Rent $600 per month x 12 = $7200

Utilities $100 per month x 12= 1200

Telephone $100 per month x 12 = 1200

Postage $100 per month x 12= 1200

Copying $50 per month x 12 = 600

Stationery $25 per month x 12 = 300

Supplies $50 per month x 12 = 600

Upgrades $150 per month x 12 = 1800

Furniture $50 per month x 12 = 600

Yearly Total = $15,300

The yearly total comes to $15,300, divide this by 1100 billable hours and you get approximately $14 per hour. Now add this to original $42 per hour and you can see that you need to charge $56 per hour to cover your hoped for $46,000 per year income plus your expenses. If you are home-based, you can subtract $7200 per year in rent or about $6.50 per hour from $56 above.

I have made a number of assumptions in arriving at these figures, your costs may be more or less, but this will give you an idea of what to look for and how to calculate your expenses. If you have any questions, write to me or give me a call and I will go over your situation with you.

Remember, in order to be fair with yourself and your customers, your prices must reflect true cost of doing business. Do not ever apologize for your prices. You need to charge enough for you to live on and enough to stay in business to service clients that have come to depend upon you. If some of your customers can't understand this, change your customers, not your prices.

Copyright 2000, DeFiore Enterprises.

For those of you running a business other than lease purchasing you can do many of same things as those running a lease purchase business. The basics are still same, it is just you are working them in another area.

So, be sure you have a To Do List, a tickler file and a calendar. Have a trigger that starts your day. Put all you do on your calendar, and add in time for mishaps. If they don't occur, you'll have extra time. Split up your day to do your calling, letter writing, follow-up e-mails, mailings, meetings, and any additional things that occur for your particular business. Having a plan when to do what, and scheduling things when you feel more comfortable dealing with them, in effect, best time for you to do them, will go a long way in making for a smoother work day.

And remember to utilize that wasted time. For instance, while mail is coming down or you are printing something take care of something else. For example if you are printing a large document, or e-mailing a long document, get your filing done, read a short article, put dates on your calendar. Make a quick phone call, check supplies, you get idea. By managing your time better it will allow you to get it all done.

Have you ever wondered how some people work two jobs, do volunteer work, and take care of their home and children? I do, they know how to manage their time.

Copyright DeFiore Enterprises 2001