Mark Loosmore: Beware 'garbage in, garbage out'

Time is money - it is precious and perhaps our greatest resource. That is certainly the case for businesses whose products and services are an artful blend of time and skill. And, unless you know exactly what to charge, overvaluing or undervaluing your product is all too easy. A friend of mine recently found himself in exactly this position. He owns a small marketing agency and introduced a time-tracker to generate the data he needed to help inform hourly rates, timescales and resource planning. It should have been straightforward - everyone logs their time under their jobs, my friend...