Clichés. Can’t live with them, can’t live without them. (See what just happened there—it’s that bad).
The most widespread, just-waiting-to-pop-out-at-you, cliché is a very short one, measuring just three words—time is money.
What is time?
Clichés. Can’t live with them, can’t live without them. (See what just happened there—it’s that bad).
The most widespread, just-waiting-to-pop-out-at-you, cliché is a very short one, measuring just three words—time is money.
Usually, you hear this quoted by someone who is still waiting for the moving company to arrive. Or if someone has forgotten their work laptop at home, and has to turn the car around to retrieve it.
Parents are also very good at muttering this with disapproval if they see you playing video games on a weekend when you should… well, exactly what else should you be doing?
Time is money
The big lesson is that time is actually worth something. Companies pay employees based on time worked, which means that there is a dollar amount attached to every second of our every day.
But the relationship between time and money goes deeper than that.
Here are three connections between time and money that you need to know about:
- Time-value of money: Time actually affects the value of money. A dollar earned today is worth more than a dollar earned next year, because of its ability to accrue interest—something of particular interest (long live the pun) to retirement planners and lottery winnersalike.
- Cash-flow forecasting: For small businesses, another way that time interacts with money is in forecasting your cash flow, a necessary practice for any business, but particularly if you experience seasonal variability in cash streams. Looking into the future allows you to make wise financial decisions in the present—it’s time and money working side-by-side.
- Music connection: (just for fun and since it’s almost the title) My dad taught me this one—he is fond of crooning show tunes from the mid-1900’s while working in the kitchen on Saturdays—Lefty Frizzell’s “If You’ve Got the Money, I’ve Got the Time” was a particular favourite of his. It’s this country song’s title lyric that leads us to…
The country contrapositive (also the title)
A contrapositive is just an “If-then” statement, reworded to be negative.
For example, someone could say “If I am Shrek, then I am green.” The contrapositive would be “If I am not green, I am not Shrek.” That’s easy to remember, right?
Then the contrapositive to “If you’ve got the money, I’ve got the time” is…
That’s right – “If I don’t got the time, you don’t got the money.”
Time is money, so how does your company track it?
At your small business, one often overlooked aspect of cash flow is employee time tracking.
It’s so important to track time correctly.
If a company relies on paper timesheets or the honor system, this exposes the company to unforeseen liability. Inaccurate time tracking leads to inflated payroll, inaccurate job costing, and miskept books.
Time is money. Every second counts, and every second is counted. That’s why it’s crucial to accurately record time so that it doesn’t lead to problems with cash flow.
Finding a time tracking software that replaces inaccurate paper timesheets, and has bonus features like scheduling and reporting tools, not only alleviates concern about cash flow, but it simplifies many of the workflows you already have in place in your business.
After all, as the small business owner, your time is money too.
Conclusion
Country songs, contrapositives, and my dad’s domestic broadway audition—what is the big takeaway here?
You should know now some of the many relationships between time and money.
Most importantly, it should be clear that since time is money, time tracking impacts every area of your business, not just payroll – but your cash flow too.
Finding the appropriate time tracking software is a great first step to making sure that you’ve got the money, honey—and the time.