Most designers don’t track their time.

But time tracking not only helps you set accurate design fees, it also helps you understand your business (and working patterns) better.

In this post I share the importance of time tracking for interior designers and how it can help improve your business efficiency and profitability.

Reasons to Track Your Time

Here are some key reasons why you should be tracking your time:

1: Accurate Billing:

Knowing how long you've spent on a project allows you to bill correctly for that project, and set more accurate fees for future projects.

2: Analyse Your Efficiency:

Tracking your hours helps you understand how much time different tasks take. This will help you plan future projects, get better at setting fees, manage your workload and identify areas where you are wasting valuable time (so yes, include when you’re scrolling Instagram as part of your time tracking!)

3: Profitability:

Time is money. Understanding where your time goes can help you identify profitable tasks or projects and those that are draining your time or resources.

4: Transparency:

Detailed time records provide a transparent method for showing clients how much work goes into a project. This is a good paper trail and helpful with clients that question your invoices.

4 Tips for Time Tracking

Now that we've explored why it's important to track your time, let's discuss how to do it effectively.

1: Use Software:

There are many time tracking tools designed specifically for small business owners. These tools will help you start, pause and stop the clock as you switch between tasks. I personally recommend Harvest, but there are many other options available.

2: Set Time Estimates Upfront:

Before starting a project, estimate how long you think it will take. This helps you plan and provides a benchmark to measure the actual time spent.

3: Track All Tasks:

It’s not just the time you spend meeting with clients or sourcing materials that should be tracked. Administrative tasks, travel time, checking social media and even quick calls or emails should also be accounted for. This gives you an accurate big picture of where your time is being spent.

4: Be Consistent:

Whichever method you choose, consistency is key. If you track one day and forget the next, you won't get an accurate sense of how long tasks are taking. Make it a habit to track time as you go rather than trying to remember what you did after the fact.

Your Action Step ⏰

The most important step from this post is to take action on what you've learned.

Setting up time tracking software today may take you half an hour, but it will benefit your business for a lot longer than that and is a tool that will help you understand your business and work patterns better.

Taking small actions like this each day is how you will improve your business over time. 🚀

Thanks for reading and catch you in my next post :)

Clare x

Dr Clare Le Roy

PS: If you enjoyed this then don’t forget to follow me @thelittledesigncorner for my daily tips on growing a profitable design or architecture business.

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