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HOW TRACKING TIME CAN INCREASE PROFITS
Suburbia, (www.suburbiastudios.com) a full-service
design, advertising and multimedia company with
offices in Vancouver and Victoria, Canada, has used
TimeFox, a web-based system, for 2 years now.
DROPPING CLIENTS TO MAKE MORE MONEY
Suburbia had used the web-based system for a year,
to record time and expenses and help plan workflow
and production. When they analyzed the data they'd
collected over the year, they discovered that a full 80%
of their time had been spent on clients that brought in
only 20% of their revenue.
"We were shocked," says Virginia Boggie, Partner at
Suburbia."We had no idea we were spending so much
time on work we couldn't bill – and shortchanging our
profitable clients at the same time. The clients that took
up most of our time and energy were the ones that
didn't see the value of our work."
"We made a New Year's resolution to drop some of our
least profitable clients, refocus our energy on the clients
that appreciated the work we do, and aggressively seek
out just 3 new business opportunities in 2002."
A surprising element of Suburbia's new focus was a
strategy to refer some of their least profitable clients to
other companies. Boggie explained, "We want to keep
our competitors busy working on those smaller accounts.
They are so busy catching the little fish, they don't have
time for the big ones!"
FEWER STAFF = MORE PROFIT
In a small design firm like Suburbia, losing 2 members
of a 7 person creative team was a frightening thought.
"When two of our junior designers told us they were
leaving, we worried we wouldn't be able to handle the
workload," says Boggie.
Personnel and Project reports showed Suburbia how
much billable time each member of the creative team
was putting in each week.
"We found that everyone was always busy, and the work
they were doing was fabulous, but we really weren't able
to bill all the creative development time," says Boggie.
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"TimeFox showed us that each of the remaining creatives
would have to put in only an additional 3 hours of billable
time a week, to make up for the designers that were leaving."
"We could see that we had the capacity to handle the
work without replacing the departing designers," says
Boggie. "TimeFox showed us not only that everyone
was busy, but exactly what they were busy with, and
how much of that time we were able to bill."
BETTER WORKFLOW + BETTER CASH FLOW
Suburbia has not only used the TimeFox system to
reduce the number of clients and personnel while
increasing revenue and profitability, it has helped adjust
workflow to increase efficiency.
Boggie says, "it lets us see instantly which people have
time available to take on extra work. In the past,we
could see that everyone was busy, but didn't realize that
so many people were putting extra, unbillable hours in
on jobs simply because we hadn't given them a steady
stream of billable work."
Knowing who's working on what, and how long the work
is taking them, is vital in planning for maximum efficiency
– although you can't put a time limit on creativity, you can
limit the amount of time spent on unbillable tasks.
"We've changed the way we schedule and assign work,"
says Boggie. "Now we can make sure everyone has
enough work and no-one is spinning their wheels putting
in hours that we can't recoup."
TimeFox has created a revolution in Suburbia. A new
roster of clients, new staffing policies, new and improved
workflow have all stemmed from the simple introduction
of this easy-to-use time-tracking system.
"We love TimeFox," says Boggie. "Every day we find
new ways it can help us improve our productivity and
profitability. It even makes it easier to get people to do
their timesheets!"
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