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All free videos9 min · Mike Uttley

Most Business Owners Save on Software, But Lose Tons of Money Elsewhere

Not buying software feels like saving money, but you are usually paying with your time instead. In this video, I walk you through a simple way to calculate the true cost of your time and use it to make better decisions about software, automation, and daily tasks. You will see how a small monthly fee can buy back entire days or weeks when you stop guessing and start counting.

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Key Takeaways

What You'll Learn

  • You get a receipt for money spent, but you never get one for time spent.
  • Your time has two prices. A financial price and a personal price that is never zero.
  • Saving money and making money are not the same job. Chasing small savings locks your revenue generating hours out of your day.
  • Use the "minimal question" to evaluate tools.
  • Test tools on a timer. Set a calendar reminder for ninety days to ask if the tool actually saved the time you expected.

Video Chapters

Jump to a Section

00:00The time saving trap00:42You get a receipt for money, not time01:03The psychology of value03:28Put a number on your hour04:57Saving money is not making money06:31Do the math, then check your work08:29Watch next online booking

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Good to know

Practical questions.

Why do people skip paying for software that saves time?
We focus on the visible monthly fee instead of the invisible hours we spend doing the work by hand. Money gets a receipt and shows up on bank statements, but time never gets a statement, so it is easy to treat it as free.
How do you calculate what an hour of your time is worth?
Take last year’s revenue and divide it by the actual hours you worked including nights and weekends. Pick a number that feels honest for both the financial loss on slow days and the personal cost to your family and sleep.
What happens when you spend your day saving money instead of making it?
You lock the person who can generate revenue out of the office. Chasing small discounts or doing manual data entry takes hours away from quoting jobs, doing billable work, and following up with leads.
How do you decide if a software tool is actually worth buying?
Put your hourly number on a sticky note on your monitor. Ask the minimal question. Will this tool save the hours to justify the cost. If the math works, buy it and automate the task immediately.
What should you do ninety days after turning a new tool on?
Check if it actually saved the time it was supposed to. If yes, keep it. If no, cancel it. This stops you from paying for subscriptions that stopped earning their keep months ago.

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Put a Real Number on Your Hour

Take a few minutes with the free self-assessment to see where your time is actually going. Or book a free call to put a real number on your hour and find which tools actually earn their keep.

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