Is filling every billable hour the wrong plan?
Four ways to spend 45 hours and one rule that couples two of them: every three hours of delivery creates another hour of admin. Fill billable time first and the week is worth $5,562. Give up seven billable hours on purpose and it is worth $5,805.
Work Starter Optimization free
After you install, this is the model to open.
Where Should My Own Week Go?
- In your spreadsheet, click the Sortia icon in the strip of icons down the right-hand edge. No strip? Click the arrow at the bottom-right to open it. You can also use Extensions, then Sortia, then Open Sortia.
- Click Start from a template and put that name in the search box.
- Pick the card with that name and click Load this template. It arrives on a new tab with real numbers already in it.
The answer
The obvious plan against the optimized one:
- Optimized week
- $5,805 23.25 hours delivered
- Billable-first week
- $5,562 30 hours delivered
- Real rate of delivery
- $135 an hour, after admin
- Rate of pitching
- $162 an hour
An hour of delivery does not cost you an hour, it costs you an hour and twenty minutes once the admin arrives, which is why its real rate falls below pitching and why pitching runs out at its ceiling before delivery is worth starting again. Marketing never gets a look in, which is the model telling you it is a long-term investment rather than a way to spend a Thursday. Change the admin drag from one-in-three to one-in-five, which is what a decent practice-management setup buys, and the week is worth $6,270: the systems are worth $465 a week. What the model does not carry is next month, and a week with no marketing in it is fine once and corrosive four times running.
The model
Four activities with an hourly value each, a total of 45 hours, a ceiling on how much pitching there is to do, and an admin row that grows with delivery rather than sitting still.
| Hours in the week | 45 |
| Activities | delivery, pitching, marketing, admin |
| Admin drag | one hour for every three delivered |
| Pitching ceiling | 10 hours |
| Value of the week | solved |
Once it is in your sheet
- The model arrives with real numbers in it and runs as it stands, so you can press the button first and understand it second.
- Change the numbers to yours. The sheet marks which cells are inputs and which hold formulas, and most labels carry a note explaining the row.
- Press the run button at the bottom of the panel. It is labeled for the tool you are in, and the result lands on its own tab, with a written reading of it beside the figures.
Never used Google Sheets? Start here goes the whole way, in seven steps, and assumes nothing.
Next question
- Is 32 hours a week a target or a wish?What Does a Typical Billable Week Look Like?
- Is your biggest client really your best one?Which Clients Are Actually Worth Keeping?
- What is the lowest rate that is not a subsidy?What Rate Do I Have to Charge?
- Which few tasks are eating the whole calendar?How Long Do Our Tasks Really Take?
- How much should you pad the next estimate?How Wrong Are Our Estimates, Usually?
- What three-point estimate does your history give?What Shape Are Our Task Durations?
Every model like this one, and the method behind them: Optimization in Google Sheets.