Are You Doing $500-an-Hour Work or $25-an-Hour Work?

Agency owners have a unique problem.

You can do almost everything.

You can chase electronic signatures.

Update the calendar.

Process paperwork.

Handle bookkeeping.

Follow up on service requests.

And somewhere between all of that, you are also supposed to grow the agency.

That is where the math starts working against you.

What Is Your Time Actually Worth?

During this week’s IA Forward conversation, Tonya shares a framework from one of her mentors:

There is $500-an-hour work, and there is $25-an-hour work.

Both are important.

But they should not necessarily be done by the same person.

Building referral relationships, closing significant accounts, coaching your team, making strategic decisions, and creating the agency’s vision are high-value activities.

Calendar management, data entry, bookkeeping, certificate processing, and chasing signatures still need to happen.

But if two hours spent on administrative work could have been two hours spent producing new opportunities, there is a real opportunity cost.

Hiring Does Not Just Add an Expense

This is where agency owners sometimes look at hiring the wrong way.

A service person may not directly bring in $100,000 of new revenue.

But what if that person gives the owner 20 hours back every week?

What can the rainmaker produce with those 20 hours?

Sometimes the return on a hire is not what that employee personally sells.

It is what they allow you to go back to doing.

Watch the Full Episode