Build it or Buy it?
Are you wasting time and money building something for your business that already exists and works? Are you telling yourself it’s better or cheaper to “DIY” when you could be using an off-the-shelf solution today? In this episode I share stories of businesses who got stuck building from scratch, only to realize they could have saved endless hours and headaches by just buying well-made tools that already exist. I tackle the real price of customization, what’s really at stake when you wait, and why satisfaction or “saving a few bucks” might not be worth the cost and lost opportunities.
Listen to this new 9-minute episode for clarity on whether you should build or buy, and how using ready-made solutions could save you critical time and money.
If you have any questions about anything in this, or any of my podcasts, or have a suggestion for a topic or guest, please reach out directly to me at [email protected] or visit my website Podcast.AlanBerg.com
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View the full transcript on Alan’s site: https://alanberg.com/blog/
Episode Summary
In this episode, I dive deep into the age-old question faced by every business owner: Should I build it myself or just buy it? I share my personal experiences from working at a large company that attempted to build its own CRM system from scratch, resulting in months of wasted time and unnecessary complications, only to ultimately revert to using an established solution. I explain how, with advancements in technology and the proliferation of AI tools, the temptation to create custom solutions is greater than ever, but I also highlight the hidden pitfalls—especially when it comes to ongoing maintenance, scalability and troubleshooting.
I break down scenarios where building your own solution may make sense, such as when your needs are truly unique and nothing comparable exists. However, I emphasize that more often than not, there’s an existing tool or software that can be customized to fit your requirements, saving both time and money. I use practical examples from my own business, discussing platforms like Zoho One and how layers built on top of existing software can provide powerful, industry-specific solutions without the headache of starting from zero.
Throughout the episode, I encourage listeners to consider the true cost of DIY—factoring in lost hours, ongoing support, and the potential lost revenue from not deploying a tool quickly. I also talk about the importance of leveraging virtual assistants and existing AI tools rather than reinventing the wheel. Ultimately, I urge you to look in the mirror and honestly assess whether trying to save a few bucks is really costing you much more in the long run. The goal is for you to focus your energy on what drives your business forward, using your time and resources as strategically as possible.
Build it or buy it? Where are we going with this one? Listen to this episode and find out. Hey, it’s Alan Berg. Welcome back to another episode of the Wedding Business Solutions podcast. This bubbled up for me again recently. Build it or buy it? And this is things in your life and in your business where sometimes it’s better off to just build it yourself, and then sometimes it’s better to buy it because it’s already there. And I’ve seen this a few times lately. With AI stuff, with CRMs and things like that, other software for your business. Because, you know, it’s easy these days to create things, especially with AI, with vibe coding and stuff like that.
But the problem comes in with the maintenance and other parts of that. See, if you have AI build something for you and you don’t understand how it works, then you’re relying on AI to fix what it did. And there’s a lot of information out there about how the coding that AI does. Yeah, it has coding, it’ll work, but it’s not clean coding. It can be what they call dirty coding.
But let me go back. Let me do a little history on you here. I was working for a big company and we didn’t have a CRM system, a customer relation management system. And I suggested that we go to, actually at the time it was gonna be Salesforce ’cause they were the big one. They’re still big, one of the big ones, if not the biggest one right now, because we could be up and running very quickly and it could be customized. We’d have to pay for customization, but we could do it.
But the bigwigs had been burned in a previous time about using somebody else’s stuff, and then the company went out of business. I was like, yeah, but if you go to the big company here, I think we’re pretty safe with that. And they insisted on building it themselves. Well, 18 months of my life later and their lives later, we still didn’t have one because there was so much stuff they were trying to do from scratch that already existed. All the voices that came in from all the different departments were turning this thing into a Frankenstein.
Instead of starting with something clean and then getting the modules we needed and the customization we needed, they were trying to build this thing from scratch. And we could have been using one for 18 months. And actually it was longer than that because they didn’t end up having one for years after that. And then I believe they ended up going with Salesforce, which is kind of ironic.
But the same thing is happening now with AI, with AI agents and things like that. Can you do it yourself? Maybe, right? I was talking to somebody about an AI agent. They were talking about having it built, you know, to respond to their inquiries and things. So I was like, that exists already.
