress that goes into my buying process. My #1 concern is the "hassle factor"... If it's at all more complicated than it has to be, I will resent buying that product or service. My # 2 concern is the uncomfortable position of being "sold" on new / extra things, because I will personally never make a snap, on-the-spot buy decision (with some exceptions). Give me a flyer, fine, but I'm more inclined to do my research in advance and decide later.
Bring your data to life
There are many benefits that come from working with a professional services company, like AnyKey. Sure, we bring the tools, know-how and that's not a surprise or anything different than the other companies you could select.
What drives our passion is seeing those "a-ha" moments when you can do something new that you couldn't before. Perhaps a part of that comes from the way we try to keep things simple, and are trying to keep the hassle factor to a minimum and empower you to do more and not go for the hard-sell. That's just not our way.
The next time you are considering a data platform or data related project, we hope you will consider AnyKey, for a different experience. We hope you will find us to be the best tool for your job.