Time or money?

It's an old cliche that we all know and understand, but to what extent do you really apply it in your business?


For example, do you make a phone call when an email would do just fine? Sure, there's something to be said for spending a little extra time building rapport with your clients, but phone calls often stretch out into ten, twenty, thirty minutes when taking five minutes to craft an email would have gotten the job done. Remember, your clients and strategic partners are busy too -- they may appreciate the efficiency of an email instead of a phone call.

A mathematical formula calculated by a British university professor has found that time actually is money. According to the equation, the average British minute is worth just over 10 pence (15 cents) to men and eight pence (12 cents) to women.

The formula is: V=(W((100-t)/100))/C, where V is the value of an hour, W is a person's hourly wage, t is the tax rate and C is the local cost of living. It shows that there is no such thing as a free lunch or even a free dinner, while brushing your teeth for three minutes uses up 30 pence (45 cents) in "lost" time, and washing a car by hand has a hidden cost of £3 ($4.50).

But there are only 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year, and you have to spend some of that time sleeping, eating, playing, relaxing and growing with yourself, your friends and your family. Time is an entrepreneur's most precious resource, because it is the only one that is truly scarce. Be stingy with it.

Economics professor Ian Walker, of central England's Warwick University, says process can show people just how valuable their time is in relation to any task they have to perform, from a lie-in or cooking a meal to sleeping and working. He says it also allows people to work out whether they are getting a fair rate for overtime, as well as helping them to decide whether it is worth spending extra cash to save time. It can judge the financial cost of a takeaway against the time taken to cook dinner, or the relative benefits of using a taxi or saving with the bus.

If you are productive during your work day you will have more time to do those things during your off hours – or better yet, you will have more money to hire someone to do them for you!

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