What's our time worth?
Office Mentor
It's so difficult to work out what a particular job is worth, especially in the service industry. And, asking for a fair price for our services allows us to stay open for business. So, if we believe our services are worthy, we must charge a fair price.
I estimate that we earn one-third of whatever we charge per hour. New business owners find this hard to believe. I thought it would be helpful to review the 12 steps to getting paid in a service business.
1. We gather enough information to start our business.
2. Create and present marketing tools to locate our prospects.
3. Meet with these prospects to learn more about their needs.
4. Discover if there's a fit between their need and our offer.
5. The prospect agrees to buy our services.
6. We make an appointment with our new client.
7. We meet to present our services/do our magic.
8. Follow up research is often necessary.
9. We send some follow up information along.
10. An invoice is created and sent to client.
11. We follow up to make sure our client is OK.
12. We receive our cheque.
Once we have the cheque at our desk, we still need to take the time to deposit it in the bank, record the earnings, and pay taxes on it!
Seriously, the best way I've found to track my time accurately is a tracking tool I found at www.myhours.com. I record different jobs and the smaller increments of time don't get lost. It's helpful for me to see how much time is spent in travel and research for a particular client. I'm calculating my costs specifically and this information will help me price upcoming work more accurately.
