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Timesheets and Hourly Billing are on Our Stop Doing List.

In his research, Jim Collins finds that companies achieving lasting greatness have many things in common. For one thing, they have a “stop doing” list that rivals the to-do version. Here are a few things we stopped doing at DiMassimo Goldstein that seem to have made all the difference:

TIMESHEETS. That’s right, at DiMassimo Goldstein exactly zero creative energy is spent on useless timesheets. This exercise, once thought to be absolutely essential–and which is almost universally a billable time-consuming farce that occasionally leads to criminal penalties–has no place in our routine. We just don’t do them. Instead, we put time and energy into growing our client’s brands and businesses.

But what if a client insists on timesheets? Every organization must choose its priorities. To those who can’t appreciate the benefits of a team 100% focused on their business rather than our own, we just say “No thanks.”

BILLING BY THE HOUR. DiMassimo Goldstein is not a temp agency that lends employees to clients, who then must manage them. We take care of the integration of the team and take full responsibility for the results. That’s why we never charge by the hour. Each client pays a monthly retainer. If we put in more hours, the fee remains the same. If we need more staff, the fee remains the same. If a relationship is unprofitable for more than a few months, we sit down with the client and reprioritize or expand the scope of the work–always going forward, never backward.

Some say, “It’s unsustainable!” All we can say is that we’ve been doing it this way for more than a decade—over ten years of satisfied clients and consistent agency growth and profitability.

So how do we manage and know what people are doing with their time? We can, by asking the team every day – what are you working on? What are your challenges? How can we help? These questions not only take bureaucracy off everyone’s plates, but they fuel integrity. Along with trust, it forms the core of all successful relationships.

What’s on your Stop Doing List? Let me know at mark@digobrands.com.