As entrepreneurs, we can tend to work all hours of the day – however while sometimes it’s necessary to put in extra hours, time tracking is an essential need for any startup business to maximize efficiency and ensure your time is being used wisely.?
Whether you’re a consultant working with various clients who you have to bill by the hour or if you’re an entrepreneur,? time tracking and assessing where you’re spending your time is critical to help you maximize efficiency. The tool I use both for my consulting clients and my own businesses is Harvest, which is a web-based platform and mobile app that allows you to track your time across multiple projects and tasks. You can either set a timer that runs while you’re performing a task or set the duration afterwards. There’s also an expense module and invoicing tool that allows you to invoice your clients directly through the platform and receive payments through PayPal or Stripe – making it effortless to bill for time along with the detail of where your time was spent.?
However, the most important part is the reporting function which allows you to take a look at weekly, bi weekly, monthly, and yearly data to see where you’re spending your most time where you can be most efficient and where you might need to outsource. What I’ve found and counseled many of my startup clients and Ready for Launch program members is that you want to spend your time doing what you are best at, and what you love — when you find you’re spending time on things that don’t fall in those categories, you sacrifice the joy that comes with being an entrepreneur and honestly, waste time. As they say, “time is money.” Your time is valuable and if you can, you’re best off outsourcing the work you don’t love and should not spend your valuable time doing – when you focus on what you’re good at and what brings you joy, you succeed!
