How to spend your time wisely
The age-old saying, “time is money” certainly rings true to every small business owner.
Tracking the time spent on a project against what you’re charging the client will ensure that you can budget your time properly – and quantify your hourly rate. So, how should you go about spending your time more wisely?
Be your own timekeeper
As a small business owner, sometimes your dedication to go above and beyond for a client can take hold and the hours slip away before you’ve even thought about what the job is actually worth. You’re then left with a fantastic result for the client, but a less than fantastic result for your pocket. Come invoicing time, you charge the client what you’ve initially outlined and are unable to factor the time you spent on the project because you haven’t recorded it properly.
If this scenario seems all too familiar, you need to track your time properly to see where your time is going. There are a number of tools that can help you to do so, such as MinuteDock or TSheets. Both tools enable time to be tracked against a project, from any device and compare the number of hours spent against what has been invoiced in Xero, Quickbooks and more.
Streamline your billing process
Time and money go hand-in-hand. Once you’ve gotten used to tracking your time properly, you will be able to streamline your billing process. By using cloud-based accounting software, your systems can actually talk to one another and collect insightful data to highlight the time you’ve spent on a project, which will inform exactly how much you should invoice.
Learn to blow the whistle at the right time
To run a profitable business, you need to have both time and money data to make informed decisions. A common issue for many small business owners is working on client projects that turn into costs, forcing other more profitable projects to be put to the wayside.
By tracking your time effectively, you’ll know exactly how much time should be allocated to projects. If you’ve budgeted 10 hours to complete something and the clock is about to tick over, you’ll able to manage your output before it’s too late. On the other hand, if you’re nearing the end of a job and haven’t spent all of the allocated time, you will know you’ve done some profitable work.
At SWAG Bookkeeping, we compare both time and money data to help our clients find a profitable ‘sweet-spot’ for their business. Contact us for an obligation-free consultation today.
