Seeking Help

Where does the time go? Billable time. As a consultant, your practice may be doing reasonably well; you're charging $100-150 an hour. As an independent consultant, you're probably also doing everything from grinding the coffee to editing the umpteenth draft of your brochure.

To understand where you spend your time, list and categorize all your activities into clerical, professional and other suitable groups. Calculate how many hours you're spending on each-daily, weekly, monthly, annually. Some you enjoy, some you're really good at, some are a pain in the neck The point is, no one is paying you to do them. The more time you spend on client work, the more you bill. The more you bill, the more money you have available to pay someone else to take care of the stuff you'd rather not do or should not be doing yourself.

The time you spend on unbillable tasks makes you a very expensive clerical worker. Keeping the cash to yourself sounds good, until you really think about it. You wouldn't pay a secretary $150 an hour, but that's precisely what you're paying yourself. Your time is valuable and should be spent earning money or on activities that grow your business like marketing or product development. The rest is just overhead-costly overhead. Can you afford not to hire someone?

And, it's not just the on-going clerical and administrative stuff you can be helped with. Many of our own clients come only after having spent hundreds of hours trying to create their own marketing materials.

Entrepreneurs strongly resist giving up any responsibility. You know the refrain, "If it's going to be done right, I've got to do it myself." They struggle endlessly with business plans, and similar activities unrelated to their field of expertise.

You may indeed ask, who better? The answer is, your professional colleagues. They may charge the same hourly fee, but the job is done in much less time and they bring objectivity and fresh ideas.

This is not only less expensive in the long run, but these things will also be done better. The repercussions of doing a inadequate job on your business plan, marketing materials, accounting, etc. can be severe.

Certainly, keep an eye on things; but don't spend more time than you must. Leave the grunt work to others. Hiring clerical and professional help is practical, and necessary-if you want to squeeze the most out of your practice.

Keith Thirgood, Creative Director, Editor Thrive-on-Line http://www.capstonecomm.com Capstone Communications Group Helping businesses get more business through innovative marketing Markham, Ontario, Canada 905-472-2330 Subscribe to Thrive-on-line http://list.capstonecomm.com/ma il.cgi?f=list&l=thrive_on_line

---

Problem-Solving Success Tip: Define the Problem First

Define the Problem First. It seems obvious, but how many... Read More

Pitching to Employees

The senior flight attendant on the WestJet flight was starting... Read More

Innovation, Idea Selection, Valuation

There is no sure fire route to commercial success, but... Read More

Joint Accountability: Another Key for Your Effectiveness

I once was part of a group of management professors... Read More

Todays Employees and Their New Needs: What You Need to Know

Today's employees are not only interested in security or in... Read More

Creativity and Innovation Management: The Value Of Due Diligence

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation... Read More

Preparing For ISO 9001 2000 Registration

The steps need to be taken to prepare an organization... Read More

Business is About Making Money

Ask most people why they are in business and they... Read More

Listening Strategically

Usually, we're most interested in communicating outwardly; getting our messages... Read More

Tales From the Corporate Frontlines: Managerial Influence

This article relates to the Manager/Supervisor competency, commonly evaluated in... Read More

The Challenges of Human Resource Management

IntroductionThe role of the Human Resource Manager is evolving with... Read More

Where Businesses Fall Short

1. No vision. Successful businesses have a clear vision or... Read More

Quality Hiring: Are You Doing It Right?

Quality hiring is more than running ads, screening, interviewing and... Read More

Why You Should Hold One More Meeting

If you are completely happy with where you and your... Read More

Service Level Agreement (SLA) Boot Camp

Service Level Agreements, or "SLA's" are tricky but useful mechanisms... Read More

Are You in Control of Your Practice or Does it Control You?

One of the most common complaints that business owners have... Read More

Business Intelligence & Data Warehousing in a Business Perspective

Business IntelligenceBusiness Intelligence has become a very important activity in... Read More

Training Managers and New Trainers

Training managers use many of the same interpersonal and analytical... Read More

Great Groups! - Getting a Group to Think Like a Genius

Great Groups! - Getting a Group to Think Like a... Read More

Can A Business Still Be Profitable When People Skills Are Absent?

In our current world of rapid and amazing technological advances,... Read More

Steps to Build ISO 9001 Compliant Program

Implementing an ISO 9001 system represents a major effort. However,... Read More

Learn How To Get The Most From Your Team

Being a leader isn't easy. Every one looks to you... Read More

Stop Waste, Fraud and Abuse

Each year, businesses write-off six percent of revenue to waste,... Read More

Effective Meetings: Why Most Meetings are a Waste of Time

Whether your company holds one meeting a week or dozens... Read More

Punctuality in Business: What it Says About You

"Nothing inspires confidence in a business man sooner than punctuality,... Read More

Why Soft Skills?

The industrial age is over. Organizations still stuck in the... Read More

Spotlight on Productivity: How to Overcome E-Mail Overload

Do you ever feel overwhelmed by e-mail? Have you ever... Read More

Problem Solving the Problem Solving Meeting

We go to meetings to share information, to report on... Read More

Budgets that Damage - The Downsides of Making the Numbers

In my organisational career, I had budgets from the age... Read More

Communication Mix-Up

My friend Delia is the owner of a small private... Read More

Why Business Owners Need Security

The main reason is to stop any potential lawsuits from... Read More

Do You Need a Personal Assistant?

It's great to be multi-skilled?be able to type your own... Read More

Performance Appraisal Checklist: Raise Not Just Appraise Performance

It's that time again! Perhaps the most dreaded management practice... Read More