When you own a small or medium-sized business, it is a good idea to look for ways to cut costs. That is great advice if it makes you avoid buying something more expensive when something less expensive will do, or if you avoid making purchases you don't need. However, some business owners try to cut corners a little too far, and end up without services they actually need. One area in which business owners make this mistake is in do-it-yourself commercials. Unless you are a voice-over artist yourself, don't try and voice your own commercials, because doing so can actually drive away potential customers.

The most common reason that customers are driven away from businesses whose owners make their own commercials is that the commercials themselves annoy them. It may not be a pleasant truth to bear, but not every voice is cut out for the microphone. If you have an unpleasant voice, customers will not want to listen to you. If you are untrained, you may be sending messages that you don't intend to send. You may sound tense without knowing and will, in turn, make your potential customers tense. If your message makes them tense, then listeners will not want to visit your establishment.

If it is obvious that you don't have a professional voice-over artist, listeners will assume at least one of two things – that you are a penny-pincher or that you are not successful enough to afford to make a professional advertisement. People who assume you are cheap when it comes to your advertising may also think the same thing when it comes to the product or service you are attempting to sell, and will not have confidence in you. It is also a bad business practice to let people know you can't afford things, even if it is true. People want to do business with successful people. Therefore, you must always act as though you are successful. Spending money in the right place will help you do that.

Though the final reason for not voicing your own commercials won't necessarily annoy potential customers, it is a valid concern: Wasting your time doing a job best left to professionals is a unwise use of one of your most valuable resources – you. As the head of a business venture or department, your time is best spent doing what you do best, and that is running things. Your job as manager is to delegate tasks and responsibility. If you do choose to do some tasks yourself, do those things you can do well.

Your commercial is like a job interview. It’s your chance to make a first impression on potential customers unfamiliar with your business and to let others know you are still out there and still doing an outstanding job. Just as you would never walk into a job interview as anything less than a professional, you should never permit your advertising to be anything less than 100-percent professional. Hiring professionals and assigning tasks, where it is the appropriate thing to do, instead of running around trying to do everything, is the mark of a good leader. Don't let the desire to save a buck make you the joke of the town.