Note: The links to the free 90 day trial of FreshBooks are referral links. I always believe in full disclosure.
Breaking The Time Barrier will teach you how to unlock your true earning potential.
TL;DR – This short book will help you price your services. It explains why we business owners should quit trading our time for money by using billable hours and instead price for the value we provide our clients. It also teaches us how to deliver MORE value to our clients.
I’m grateful to Brian Hood and Chris Graham at 6-Figure Creative podcast for interviewing Mike McDerment, CEO of Freshbooks, about his FREE book Breaking The Time Barrier. Take a listen to that episode.
As the owner of a bookkeeping firm, I am also a service-based business just like the audience at 6-Figure Creative and most of Mike’s FreshBooks users. Finding this book was a win-win for me. I personally needed this message AND know that my small business bookkeeping clients need this message, too.
I suggest that EVERY business owner snag your free copy of Breaking The Time Barrier. It takes about 45 minutes to read and reads like a fable, which is refreshing. The tone of this book will especially appeal to folks who are prone to tuning out at messages that have too much business and accounting jargon. I promise that you will see yourself in one of the few characters in this book. Or maybe you’ll see a bit of yourself in all the characters.
My favorite concepts from Breaking The Time Barrier
- He works through the pricing journey and doesn’t present Value Pricing as the perfect solution for every business owner at every stage. That would be a dishonest representation of this. But it is something that every business owner can work toward.
- He is not patronizing about his message. You won’t feel dumb or embarssed after reading it, but instead you’ll feel empowered to start making changes. Pricing is tough. Mike has not always been perfect (still isn’t perfect). But this is something to work towards with encouragement from a great businessman like Mike.
- By using Value Pricing, we service providers are able to be fairly compensated for our years of expertise. Without a value pricing model, we make LESS money the better and faster we do our job, which doesn’t make sense at all.
- He doesn’t present Value Pricing like a magic pill. Value pricing does not solve all your problems. You will occasionally get dinged. But you’ll get better and better at estimating the time it takes you to do projects. The dings will be fewer and farther between. The pros of this pricing model outweigh the cons.
- He works through some really specific examples and “what-ifs” that you will have as your hourly billing brain thinks, “But Mike, what about this scenario? Or this scenario?” He cuts off that “no” thinking and gets you to think about how to make small adjustments to achieve the goal of using Value Pricing in your business.
- The section called “The Seven Mutual Benefits of Exploring Value With Your Clients” is pure gold. You must read the details, but here it the quick list.
- Creates Trust
- Fosters Alignment
- Helps Your Client Better Evaluate Vendors
- Frames The Solution As An Investment, Not An Expense
- Inspires Action
- Let’s Your Clients Make An Informed Business Decision
- Establishes A Trusted Partnership
- We all need that mentor like Karen in our lives. How can you find your “Karen”? If you are “Karen”, are you willing to help that “Steve” in your life?
I challenge you to give yourself a deadline, put it in your calendar, and read this book as soon as possible. For me, I printed it off and read it on the stair master at the gym (ok…maybe I was not too sad to put the stair master on a bit lower setting that day!). When will you read it? Come back and leave a comment and join the discussion when you do.
What ONE step will you take to begin your journey of breaking the time barrier and unlocking your true earning potential?
If you ever need assistance with bookkeeping, you can always reach out for a free consultation. And if you aren’t using a bookkeeping software and want to use Freshbooks to invoice your clients and track your project performance and even your time (for your internal metrics, not to use to bill your clients), you can reach out to me for a 90-Day free trial. Guess what…there are about 90 days left in 2021. Time to get those books in order for year end. Don’t put it off!