I was just wondering how many hours you one man operations are spending on paperwork. I have been in business for 18 years and my gross income comes in just above the $100,000 mark. I am finding myself spending 4-6 hrs a week and another 4-6 on end-of-the-month billing with my wife spending another 2-3 per month helping me. If you add it all up, in a 4 week month we are spending 28-30 hrs doing paperwork.
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Do you do mostly storefronts? My gross was 155k and I’m only 4 years in.
Time to get the tape measure out!
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it’s gonna depend on average job size (3 day buildings vs storefront or lots of 1.5k sft homes) but I’ve noticed 1 FT office per 3=4 FT schedules seems to keep popping up (a day to a day and and a half a week)
just the routine admin (scheduling, phones, payroll, a/r etc etc), excluding finance or marketing
What’s that got to do with his question?
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By paperwork, do you mean billing? Or all admin work? We probably spend 3 hours per month on billing. Our software can close and bill jobs in a couple of clicks. All admin paperwork is probably 5-6 hours per month. Past due mailing, insurance request, etc. We don’t do the books so we don’t have to spend any time doing that.
Not trying to be rude, I just don’t see how a person can gross 100 k in 18 years and I’m a one person show at 155k in 4 years. Yes I know that sounds mean but that’s not how I mean it. Makes me wonder if he is doing storefront work that’s been priced down by people playing cut throat or if he is not charging enough because my area isn’t anything to brag about where I live.
Market area, individual skills and motivation /time commitment all play a role. A lot of guys do this part time/semi-fulltime to support their other interests and goals in life.
Bottom line is, don’t judge 
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Not judging at all. Simply trying to figure his scope of work and routine schedule that would cause low numbers. I do lots of residential very little small commercial/storefront, zero post construction and a few large commercial. My large commercial is significant income. Not judging or downgrading just strange, I know a local carpet/window company that was netting 70 k after 50 years in business with 1 carpet guy and 4 window washers and was in shock. Then again they charge $70 for my $300 job so not surprised
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Are you assuming this is based on a full-time, year round schedule?
We only work 6 months out of the year. You’d be a fool to gauge our hourly rate by our year end yield.
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Not talking hourly rate, I’m talking year gross and who is we, thought you were a one person show
I am a one man show. I always address “me” as “we” because most property managers don’t believe one man, well equipped and professional, can do what a van full of newbies can do.
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I spend 2-3 hours per week on “paper work”, as a one man show. This includes building/sending proposals, invoicing, staying in touch with clients, etc.
Yes, we don’t “charge” for paper work but I always add it onto next year’s increase 
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I understand I post on social media as we to because it sounds like a company more than I.
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Can you give us a breakdown? How much time goes to specific tasks, in which areas of your business?
some people have figured out that $X is at the income to time device they want in their lives. I’m trying to grow my business and others have found their personal sweet spots.
the quality of one’s life is often measured by the quality of one’s time.
Thanks to all who responded.
To answer Denver13, I am almost 58, I only work 5 days a week, I rarely work more than 10 hours a day in my busy season here in PA and I regularly beat the “going” $65/ hour rate. I am happy. I would love to earn more but not at the expense of my time and my aging body.
To answer mshramek. By paperwork I meant billing, scheduling, tracking expenses, posting work orders and payments received, bank deposits and monthly tax paperwork. Though it is not paperwork I was also including upkeep and repairs to my equipment and the laundering of towels and uniforms in that 28-30 hours.
To answer Pure_Water_Window Cl. I do work year round but the residential work is seasonal like every other Northerner. I know that part of my "problem: is that 60% of my work is route work, 8% is commercial and the rest (32%) is residential. I know that route work is heavy on the paperwork but it is what keeps me going in the “off” season.
To answer Philippians413. By paper work I mean all that has to do with creating work orders, route sheets, posting work, posting cash receipts, printing invoices, and posting expenses. That probably takes 4 hrs a wk. Billing takes about 1/4 hour a week and and 3 hours at the end of the month. Laundry and equipment upkeep - 1 hour a week. The rest of the time is used to do scheduling (reminder calls and such) website updates, back ups and other miscellaneous things.
I was frustrated and just wanted to see if my time investments were out of the norm.
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Are you in Denver Colorado?
@DaveTWC do you use any kind of CRM?
Do any solo guys here have systems to reduce their time spent on paperwork? (@windowsrx?)
I use a CRM called Proserve from Easybee Software. It is computer based as opposed to cloud based and I have been using it for 17 years so even though it has gone through some upgrades, I know it well. I’ve wondered about trying others but never pursued any. In my opinion it’s hard to know if another CRM saves time until you are all in and know the program well.
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