Are you suffering from timesheet overload in your business?
May I make a suggestion?
Kill it. Â Kill the timesheet.
It’s killing you.
It’s killing your business.
Tracking time for money as a service provider is a slippery slope.
Opposing Teams
Instead of creating rapport and camaraderie between you and your clients, it does exactly the opposite. Â It puts you on opposite sides of the fence. Â It puts you on opposing teams.
What You Want
Don’t believe me? Â Just think about it. Â What do you want? Â You want to optimize your billable hours. Â You want to make the most money possible… you want your business to be profitable. Â Really profitable.
What They Want
What does your customer want? Â They want to minimize expenses while getting the best service possible. Â So either they hire cheap labor or they hire “the best” but they watch the clock like a hawk because they want to get the best for the least amount possible… So they want you to get their project(s) done in the least amount of time possible.
See what I mean, you want the most hours (and money earned) possible and they want the least hours (and money spent) possible. Â Opposite teams.
The Fix Is In
So what do you do? Â I mean you do want to be on the same side, working toward the same goal with your customers, right? Â You want them to get the best service possible from the best service provider (you)… and get compensated fairly while doing what you love. Â Right?
So how do you do that? Â You get away from the timesheet. Â You TRASH IT. Â You make clockwatching a thing of the past and watch something else. Â You watch the valuable project that your customer has entrusted you with and you give them your best instead of giving them your time.
Kill The Timesheet
So seriously, do yourself a huge favor and just be done with it. Â Kill it. Â Kill the timesheet once and for all.
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Are you ready to kill the timesheet? Â It’s a journey and a hard habit to break.
Have a question? Â Not sure how to go clockwatcher to project watcher? Â Leave your question and/or comments in the comments section.
I’d love to hear how you do it.
Cheers! Â ~Joyce~
Check out The Blueprint Bootcamp: https://thecommoncents.com/the-blueprint-bootcamp/
Totally agree with this Joyce…would love to hear you input on how to accurately estimate the worth of a project.
It takes practice but it can be done. Have to ask the right questions to determine scope, etc… then you can estimate/quote it better.
This is a great article. So very true. But as I strive to get closer and closer to totally trashing my mental timesheet, I also realize how difficult it is to qualify what my clients are getting. As a coach, it’s hard to say, “we’ll do XYZ until it’s finished.” because for some that could take two days and for others two years. It’s not financially responsible (or fair to them) for me to charge them the same amount. At some point I have to say, “we’ll work together for this amount of time.” So right now, I charge a flat fee for a month (or a week) of working together. That’s unlimited email access and a particular number of live sessions. How do I pull further away from that timesheet?
Thanks for stopping by to comment Laura.
True for coaching, it is difficult to get away from the “hour” itself but maybe not. Think of it this way, in a sense, you’re really not selling the hour itself but using it as a method for establishing boundaries and defining what qualifies as a “session”. Your sessions may be 75 mins or 90 mins…even in establishing the boundary – try not to use 60 mins because we as people will naturally default that back to the hour and you’re right back where you started… tracking hours.
Remember that what you are really “selling” is the result or the solution that you have to offer… not the time itself. For the coaching component of my service solutions, I offer bundles – 1 session or a 3 or 9 Pack of sessions and I never use a “60 min hour”.
Hope that helps.
Hi Joyce,
Congratulations on becoming timeless!
Would love to add you to our VeraSage and Friends Facebook page, where you will be with many liked-minded professionals from around the world who have done the same thing.
Regards,
Ron Baker, Founder
VeraSage Institute
Joyce,
Love this blog post. Ron is right, you should check out VeraSage. You already know quite a few of us- some from THRIVEal. You’ll fit right in. 🙂 DM me if you want to talk about it or hit me up on Yammer.
Will do… chat with you soon.
Hi there. Thanks. It’s definitely a work in progress… kicking the timesheet “addiction” is WORK! But worth it when you can be on the same team working towards the same goals as your customers.
Thanks for stopping by… I will stop by and chat it up with you all on Facebook from time to time. Thanks for the personal invite. Appreciated!
I love love love this post, as an Administrative Specialist if I work with a timesheet I penalize myself by being good and getting better because the more you do something and hone in on a skill the quicker you tend to do it so what use to take me an hour may take me 30 minutes to do yet I give my clients the same amount (if not more) of value and expertise so why should I get paid less?? In our industry we are still trying get Administrative Support Professionals and the entrepreneurs who use our expertise to understand this concept.
It’s all about education… and ultimately, letting them know that you are taking on the risk. If it takes you a long time, it won’t cost them any more. Your pricing is per project, not hour.
It can be a tough transition but worth it. Good luck to you!
My point is that the billable hour just doesn’t work… it creates conflict between you and the clients that you have chosen to serve. Now, if you are using time tracking purely for internal purposes, timesheets may have their place. MAY! They don’t always.
You may want to look into ROWE (Results Only Work Environment). I’m not saying that it will be easy to implement, but it can be done.
Hope that helps… J