One of the things that's helped me the most since I started my business is keeping track of my time as well as possible.
Since my business model is essentially offering services based directly on the time I spend delivering those services it's obviously important to know how much time I spend in order to bill clients, but I find it also helps me better understand how much I should charge in the first place.
I remember when I first starting developing websites I didn't really know in advance how long it would take to finish any given project. Estimating a job always involves a little guesswork, but in the beginning it involved a lot. I think I would underbid by far on one job and completely overbid on another and often didn't get either job.
The more I track projects and the more I track the specific parts of a project the better I've gotten at estimating the next project. it helps a lot in being able to charge clients less than someone else might, but also not too little where I can't make my own rates.
Does everyone else here track their time? It doesn't matter so much how you track time, but are you good at knowing how many hours it typically takes to complete certain tasks?
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