Time Management - Time is Money

Working 14 hour days trying to figure out how to develop and launch a new product or service is not uncommon for most internet marketing professionals. But do you really understand the value of your time? I did not!

Ask any part-time employee and they will tell you their time is worth $12.00/hour or whatever. Hourly workers know the value of their time. Most successful commission sales personnel know the value of their time, and successful salaried workers know the value of their time.

But what about you? It's a different story for the online business owner! You probably work more than eight hours, day and night, and then think about your business even when you are not sitting at your computer working on it. If it's a passion of yours then it is even more challenging to figure out the value of your time.

Maybe you don't know the value of your time. Many people don't, so you are not alone. But knowing the value of your time will help you manage your scheduled and make more profit.

To figure this out take your income and divide in to your total hours worked. It's not a perfect calculation because it doesn't account for the hours that you spend thinking and it doesn't account for your expenses, but you are busy enough that a rule-of-thumb calculation is provide you with enough information.

It's probably a good idea to make this calculation based on a week or maybe even a month time frame. This will smooth out the fluctuations that occur in your schedule and in your customer's buying patterns. This calculation will require you to monitor your work time for a week, which a good exercise to do regardless.

For most new entrepreneurs the value of their time will be just a few dollars an hour, or even less. Don't feel bad if that is the case with you, it will rise quickly once you learn what works and does not work.

Now you have a baseline from which you can measure your progress. Improvement in time value will be more objective and less subjective. Time Management is the key for improving your bottom line, and spending more time with people you love.

Bill McRea - EzineArticles Expert Author

Bill McRea is the publisher of Time Managment Resources and Living Inside Yourself. Both sites are dedicated to providing information and service about time managment and self help.