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HOW TARTAN PR USED WEB-BASED TIMESHEETS
TO FINE-TUNE THEIR BUSINESS PRACTICES
Tartan Public Relations set up shop just after
the millennium. Its three founding partners had
years of experience in the business, and lots of
enthusiasm for the work they wanted to do.
After just a few months though, they realized they
faced some big challenges. They had lots of interesting
work, a growing list of happy clients and a close and
supportive partnership.
"But when we looked at the business carefully," said
Deirdre Campbell, partner at Tartan, "we saw that many
of our challenges were rooted in our business systems."
THESE ARE THE CHALLENGES TARTAN FACED:
- Invoicing and report preparation prevented partners from growing their business.
- Project estimates were often unrealistically low, because there were no accurate records of previous jobs.
- Valuable retainers went unbilled.
- Partners were working more hours than retainers specified, but because they had no way of knowing when they were nearing the retainer amount, they weren't able to renegotiate.
"We kept hearing little snippets about TimeFox," said
Campbell, "So we went online to check it out. We were
astounded at how inexpensive it was. We had looked
at other time-tracking systems that would have cost
us over $10,000 to implement. We could subscribe to
TimeFox for $35 a month!"
Campbell and her partners tried a demo, then used
TimeFox's free trial version to enter their own information."
We were really glad we could test the system out
before we subscribed," Campbell commented, "We had
a lot of questions for their support people, because we
use a lot of contract workers, and wanted to be sure
they could use the system too."
And it does. Tartan PR was able to set up the system
for their company, show everyone how to use it, and
be fully operational within 2 days, without any specialized
training or expensive seminars.
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BUT DID TIMEFOX MEET THE
CHALLENGES TARTAN FACED?
"We couldn't be happier with it," said Campbell.
"Now we know exactly how much time each project
takes, so our billing is accurate. And our estimates are
more accurate too, so we're making more money on
the projects we do. It's made a real difference to have
complete historical information on past projects to
base new estimates on."
TimeFox also showed the partners that they were
still spending too much time on administrative tasks –
at the expense of billable hours. So they hired an
administrative assistant.
The position paid for itself by the second month,
because hours previously spent by the partners
on unbillable administrative tasks were now being
spent on billable work. The partners became experts
at delegation, passing on lower-level billable tasks to
their assistant, too.
"Our clients love it," said Campbell. "We can show them exactly how much
time we've spent on a project, and what we did during that time. They're more
able to see value in the work we provide. And we always know when we're nearing
the specified retainer amount, so we can renegotiate before we do the extra work."
"ANY BUSINESS THAT FACES THE CHALLENGES
WE DID, SHOULD JUMP AT THE CHANCE TO
SUBSCRIBE TO TIMEFOX," SAID CAMPBELL,
"IT HAS BEEN THE BEST BUSINESS DECISION
WE'VE MADE SINCE WE STARTED THE COMPANY."
Contact us for information about how TimeFox can
create a revolution in your business.
Call Toll-Free 1.866.369.8463, or email
info@functionfox.com
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