Like VenueX AI is—I know I’m consulting with that company, full disclosure, right?—but that exists already and you don’t have to build it. As a matter of fact, there’s way more to it than just that part. And that’s another thing. If you build this one thing, you still don’t have the other modules and things you’ll have to put on it. And how much money is it gonna take you? And how much time is it gonna take you to build that thing?
There’s another one I’m gonna be talking more about ’cause I’ve been testing it for a while called TheTop, T-H-E-T-O-P. And somebody was telling me how they were building an AI that would, you know, tell them what’s going on in their email or tell ’em what’s going on in their calendar and things like that and show ’em what’s important and not. I said, it already exists.
Already exists. And it’s, I think, either $15 or $30 a month depending upon the level, which is nothing, like a dollar a day. A dollar a day. I go in this thing—again, I’ll talk more about it later—but I go in this and instead of going to my email, I go to this app at the top and it has already prioritized everything, told me what’s happened while I’ve been on this podcast or while I was doing that four-hour workshop or while I was busy all day at a conference and wasn’t checking my phone. I was gonna say wasn’t able to, but better answer is I wasn’t because I needed to be present where I was.
And it already exists. So could you build it yourself? Yeah. Would you have some satisfaction? Maybe. But you would have also lost hours and hours and hours of your life building something that exists.
So sometimes it’s worth building it yourself if it’s so custom and so unusual and it does not exist already. But if something already exists, now you just have to find the one that you can customize for what your needs are.
I use Zoho One. It’s a whole system of CRM, emailing, calendar, appointments. What else? It’s got—I could do event tickets if I wanted to in there. I could do my bookkeeping in there if I wanted—all these things. They replaced a whole bunch of things that I was doing separately, put ’em all in one place.
And the reason I chose it was because there was a company—it is a company—called SpeakerFlow, and they created this layer on top of it that was already customized for speakers. And I held off for a while on it because, you know, I always say when you’re comparing it with zero, every number looks big. So I wasn’t using anything now, so everything looked big.
And I talked to a bunch of speaker friends and they were just raving about what it did. I said, well, tell me what it’s doing for you. Tell me how it’s saving you time. Tell me how it’s saving you money. Tell me how it’s making you money.
And then finally I was like, wow, okay, yeah. And I paid upfront money to have this thing and transfer all the information from my previous CRM, which was Salesforce, over to this and other things, but it’s so customized for me and for speakers that to build this from scratch would’ve cost me way, way more money and way, way more time.
So build it or buy it, right? You have to ask yourself that. Again, if it’s something that doesn’t exist, fine. Now sometimes you have the skill, but you should still buy it because of the time that would take to get it done, right?
I’m a DIY guy. I love DIY stuff. If you’re looking at the video here, the reason I’m wearing a hat when you never see me in a hat is because of the three stitches in my head from a repair that I did, and I will not be doing garage door repair again. That’s a whole separate story.
That’s why I’m wearing a hat, so you don’t see the bandage and the stitches over there. I love doing DIY stuff because I get pleasure from it. It’s not the money savings, it’s the pleasure. I installed a new security system in our house. I used to install security systems before I was in this industry, a long, long, long, long time ago. Completely different. This is all wireless. That was all wired, right? But I understand the concept.
But for me, there’s a personal satisfaction in that, and I have the time to do it. I wasn’t taking that time away from a money-making thing. You could say that anything I do is taking time away from a money-making thing, but I look at my business differently. I know the time that I could spend on this.
But then there’s other things, right? Like after I came back from urgent care, I called the garage door repair guy and had him come and do that. We have solar panels on our house and I’m not going up on the roof to go check and see what’s going on with them. I will pay somebody for those things, right? But I couldn’t build that myself. That wasn’t even possible.
But you have to ask yourself in your business, what are you doing that you could be paying somebody else to do, or that already exists? Like, virtual assistants have existed for a long time. I have a virtual assistant, and as much as I use AI, I still have a virtual assistant to do certain things, some of which they’re using AI for. Right? And matter of fact, I gave them the tools to use it for AI, and I’m okay with that.
