💡 The 3-hour Build vs Buy assessment

A simple assessment I use to decide when to build something myself and when to buy it off the shelf

The 3-hour Build vs. Buy assessment is a simple rule that I made up.

The rule states that 3 hours is the smallest reasonable investment of time needed to assess your ability to set up a new system with which you have zero familiarity.

If, after 3 hours, you manage to research and get something working to 80% functionality or more, then it’s worth completing the job on your own.

If however, you can’t manage 80% of it in 3 hours, then its a sign that you should strongly consider buying this thing off the shelf (if possible) or just hire someone on Fiverr to build it for you.

I used the 3-hour build vs. buy assessment in this playbook when deciding to build an automated swag store.