I’m sure the title of this post got your attention. It’s okay. Turn the lights back on. Climb out from under your desk. No one is coming to look at your books (and if they do, I have some really talented accounting colleagues I can connect you with).
The audit I want to talk about is a time audit. It’s a very useful way to gain insight into how you spend your days, weeks, and months. Spend is the key word. Time is an incredibly valuable resource for any business owner. Understanding how you spend your time – and if it’s benefitting you – is crucial to making plans for your future.
You can begin this task by taking a look at the last three to six months of your calendar. Did all of your appointments happen? Did all of those process and efficiency tasks really get done? Add up all of your appointments and events and tally up the billable hours. Did you actually bill that amount? Did you discount your work or turn some of that into pro-bono work?
It’s okay if you answered yes to any of those questions. The intent of this exercise is to provide awareness and spark your curiosity.
By looking at what did and didn’t happen, you can make better, more informed decisions on how to use your time in the upcoming months. You may learn that you need to be more direct when scheduling meetings in order to avoid wasting time. You may learn that mornings are more productive than afternoons. You may notice that your grade-A clients like meetings on Tuesdays. You can learn so much from doing a quick time audit. Small changes yield results.
If you’d like to take a deeper dive into this subject, let’s set up a time to talk.