I love the fact that we don’t have to keep track of every minute of every day (one of the biggest problems with time sheets) because it frees up time to take care of the little (or not so little) things – like reading the latest tax updates (something that is not so little for me or our clients, but a necessity that has always eaten into my “billable hours”) and sharing information with clients and other people I know who may be interested (a “little” thing to me, that I thought about doing before, but never found the time when I was conscious of where all my “billable hours” were spent). The other week I sent an update to my investment broker, Dan Roberts – his response was:
“You rock! I was just discussing this with a client yesterday. You read my mind.”
It made me feel really good about myself. It’s great to have the time to help others (I feel like I “have” the time rather than needing to “find” the time). I also love it when someone tells me that I “rock.” Great job satisfaction.
If you were billing by the hour, think of what you could bill for ‘reading the clients’ mind!
Just kidding.
I think when you have the freedom to take the time to update clients with helpful information, you add more value to the client anyway! Not sure if you could put a time or $ value on those types of things.
Comment by Heidi Adkins — February 18, 2008 @ 10:41 am
I couldn’t find a proper expense category in my billing software for that work.
However, I will proabably note time spent reading accounting blogs as either professional or technical development.
Comment by Shane — February 18, 2008 @ 10:43 am