Читать книгу Entrepreneurial Itch - David Trahair - Страница 8

There are many situations where people are working in a job and making a lot of money — for other people. Take a lawyer, for example. Law firms focus on one key thing: chargeable time. It’s not uncommon for these firms to expect their employees and associates to put in 2,000 or more chargeable hours per year.

Let’s translate that into days and weeks. Ignoring overtime for a moment, let’s say Lindsay Lawyer works from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., with an hour for lunch, five days a week. That’s a 35-hour week. She takes two weeks off per year, so she puts in 50 weeks each year. That’s 1,750 hours. To get to 2,000 hours, she has to put in another 250 hours of work. That’s what overtime is for. She’ll need to put in another seven full weeks of work to meet her target.

Lindsay makes pretty good money for her efforts: $125,000 a year. But wait just a minute — Lindsay’s billing rate is $250 per hour. That means her firm is billing clients a total of $500,000 (2,000 hours at $250 per hour) for her services. Hmmm. The firm bills half a million and pays her $125,000. The firm’s profit from Lindsay’s work is $375,000. Hey, I feel like starting a law firm!

But what about poor Lindsay? She faces pressure every day to keep her chargeable hours up and keep clients happy at the same time. Something’s got to give.