Time is Money, Time is SKILL (Part 1)

First, We’ll Talk Money

My father was an entrepreneur, and I think it was around six when I first heard the term “Time is Money.” Not sure if I understood it then, but by about 13 I got the picture, and now at 23 its a mantra for me.

In the business world there HAS to be a sense of urgency in order to survive. People get “serious” when it comes to commerce, because when people fail, people’s livelihoods are seriously at stake. How many books are there on business success? Tapes? Speakers? Seminars? Lots. And people pay money for this stuff. Many take the content seriously and act immediately because their aspirations in life hinge on their success in their industry – which in turn hinges on their development of skills and willingness to take actions.

Here’s a pretty cool algorithm to for the “time is money” concept, this one is credited to Dan Kennedy, though he may have found this particular method elsewhere:

(NOTE: The ‘productivity multiple’ refers to the actual amount of time you are able to spend doing good work [IE not fire fighting / eating / chatting / handling unnecessary calls / etc...]. If your actual work time is 1/3 of your work hours, your productivity multiple must be 3 to account for this.)

Base Earnings Target                 ________________90,000

Divided by (220 x 8 = 1760)

Work Hours per Year                _________________~1760

= Base Hourly Number             _________________~51

x Productivity Multiple             _________________3

The Worth of Your Time (h)    _________________$153 per Hour

By using the above algorithm it isn’t too hard to determine what your time should be worth. Knowing this number is tremendously important, because it lets you know that if you are working on $10 per hour tasks, you’re making almost ZERO PROGRESS towards your target annual earnings.

Keeping this number in mind (or as Kennedy suggests, on note cards all around your work space) lets you calibrate what the heck you’re doing to make sure you’re getting where you want to get.

After all, its BUSINESS, and people take BUSINESS seriously.

… (continued in Part 2)