It is the thing you waste or squander every day. I work with a lot of small businesses that struggle every day to make money. The number 1 problem for every one of my one man company clients is time management.

As an example, I have a client who is required to go to the clients location for almost every aspect of his business. The other day he tells me he is seeing a client in Ventura County, CA., and if he has time he is seeing another client in Santa Monica, CA. In California traffic, he’s looking at about an hour to the first client; and, depending on the time of day, another 1.5 to 2 hours to the second client. Then, depending on the time of day, another 1-2 hours home to his office. He then tells me that the first client is a simple 30 min service call, and the second is a network problem he could handle remotely in about 15-20 minutes.

I asked him what his time was worth, and he told me his hourly fee. Not the same thing. So I explained to him that if he hired someone for $15 per hour, and bought an affordable car for the tech to use for travel; he could send the tech to the simple jobs and he could pocket the profit.

He agreed that this was a brilliant plan, but that he had reservations about trusting other people with his clients.

With that mentality, he will work until he dies, and he will have nothing for retirement.

So, once again, how valuable is your time?