Time well spent

[leftie]

I have a rule that if I can make more profit from geting someone else to do a job than doing it myself, I do.

Thus, I spend the extra using a courier because having to get the car out, drive to the post office, queue and drive back and then have loads of receipts to put through the books in stead of a monthly invoice takes time when I could be earning. In the time I save I carry on working, earning alot more than the £1.50 I save by using the post office. Same goes for things in my private life, I will pay someone to tidy the garden, decorate the house, clean the windows etc because I can work in that time and make more than I am paying the worker. If I could get someone to brush my teeth and shave for me I would.

Now my business partner thinks that this is plain lazy, but not withstanding the need to get way from the job once in a whle and do something mundane, do you think this principle is one that holds water for the business? Do others do this or am I just a little too focused?

[Hughesie2]

I'm the same with Cab fares in London, i constantly get told to use public transport until i show them how much money i can save them by being in theoffice that extra half an hour if i had to take Public transport...

[PetrolTed]

Totally agree.

[minimax]

exactly my theory. people slate me for being lazy but I can justify it in time/money savings

[semprini27]

An ex-boss of mine once said that he valued his non working hours at twice his hourly rate of pay, i.e. £20 per hour = £40 at home. He then took the view that if something took him more than an hour out of his way at the weekend he would see if he could get it locally for within £40 of the "distance" price.

Didn't say how long he took to find out the different prices though.......

[pdV6]

Horses for courses.

With regard to home maintenance, some people enjoy doing it and other don't. It would seem sensible for the latter camp to work overtime whilst paid contractors do the jobs they don't enjoy.

wrt queueing in the post office etc, its only "lazy" to pay a courier instead if you're not going to make productive use of the time saved.

[jimothy]

I always use the logic of 'i earn x per hour so I'll spend up to x to save me an hour'.

For example, my bathroom taps need a bloody good clean. I recon to take them off, clean them up, put them back will take an hour. A new set are more than an huors wages so I'll take the time to clean them.

Well actually, I'll get the missus to clean them, but its the thought that counts...

[leftie]

I like the x 2 rule for leisure time!

With some jobs I also think tradesmen do it 3 times faster than I ever could. When I moved in I had the entire house redecorated. I had 2 men here for 11 working days (including the middle Saturday). It would take me 2 or 3 weekends and evenings between to do a room properly, but they did it in a day (on average), and supplied the scaffold tower for one room where the ceilings are 22 feet high. They supplied all the tools, filler and paint, hung wallpaper in every room except the bathroom and kitchen for £1400. With the wind behind me on a good week I can earn that myself. I would still be at it now and the finish would be nowhere near as good.

[Size Nine Elm]

Yup, work out the opportunity cost. The real bugger is that for what you earn, Thief Brown takes his chunk before you pay your contrators if its personal stuff.

Occasionally it makes sense to do a job yourself, just for the 'time out' from work work.

Except I've started doing some basic maintenance type stuff on the cars, becasue I want to learn how to do it, and how stuff works, rather than pay a rip-off dealer to do a worse job for what is now stupid money. e.g. Changing a set of brake pads takes 1/2 hour, and you would be charged 70-80 quid for that be a garage.