Happy Memorial Weekend Everyone!
Well it is finally starting to resemble summer in the Midwest and I have been working hard to get all the spring projects finished up. Projects like, installing new landscaping so our house does not look like a war zone anymore, cleaning the gutters, caulking around windows, new storm door, spring detail to my truck, etc. I really should show a picture of the front yard so you get the full aspect of what I have had to work with. It is quite comical. I had to move clay from a mound in the middle of our yard from having the sewer line dug up and replaced.
Now that I am hedging closer to that 40 years old mark I am really having to weigh out how much work I should be doing and how much I should be hiring out. Take the front yard for instance. I rented a big tiller and spent five hours moving clay off of the mound closer to the house to slope the ground away from the house, so we are not looking at water pooling up and finding its way in our house. If we take in account that five hours and say someone pays themselves $50 per hour and the rental of $50 for the tiller, we are looking at a cost of $300 cost to do the project. Afterwards I found out I could have rented a bob cat for $150 and been done in less than an hour and had way more fun that sweating my butt off.
I grew up in a family that did not have a great deal of money. My father was a fire fighter and my mother stayed at home to take care of us. My father taught me that hard work was important and to do your best at everything that you do. I learned how to do just about everything through performing the task. Most of the time I would have extra experience as I would have to do it twice do to trying to short cut something. A good rule of thumb in my experience is that a well performed project should not reveal extra screws, bolts, or other retention components when are you finished.
When I sold my first car to get my second car, the person purchasing it was in shock that it was 9 years old because he said it looked brand new. I was not very artistic, but detailing a vehicle was an art form for me. Fast forward to yesterday where I washed, clay barred, washed, then waxed my truck which took me roughly four and a half hours. Using the same mentality of $50 per hour and $50 in materials I am looking at a cost of $275. When it cost us $125 for my wife’s car to have the same thing done at a local detail shop I am starting to realize something that my mentor taught me a long time ago.
My mentor when I first got into sales taught me that wealthy people put a value on time. When working on projects, thinking about investments, they calculate the cost of their time that will be invested in to the project. Time is something that we have a limited supply of. When we are born time seems to be ticking away until we finally expire. Hopefully not like milk, we should be getting better with age like wine 😊 We will save a wine discussion for a time later as my intelligence on it starts with Boones Farm if that helps you gain any insight!
We have a limited supply of time on our hands. When preparing for that next project, career change, purchase of home, or moving dirt think about the cost of your time as a function of the investment. When I took the purchasing position to learn about how the other side works in large transactions I did weigh the fact that my drive time would go down by a half hour each way to and from work. One hour a day multiplied by five days a week, then multiplying that by how many days I needed to show I would reveal a cost increase I would be paying myself of my time.
Now that I am getting older I need to take my mindset on other projects instead of doing them myself to figuring out how much my time is worth. I need to realize that I need to spend time more wisely and say no to things while I focus on the things that are important. I am taking this stance going forward to seeing which projects I need to do and which I can outsource for lower investment in hopes of being more efficient.
Next time you are figuring out a budget for a project you are about to take part in make sure you are also figuring in how much your time is worth. It may reveal that training someone else may be able to do the smaller items so that you can focus on the higher value items. If you are looking for a new career figure out the time investment and keep the focus on if it will get you closer to where you want to be five years from now as well as hours you will be working and commute time.
Most people just focus on a pay increase when they switch companies, but if you are driving just 30 minutes more each way, that is five hours per week more you are away from home. Take that value and multiply it by the hourly rate you are getting paid and how many weeks you are working minus vacation and see how much you are getting an increase in pay. It may not be that much.
Time is a precious commodity that we have yet to figure out how to make more of.
Have a good weekend and take time to enjoy the smell of fresh cut grass, the smell of grills charring pieces of meat, and enjoy quality time with friends and family.
As always if you have questions, want to dig deeper, or if you would like to ask about other topics feel free to reach out to me at info@kevinsidebottom.com. Also, you can comment to the blog to keep the conversation going with other readers.
Sincerely,
Kevin Sidebottom
Sales and Leadership Enterprises