Thank You for Your Time!

"Thank you for your time!" A customer said this to me as I was leaving today and it made me think. How many of us put a value on our time? How many of us give away our time for nothing?

I'm guilty of it. I hope that the time I give away is returned 10 fold in customer loyalty and fresh business. But how many of us actually factor in our own time when pricing goods and services?

When you came up with that price for postage and packing did you think about your time? The time spent actually wrapping the goods? The time taken to go to the post office and wait in the queue? Have you worked out exactly how much that time is worth? It has a monetary value - do you know what yours is worth?

I challenge you all this week to calculate how much an hour of your time is worth in money. Then take account of all the things that you do with your time that don't pay anything. Some of the things will be unavoidable like doing the books. But how much time do you waste that could be spent better? How many times a day do you check your emails? Do you get distracted from important tasks by answering phone calls?

Time is a valuable commodity - how valuable depends on you. Manage it wisely.