Have you ever tracked your productive hours?

[Rich]

I'm basically a one person operation, although my wife is here 3days/week part days to do the billing, ordering etc. Since I do all of the production work, it's not that hard to track my time as long as I remember to log in and out of the customer jobs. I've done this as a study for weeklong periods over the years and it seems to come up about the same. For a 50 hour week, my productive time comes out to be around 25 hrs. or 50%. That means that my labor rate has to cover the other 50% and then some to make a profit. Has anyone else tracked their time?
Thanks,
Rich

[mike802]

Out of an 8 hour day I usually get about 6 good hours in on a good day, on a bad day about 4.  Bad days are for paying bills balancing the check book making deposits all that stuff.

[sofadoc]

All I know is: For the last 30 years, if I could've just hit the ground runnin' on Mondays alone, I'd be retired by now. :D
Mondays from 8AM til noon are a complete waste! Can't shake all the cobwebs from the weekend out of my head. Then the phone starts up.
I don't accomplish anything until after lunch on Mondays.
I've never tracked my productive hours. But I have no doubt when my LEAST productive hours are.

[Rich]

Hmm, 2 responses out of 93 visits. Seems like the majority has never done this.
I would highly suggest giving it a shot for a week if it's at all possible in your situation. It may cause you to re-think the way you do business.  :)
Rich

[mike802]

Rich I could not imagine not knowing how many hours I actually work in production each day.  Being the one and only worker, (with the exception of my wife and two sons, who only help out when needed, or when they want some extra money), it is unbelievable how many hours it takes to run a business, and by running a business, I am not talking about production hours, I am talking about

- answering the phone, paying bills, cleaning up, building maintenance, making a supply list and ordering them, dealing with customers, advertising, web site updating, future planing, worrying about money coming in to pay expenses, keeping the books, the list could go on and on, all of which we do not get paid to do.  Its a wonder we get time to actually upholster anything.

As I type this an idea just popped into my head, maybe instead of looking to hire help in the shop, we should think about hiring an office manager? That could free us up to do what we really want to do, upholster.

[Geech]

It varies from industry to industry, but the typical productivity expected from a given employee according to studies is about 75%.  At my former employer we used 62.5% productivity for  scheduling purposes or basically said that in an 8 hour work day (not including breaks or lunch, 8 hours of actual work time), 5 hours of work should be expected.  It sounded absurd at first to me when I was new to scheduling, but it was pretty spot on when compared to actual data collected at the end of each project right or wrong.  In my prior industry things like meetings, visitors dropping by your desk with questions, and the trip to the bathroom turning into a 30 minute adventure by being hijacked while en route back to your desk consumed the other 3 hours of the day.  I currently plan on accomplishing 6 hours in a 10 hour day with an 1.5 hours of planned "break" time for myself throughout it.  If I exceed expectations I find myself much happier than I was when I booked 12 hours of production into a 12 hour day and came up hitting 50% of my target deadlines, so I figured I'd give it a shot.  While my distractions are not the same as they used to be, they still occur in my world. 

I considered hiring an office manager, however to me (and maybe I'm a control freak?) that would take away from the ability to "be my own boss" or result in putting too much into the hands of someone without so much on the line as I have.  Has anyone had any success with doing this? 

[Rich]

As I type this an idea just popped into my head, maybe instead of looking to hire help in the shop, we should think about hiring an office manager? That could free us up to do what we really want to do, upholster.

Mike, good insight, that is what doctor's and dentists do. They realize that their time is valuable and better spent doing only those procedures that require their expertise.
maybe that is an answer to the problem of getting help. Instead of the tradfitional model of the manager/owner stepping back to provide guidance to the productive workers, the workers would clear the way for the skilled owner to do what only he or she can do. And an office support person can be trained and replaced much more easily than a skilled upholsterer (if you can even find a replacement).

Here's an idea, either during the time entry process or at the end of the day, break each activity out into a predetermined set of categories (Answering phone, placing order, speaking with customer). Then, after a week (or more if possible) tally up the hours in each category to see how much time could be saved to hire someone to take over one or more categories. I think the hardest ones to fill would be the time spent making sales and going over technical details. They might have to remain the duty of the skilled owner, but it could be revealing to see how many non-essential tasks are being performed by the skilled person by default.
Rich

[Rich]

It varies from industry to industry, but the typical productivity expected from a given employee according to studies is about 75%.

That sounds reasonable for an employee, I think it gets thrown out of whack when we're talking one man shops like Mike and myself. I can sometimes go that high, but it's at the neglect of all the other things Mike mentioned. Sooner or later, the customer has to be called back, the order has to be replaced, the new  etc.insurance policy has to be reviewed etc. I'll admit, running a one man shop many times means that the rowing gets done, but no one is tending the rudder and vice-versa.
Rich

[mike802]

Rich:  Your right, that is exactly what doctors and dentist do!  And getting into an upholster can take almost as long :D

Geech:  I understand what you are saying about control.  I think the object is not to give up control, but to put in place some internal controls.  Problems arise within a business without internal controls, for example the book keeper being able to sign checks can lead to embezzlement.

