The Bright Side of the Dismal Science: Time Utilization

Hey, small business owners! 

Do you know how you utilize your time and why knowing that is essential? That is: What is your time utilization rate? What’s its importance?

Economic Damages & The Owner-Worker

The dismal side of our business is that we calculate economic damages for plaintiffs and defendants in civil litigation matters.

We estimate the financial damages self-employed individuals suffer when someone has hurt them and can’t earn a living. We clarify the value of the “owner-worker.” 

As an “owner-worker,” our “labor” is the primary generator of our business’s revenues. The economic damages literature designates us “owner-workers.” 

When an owner-worker suffers a “personal injury” due to someone else’s negligence, our job is to determine how much compensation they will need to replace their lost earnings.

For the defendant, we assess the estimates the plaintiff’s expert provides. If we’re working on a wrongful death matter, we estimate what’s due to their estate. Like and follow us.

Loss of Utilization Capacity

In one of our cases, the plaintiff couldn’t generate the type of quality of services they had before their injury. Thus, they could document that they had 6 to 8 hours of spare time due to their injury.

Their injury had resulted in an under-utilization of their time. So, we developed a time utilization model and converted that into the loss of free cash flow. We discuss “free cash flow” in other blogs.

The Bright Side

Here’s the bright side of our practice. First, we highlight  why it’s crucial for  the owner-worker should know (i) how they utilize their time and (ii) how their time utilization translates  into “free cash flow.”

Why? 

Because, in many cases, the difference between your post-injury and pre-injury utilization rates will be the basis for determining economic damages. 

Why?

As an owner-worker, you could have zero net profit and still have a claim for financial losses.

My advice to owner-workers: 

Sharpen your understanding of the value-added of your time utilization.

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