How precious is your time?
Time-saving tips for savvy business owners
According to the World Bank, the average Australian lives for 82 years, the equivalent of 718,000 hours. That is a long time.
Or is it?
On average, a person sleeps for 7.5 hours a night. That means we spend a third of our lives asleep! We fill up the remaining waking hours (some 493,000 hours) getting an education, having a career, exploring the world, maintaining friendships and relationships, and raising children.
Some aspects of our waking lives consume more of our time than others.
A person’s education can take up to anywhere from ten years to 24 years, or a quarter of a lifetime. Australian employees spend on average 32 hours a week working, which equates to 27 per cent of a salaried worker’s waking hours or 66,560 hours over the course of 40 working years.
On average, Australian small business owners work considerably longer hours than employees. According to a study published by the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, 50 per cent of Australian small business owners work longer than 40 hours a week, with a quarter of small business owners averaging 50 hours or six-day workweeks.
For 18 per cent of small business owners, a 60-hour workweek is not uncommon. A 60-hour work week leaves just 55 hours a week, or a meagre seven hours a day to live and love.
While reducing a life to hours might seem like a depressing exercise, it just goes to show how precious time is. The good news is that if we can identify the time-wasters in our lives, we can either eliminate these tasks, automate them, or get someone else to do them, freeing us up to grow successful businesses, all while living enriching lives.
Notch Above Bookkeeping has your business up and running with Xero quickly and accurately. We can help you install the software, configure your security settings, import your business data (chart of accounts/suppliers/debtors/employees) as well as set up your invoicing, payroll and taxation requirements.