And I’m okay that it takes them less time to do something because they’re using AI, because I pay for the results, not for the time that they’re taking to do it. But some of those things that we’re using on AI, never even thought about building them because they existed already and the tools are there and they’re going to keep adding and updating those things. Would not make any sense to do that.
And so many of the people that I meet are doing things or thinking about doing things that make no sense for you to be trying to build when it exists. Now, yes, might that include a monthly charge when you would’ve had no monthly charge or a smaller monthly charge? Yeah, but the time that you’re gonna be using it when it would take to build it, right? If it’ll take you six months or a year to build something that you could’ve been using, you make more money from that than it will cost you. Just doesn’t make sense.
So, you know, again, build it or buy it. Ask yourself that. Look in the mirror and say to yourself, all right, am I just trying to save a few bucks? But would I be better off being able to use this tomorrow instead of not now for six months or a year to get this right in the way I want it? And then who knows if it would even be right? And then who’s going to service it? Who’s going to fix it when it breaks?
I like being able to contact somebody when something breaks and saying, you fix this, I’m going back to work. So think about that next time you’re thinking about something that has the option of build it or buy it. Think about what time savings matters to you, right? If I can use this thing right now, is that worth more to me than trying to find somebody to build this or building it myself? And then what am I not getting because of that time?
Thanks for listening.
I’m Alan Berg. Thanks for listening. If you have any questions about this or if you’d like to suggest other topics for “The Wedding Business Solutions Podcast” please let me know. My email is [email protected] or you can text, use the short form on this page, or call +1.732.422.6362, international 001 732 422 6362. I look forward to seeing you on the next episode. Thanks.
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Question
When should I build a tool for my business versus just buying one?
Tags:
#productivity #automation #software
Answer
If there’s already a tool that fits most of your needs, it’s usually smarter to buy it and customize, rather than build from scratch. Building your own takes much more time and can turn into a never-ending project. Focus your energy on running your business, not reinventing the wheel.
Takeaway: Use what’s proven—save custom builds for what doesn’t exist.
Question
What’s the hidden cost of building business tools yourself?
Tags:
#costs #technology #businessgrowth
Answer
Building from scratch eats up months or even years—plus, you’ll lose money, time, and momentum compared to getting started right away with an existing solution. Most of the time, you end up paying far more than the sticker price of an off-the-shelf option.
Takeaway: Time and opportunity lost are the real costs of DIY tools.
Question
Why shouldn’t I trust AI to build all my business solutions?
Tags:
#AI #technology #automation
Answer
AI can generate tools quickly, but if you don’t understand what it builds, you’ll rely on AI to fix issues too. Many AI-generated systems end up with messy code, making future tweaks and upkeep much harder for you.
Takeaway: Quick AI builds today may become maintenance headaches tomorrow.
Question
How do I know if building something myself is really worth it?
Tags:
#productivity #decisionmaking #businessgrowth
Answer
If your needs are truly unique and nothing out there fits, building might make sense. But for most tasks, you’re better off buying—unless you have the time, expertise, and it won’t distract you from making money elsewhere.
Takeaway: Only build from scratch if you truly can’t buy it.
Question
What’s the danger of trying to build a customized system internally?
Tags:
#projectmanagement #technology #crm
Answer
When you build in-house, everyone wants their own features built in, turning a simple idea into a Frankenstein project. The result? Delays, spiraling costs, and usually, you end up going back to a ready-made solution anyway.
Takeaway: Too many voices on a DIY project create chaos, not efficiency.
Question
Should cost savings be the main reason to build instead of buy?
Tags:
#costs #decisionmaking
Answer
Trying to save a few bucks often ends up costing more when you factor in lost time, extra work, and fixing unforeseen problems. You’ll rarely come out ahead with DIY on cost alone.
Takeaway: Small upfront savings can lead to big hidden losses.
Question
Is there ever a good reason to build it myself?
Tags:
#customization #businessstrategy
Answer
If you get real personal satisfaction or have a hobbyist interest—and you’re not taking time from profit-generating work—building can make sense. Just be honest about whether it’s about passion or results.
Takeaway: Build for joy, buy for business impact.
Question
What’s a smarter way to approach customization in business tools?
Tags:
#customization #software #productivity
Answer
Look for existing platforms you can customize instead of starting from scratch. Many systems let you add features or buy pre-built add-ons made for your industry, letting you get started faster.
