It takes me about two hours to edit a short video clip. I'm not fast at it, I don't particularly enjoy it, and the result is usually fine but not great.

An editor costs roughly $100 for the same clip. They're faster, they're better at it, and the result is noticeably more polished.

So the question becomes: is my hour worth more than $50?

The Basic Math

This is the calculation most founders skip when they're doing everything themselves. They think "I can save money by doing it myself" without accounting for what that time actually costs.

If you're running a business, your time has a value. Maybe it's the revenue you could generate by doing sales calls. Maybe it's the features you could ship. Maybe it's the customer conversations you could have that would inform your product direction.

Whatever that value is, if it exceeds the cost of hiring someone to do a task, you're losing money by doing it yourself.

For content, this math shows up everywhere:

• Editing: 2-4 hours of your time vs. $50-150 to outsource
• Thumbnails: 30-60 minutes vs. $20-50
• Script writing: 1-2 hours vs. $30-100
• Scheduling and publishing: 30 minutes per platform vs. $15-30/hour for a VA

Add it up across a week of content and you might be spending 10+ hours on tasks that could cost you $300-500 to outsource entirely.

When the Math Changes

The calculation isn't always straightforward. A few situations where doing it yourself might still make sense:

You're just starting out. If your business isn't generating revenue yet, your time technically has no opportunity cost. There's nothing you'd be doing instead that would make money. In that case, doing it yourself saves cash you don't have.

You're learning the process. Before you can delegate something effectively, you need to understand it. Editing your first 10 videos teaches you what good editing looks like. Then you can actually evaluate whether an editor is doing a good job.

The task is core to your differentiation. If your content style is the thing that makes you unique, maybe you shouldn't outsource it. But this is rarer than people think. Most of what makes content good is the ideas and the delivery, not the editing.

Where We Draw the Line

At Clipflow, we've landed on a simple split:

We do: Ideation, scripting, recording. These are the parts that require us specifically. Our perspective, our voice, our experience.

We outsource: Editing, thumbnails, scheduling, repurposing. These are production tasks that anyone competent can do. They don't require our specific input.

This means on content day, we're focused entirely on creating. We're not context-switching into editor mode or thumbnail designer mode. We record, hand it off, and move on.

The result is that content day stays contained. It doesn't bleed into Tuesday and Wednesday because we're still editing Monday's video.

The Hidden Cost of Doing Everything

There's another factor the basic math doesn't capture: the mental load.

When you're doing everything yourself, you're constantly tracking all of it. "I need to edit that video. I need to make that thumbnail. I need to schedule those posts." Even when you're not actively doing the work, it's taking up space in your head.

That background processing is exhausting. It fragments your attention. It makes it harder to focus on the things that actually require your focus.

Outsourcing removes tasks from your mental queue entirely. Someone else is tracking it. Someone else is making sure it gets done. You don't have to think about it.

For founders especially, this matters. Your attention is probably the scarcest resource you have. Protecting it is worth paying for.

How to Start

If you've been doing everything yourself, the idea of outsourcing can feel overwhelming. Where do you even find people? How do you know if they're good?

Start with one task. For most people, editing is the obvious choice. It's the most time-consuming and the easiest to evaluate.

Find an editor on Upwork or Fiverr. Give them a test project. See how it goes. If it works, you've just bought back 2-4 hours per video. If it doesn't, try someone else.

Once editing is handled, you can expand. Thumbnails next, then scheduling. Each step buys back more of your time.

The Real Question

The $100 framework is useful, but the real question underneath it is: what would you do with the time?

If the answer is "nothing productive," then maybe do it yourself. Save the money.

But if the answer is "I could be shipping features" or "I could be talking to customers" or "I could be doing the work that only I can do," then the math is clear.

Your hour is worth more than $100. Act like it.