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Fitting the Pieces Together: A Guide to Office Operations for the Liquid Waste, Portable Toilet & Septic Pumping Industries |
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The price of time is the highest price you can pay, for once spent it is gone forever. This price is usually the hardest to reduce because you have to change operations that are currently working, but take too much time. This is one of the major reasons why successful businesses stay owner/operators and do not expand. People find themselves working longer and harder and their business revenue is not growing. They then start to scale back their business so that they can handle the work in the available time. There is a saying:
"Work smarter, not harder"
The price of time can be reduced by following these guidelines:
Touch it once. Whenever you are dealing with any organizational work, immediately complete the work. Do not put it down for later action, it will only fester and because it is usually high stress, it never gets completed. By acting on it immediately, the task is completed and you are freed of one additional item to remember. In addition, the next time you need the information, i.e., customer name and address, it is up-to-date. You do not have to look through stacks of receipts to find the proper information.
The job is not done until the paper work is finished. This message is that good record keeping significantly reduces the time required to plan and organize your daily work and maximizes the profit of your company. Pumping out tanks or servicing portable toilet is only part of the total picture. Proper invoicing and record keeping adds service value to your customer and reduces the time it takes for you to successfully complete your work. For example if you have a septic business, tank location, condition and location directions on every work ticket can save 10-15 minutes per service. That’s two hours a day, if all your calls are repeat customers.
Watch the minutes, the hours will take care of themselves. This does not mean rush through your work, it means that if your daily work is organized in the order of completion, you can save 2-3 minutes after each job deciding what to do next. If you do six jobs a day that’s 12 to 18 minutes saved. If you can find three other little time savings, you have gotten back a whole hour of your life.
The price of time is important. You cannot earn more and once gone, it is gone forever.