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Behind The Firm List Blog
Time (Well?) Spent
Every so often, I find myself wondering how much time I've really spent on The Firm List over the years. I know I've spent a lot, but I
decided a little while back to try and get a better sense for how much time I was really putting in. So I tried to keep as accurate track
as possible, sort of like keeping a timesheet at one of my day jobs. I got some stats from both a period when I was working a day job, and
thus had less time to work on the site as well as a period when I was working extensively on it.
So I took 7 4-6 day "week" stretches (since I don't work just 5 days a week on it and my weeks are more free form) from my records for
March, April, May and June and here's what I found.
Period
Hours Per Day
Total Hours
Avg. Hours Per Day
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
3.17-3.23
7.25
7.00
8.50
3.75
2.25
3.50
32.25
5.37
3.24-2.31
1.25
6.00
8.25
9.00
2.75
6.25
33.50
5.58
4.1-4.6
6.00
3.75
4.00
4.25
11.00
4.50
33.50
5.58
4.21-4.29
0.25
5.00
2.00
1.00
2.25
2.50
13.00
2.16
5.1-5.6
4.25
7.50
6.00
2.00
8.75
6.75
35.25
5.87
5.7-5.12
5.75
4.75
2.75
7.00
7.75
5.50
33.50
5.58
6.5-6.25
3.50
1.00
4.50
2.25
-
-
11.25
1.87
Okay, now some reflection on what was going on during those periods.
For the most part, I was only "employed" fulltime during one of them (the June 5 - 25 period) which helps to explain why that 6 day week only
was 4 days and stretched over almost a full month. 1.87 hours a day during that stretch is being generous. Hence the extremely low numbers
of firms being added that month. In addition to being fulltime employed, I was working in another city during the week and staying with my
father and thus was not in my own place with my usual tools/freedoms.
During the March stretches (March 17 - 23 and March 24 - 31) I was doing a little bit of freelance work, which wasn't fulltime and doesn't seem
to have impacted the hours I could put towards The Firm List.
The only abnormality really is the April 21 - 29 stretch which just seems to be attributed to an "off" period. Sometimes there's just other
things going on in my life...
Unfortunately, I don't have a good measure of time spent while working fulltime for a job and living in my own place. That would likely be
more hours a week than that June period indicates. I would hazard to guess it would be between 2 and 3 hours a day during those periods.
So what does that all tell me? Well, good question. Doing some quick calculations (75 months The Firm List has been around, insert total months
fulltime employment, carry the one, etc.) I can come up with a very rough estimate of the amount of hours I've worked on this site over the
last 6 years & 3 months.
So, an estimate is that I've worked 6,075 hours on The Firm List over the last 6.25 years. That works out to 81 hours a month, roughly the
equivalent of 2 fulltime work weeks a month. When you realize that I worked fulltime (40 hours a week for a firm in their offices) 43 of
those 75 months, you can understand I was likely putting in 60 hour work weeks.
And all that was an exercise to prove what? That I work a lot? That this is how I became a multi-millionaire (oh yeah, right!). Or to moan
about how little money I made per each of those hours?
Nawh, just a chance for me to reflect on the last 6 years and to try to put some vague notion on what it's all involved.
Other random data that can be extrapolated from this (because it's fun, come on!):
- That's 2.39 hours spent for each firm listed on The Firm List (don't you feel you've gotten your 2.39 hours from me?)
- If I was being paid $12/hour (what I earned back at one of my first web jobs in 1996) that would mean I've earned $72,900 to build this
site.
- If a company had paid me to build this site and I was charging them consulting rates (adjusting rates over those years (anywhere from
$20 to $100/hr), let's say $50/hr) that would mean this site would cost them $303,750 to build & maintain, or roughly $50,625 a year. That
doesn't make me feel so bad when 2-3 years ago someone inquired about buying the site and I quoted a minimum talking figure of $250,000 and
they balked and disappeared. Also makes me wonder about a former competitor which used a lawyer to approach me about buying their site, and
I was told they'd had several million in venture capital... to last them what, 2-3 years?
- That I like data, information, facts, figures, you have it. Any other interpretations of my "condition" are up to you to make (and keep
to yourself).
