Good, Cheap, Fast — Pick Two.

Or: Why I Finally Took My Car to the Local Guy

There’s an old triangle in every service industry.

Good. Cheap. Fast.  Pick two.

It’s been around forever because it’s true. And most people know it intellectually — until they’re actually standing in the triangle, making a choice.

My Car Started Yelling at Me

I work from home. I don’t drive much because I work from my home office most days. But my car doesn’t care about that. It runs on a calendar, not miles.

A year passed since my last service. And so it began: first a warning for the oil. Then the transmission fluid. Then a few others I’d never seen before. Every time I got in, a new alert waiting for me. Every time I got out: five rotating service notifications cycling through the dashboard like a stressed-out assistant who’s been ignored for too long. Each with an audible bloop, bloop, bloop.

The car seemed to be screaming at me with every trip.

Two Options. Different Trade-offs.

I have a dealership I can, and have taken my car to. They’re good and they’re fast. I pull in, they handle it, I leave. The cost is real, but so is the convenience.

I also have a local mechanic — been working on minis for years. He’s good. Genuinely good. Not expensive. But he’s not fast, either. If he needs a part, he orders it. You might wait a day. You’ll get a call when it’s ready, not a text before it’s done.

This time, I went to my local guy.

Not because it was easier. Because I wanted someone who’d actually drive the car before handing it back.

Why This Maps Directly to How People Hire for HubSpot (or Anything Else)

The agency is the dealership.

Polished process. Multiple people. Fast turnaround — at least on paper. You’re not talking to the person doing the work, usually. You’re talking to an account manager who’s talking to a strategist who’s handing off to an implementer. Things move. Sometimes quickly. The price reflects all of that.

The solopreneur is the local mechanic.

One person. Direct line. They look at your system themselves. They tell you what’s wrong without softening it for a client call. They know what OEM means and they don’t cut corners to close the ticket faster. And yes — sometimes things take a day longer because they’re not pretending to have everything on hand.

Neither model is wrong. They just solve different problems.

The Real Question Isn’t Good, Cheap, or Fast

The real question is: what are you actually hiring for?

If you need something done quickly for a deadline — maybe an agency with bandwidth is the right call.

If you need someone who’ll look at the whole system, tell you what’s actually broken (not just what you asked about), and stand behind it — that’s a different hire.

The mistake most people make is optimizing for one corner of the triangle without being honest about what they’re giving up.  Fast and cheap: you’ll probably get something that works until it doesn’t.

Fast and good: budget accordingly.

Good and not expensive: plan for the timeline. And know that someone’s actually driving the car before they hand it back.

A Note on Where I Fit

My clients would probably argue I’m two of the three.  I’ll let them decide which two.

But here’s what I’ll tell you: I use OEM. I drive it before I hand it back. And if something’s wrong, I say so — even when it’s not what you wanted to hear. That’s the local mechanic model.

It’s not for everyone. But for the right client, it’s exactly what they needed.

Need help with overgrown contact? Let’s talk.