Time is Money – What’s Your’s Worth?
by adminIn the BAS controls industry, whether that be lighting, HVAC or other building systems, we’re in a constant battle for time. Over the years, I’ve chosen to value my time and invest in the tools to grow my business without the daily challenges associated with inefficiency.
First, What I learned from Hiring a House Cleaner…
Last week I came home from work to find food on the table, my kids working away at their homework and my wife on the computer catching up on household bills. Everything was in order, as always. Since having kids, my wife and I established a pretty effective way of managing our time between work, kids, homework and household chores. During the week, I put in 40 – 60 hours at the office while my wife puts in an equal amount of work between preparing meals, laundry, PTA meetings, soccer games and everything else that comes with parenting.
As my wife looked up from the computer to greet me when I walked in the door, I noticed her sweet smile, a look of contentment but also a look of exhaustion that she so frequently tried to hide. It was that night I realized, while we had perfected our daily and weekly routines, we had become complacent and overworked.
That next morning, I booked an appointment with the nearest house cleaning company I could find in Miami. Was it in our budget? No. But when I weighed the opportunity cost of the vacations we’ve missed, the hours my wife spends cleaning, the days spent inside vs. outdoors with the kids and the exhaustion i saw in my wife’s eyes, the $150 spent on cleaning was well worth it.
You may initially think that paying someone to clean your home is a waste of money, but what if you started thinking about the opportunity gained?! Now my wife is genuinely happy and we see exponential returns in our home life.
What does house cleaning have to do with controls?!
Similar to the opportunity cost associated with cleaning the house, I’m continually told by HVAC and lighting controls contractors that they don’t need an efficiency software like Cube. I’ve heard it all!
“We just don’t have the budget right now.”
“Our team does really well with the systems we have in place.”
“We just don’t see the value.”
While all these statements may have some validity, I can’t help but think about the opportunity cost associated with doing things the hard way.
Some costs are tricky to measure but here are just a few considerations:
- Wasted Employee Productivity
- Lack of real time visibility
- Customer Churn
- Time & money spent in multiple applications
- Entangled processes
EX. The opportunity cost of NOT utilizing software:
*Approximate hours it takes to manage 1 account
Conclusion: Time is Money
In the example with my wife and the cleaning service, our family’s time was valuable and the opportunity cost was missing out on quality time spent as a family, therefore $150 was well worth it to us. Similarly at the office, efficiency and productivity at the office is valuable and the time spent chasing lost files, dealing with customer churn and wasted productivity are costly, therefore, the price of efficiency software pays for itself and is well worth the monthly fee.