Takeaway: Customize proven systems instead of inventing your own.
Question
Why is speed to implementation so important?
Tags:
#efficiency #growth #automation
Answer
Getting a ready-made tool means you can start benefiting tomorrow—instead of waiting months or years to finish a project. That head start is often worth more than any potential savings from building yourself.
Takeaway: Act fast—opportunity rewards those who move quickly.
Question
What are the maintenance risks when building your own systems?
Tags:
#technology #maintenance #riskmanagement
Answer
Homemade systems become your responsibility. When something breaks, you or your team are on the line to fix it. With a bought solution, you can usually hand those headaches to the vendor and get right back to business.
Takeaway: Offload tech headaches to stay focused on what matters.
Question
How does using pre-built tools affect my bottom line?
Tags:
#ROI #profitability #tools
Answer
Using a tool that already exists lets you make money right away or save time immediately, which usually outweighs whatever monthly fee you pay. You can hustle while others are still tinkering.
Takeaway: Fast results always beat slow perfection.
Question
What’s the opportunity cost of building it yourself?
Tags:
#opportunitycost #productivity
Answer
Every hour you spend building is an hour you’re not serving clients, finding leads, or growing your business. That missed revenue is usually much higher than the savings from doing it yourself.
Takeaway: Value your time as highly as your money.
Question
Why do business owners overestimate DIY solutions?
Tags:
#decisionmaking #businessgrowth
Answer
It’s easy to believe building it yourself is “cheaper” when you’re comparing to zero. But once you add up real costs and lost opportunities, DIY usually falls short.
Takeaway: Don’t let sticker shock blind you to bigger business costs.
Question
Is it smart to outsource certain business tasks even if I could do them myself?
Tags:
#outsourcing #productivity
Answer
If outsourcing something lets you focus on your strengths or keeps you making money, do it—even if you have the skills to do it yourself. Your time is most valuable on high-impact tasks.
Takeaway: Outsource routine so you can focus on revenue.
Question
How do I balance DIY satisfaction with running my business?
Tags:
#DIY #worklifebalance #priorities
Answer
If you enjoy hands-on work and it relaxes you, carve out time for those projects—but make sure it doesn’t distract from revenue-generating activities or bigger priorities.
Takeaway: Make room for hobbies, but don’t let them hijack your business.
Question
Will buying tools mean more monthly expenses than building myself?
Tags:
#budgeting #software #productivity
Answer
Yes, you may have an ongoing fee. But weigh that against how much faster you can go, how much money you make using it, and the headache you avoid trying to maintain your own system.
Takeaway: Ongoing costs are investments if they free up your growth.
Question
How have you personally decided whether to build or buy?
Tags:
#businessgrowth #decisionmaking
Answer
I always ask: How much time will building this take? What money am I leaving on the table while I wait? If I can buy something and use it right away—even for a price—I do it and get back to work.
Takeaway: Choose momentum over perfection.
Question
When does it make sense to let others maintain your business systems?
Tags:
#technology #outsourcing #efficiency
Answer
I’d rather pay someone else to handle maintenance and fixes so I can stay focused. When something breaks, I want to call support— not roll up my sleeves and lose hours fixing it.
Takeaway: Delegate what drains your time and energy.
Question
What’s your advice for using AI and virtual assistants together?
Tags:
#AI #virtualassistant #productivity
Answer
I use both. AI is great for speeding up certain tasks, but a real assistant brings creativity and human judgment. Together, they let me get more done without having to do it all myself.
Takeaway: Combine tech and people for best results.
Question
What mistake do you see business owners make with new technology?
Tags:
#technology #mistakes #productivity
Answer
Too many chase the excitement of building something new or custom, ignoring how much time, energy, and money gets lost. Instead, look for proven tools that free up your time right away.
Takeaway: Excitement fades—efficiency pays off consistently.
Question
How can being present improve your workflow?
Tags:
#productivity #focus #mindset
Answer
I use tools that prioritize my tasks, so I can focus on being present at events and meetings instead of always checking email. The right system handles the small stuff so I don’t have to.
Takeaway: Let systems manage noise so you stay focused.