[bobbin]

I posted a reply to what I thought was this thread but it's on the Standard Hours thread.  Too many open windows can be a bad thing!  I don't know how to move it over here, but if you're willing to "travel" scope it out. 

Sorry 'bout that, folks. 

[Rich]

I read this thread shortly after it was posted and it's been "in my head" ever since. 

The main thrust of this thread is really keyed in on what ought to be the final distillation of whatever hourly rate any of us fix on our work; based on "hands on" labor, overhead costs, taxes, and the profit we expect from our endeavor. 

You don't arrive at that figure without some "trial and error" and without strict attention to the "cost" and associated mark up on basic materials, either.  You should be "making money" on every single bit of material that you supply to any job that moves through your shop.  Ditto labor.

I work for "someone else" for the lion's share of my earnings.  I'm a grunt.  As an employee I feel it's my responsibility to my employer to keep track of how the time I'm "on the clock" is spent.  Personally, I have a notebook.  I enter the date and my start time.   I write the name of the job and begin keeping tabs on the materials I use.  If I have to answer the phone or deal with a walk in customor I make NO note of it.  When I finish the job I enter the completion time, talley the supplies used and fill out the work order.  I enter the start time of the next job I'm assigned and repeat the process.  This willingness to account for my "compensated time" is a holdover from my days "in the line" and the time when compensation was tied to a "piece rate".  Documentation ensures honesty, is a sign of respect to my employer, and also allows my employer to use that information to set the shop rate/validate it/etc.. 

I do the same thing in my own shop.  Everything I do with respect to my own business is directly related to the TIME I have to spend in my shop to accomplish it all.  And believe you me! every single minute of time is charged to the customer.  Time is money, baby! and the sooner the lesson is learned the better off the business owner will be.  I make money on materials and I make primo money on my SKILL.  The fact that my skill may be interrupted by the telephone or a "walk in" matters not whit to me.  It's all the same thing.  I get the same pay to chitty-chat as I do to perform my skill. 

Every hour of my day is productive in one way or another.  It's simply up to to me to set the delivery schedule accordingly.

Well, that's one way to do it.
Rich

[Rich]

A comment on your misplaced post, bobbin. As an employee, you're entitled to be paid for every hour you put in, but a business owner can't charge a customer for time spent doing work that is not directly tied to that job. These activities are instead, paid for by increasing the labor rate on productive time to cover non-productive time. This is when it becomes necessary to know the difference and that's why I asked the question.
Rich

[bobbin]

Rich, I understand that (I have a business background). 

I set my rates for alteration work the same way they set rates in production, piece rate shops.  I use a stopwatch to track the time required to undo work then redo it.  I know, for instance that it takes me 10 minutes to rip out and replace a fly zipper in a pair of jeans/trousers; 12  minutes to take down, mark, and hem a pair of trousers, 15 minutes to take in a waist on pair of men's trousers, etc..  Unlike the dry cleaner down the road, I charge for fittings because I work by appointment and the "gab factor" can seriously eat up profit; so charging for my expertise in fitting (generally lacking at the cleaner) weeds out the sort of work I'd rather not do and limits the number of "walk ins" with just one item.  I generally do a "time study" every year to make sure I'm still in the "ballpark".  I do the same thing with other types of work, too.  All of which leads me to a pretty good fix on how long it takes to do a basic job.  I am very good at sizing up how much time will be required to remove and replace decorative elements or "time sinks" like single needle stitching through elastic waistbands.  That ability is critical to accurately assessing work.  (how long will it take to clean out the debris so you can actually do what's required?).

I calculate my "overhead" for the shop, based on materials cost, utilities, insurance, etc..  I arrive at my hourly rate by figuring out how much money I have to earn to meet my personal savings goals and what my tax liability will likely be to arrive there.   Pretty basic stuff, really.  "Productive hours" can vary greatly; but the nature of the work I do most often allows me to be "productive" even when I'm just prepping work. 

Make sense?

[Rich]

bobbin, if I understand correctly, you work for someone else but also have your own business?. When you said that "every single minute of time is charged to the customer" I wanted to counter that by saying that everyone in their own business must attend to many different tasks which are not directly chargeable to the customer. If you have a business background, you know this, but it seemed like you were saying you charge your own customers for time spent making phone calls, ordering supplies, maintaining the shop and taking inventory. I'm just pointing out that since we can't get around the fact that those tasks need to be done, the hourly rate has to be high enough to cover them.
Rich