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How many professional service companies encourage non-billable time? Not many.

It tends to be viewed as coming right off the bottom line.

And it’s a large chunk indeed! Various industry estimates place non-billable time between 30 and 60

percent of all time spent at work. And of that time, less than half is planned and scheduled.

However, a healthy, growing firm should not only encourage non-billable time, but demand it of all

their attorneys and billing employees by creating specific, structured projects for that time—includ-

ing marketing, education and professional development.

Non-billable time should never be “lost” time when it can become time to grow.

MAKING TIME TO GROWSTRUCTURING NON-BILLABLE TIME

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By Mike Davids

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Think of billable time as your firm’s’ current income, butnon-billable time as the future of your firm. In fact, a sim-ple name change from non-billable to “investment” or“asset-building” could go a long way toward helping yourfirm understand the best purpose of this time.

If non-billable time is required, organized, and intentional,it becomes time for building the firm’s intellectual capitalsuch as training time for new associates. It’s also a time tomarket the business, building brand (reputation), commu-nity relations, and developing new or potential client rela-tionships.

To start, do an accounting of your firm’s current non-billabletime—how much is there? Discuss this amount in a meetingof all billing employees. Is the amount excessive or in the normal range?

How can the time be put to better use? Create a blue-ribboncommittee to find investment uses for this time. If the firm’sgrowth is stagnant, there may be too little non-billable time.Or, the time is not being organized successfully.

Assume a time loss of between five and ten percent for the trivial daily administrative tasks of office management, readinge-mail, filing, and of course talking at the water cooler.Assume another ten percent as non-billable, but essential toclient contacts.

After that, how much time should be devoted to educationand communication—both internal and external? How muchshould be devoted to outside business and community work?How much should be devoted to marketing and public relations?

The answers to these questions will vary depending on the sizeand primary business of the firm. However, while the percentof time will vary, the importance of these efforts for the firm’s

future should not be underestimated.

STRUCTURED TIMECan non-billable time be scheduled in advance with assignedprojects? How can it be used to develop the talent level of thenewer associates? How can it be used to market the firm? Ismarketing and communications something that would bebetter handled by an outside consultant or a new hire?

At most firms, associates put in a great deal of time, often atthe cost of personal time. Therefore asking them to take oneven more responsibility can seem unnecessarily burden-some. However, it is true that people can be much moreproductive when their time is organized and when they haveconcrete goals to accomplish during their non-billable time.

People tend to accomplish more and feel less burdenedwhen they have specific tasks that need to be accomplishedwithin specific timelines. The concept of “triage” comes

into play. Imagine the pressure a surgeon would feel withdozens of dying people waiting for his or her help—triagehelps prioritize patients so that the surgeon can focus on oneat a time. Triage is derived from the French tier, meaning "tosort." When projects are organized, prioritized, and sorted—people focus better and get a great deal more accomplished.

RAINMAKING 101In most firms, marketing to new clients is often left as aninformal task. A senior partner who is particularly skilled atbringing in new clients is known as the “rainmaker” and islooked on with awe and reverence.

Like the name suggests, the art of rainmaking is looked onas “magic” rather than a skill that can be practiced andlearned. Savvy firms today are sending new associates tomarketing seminars to help them learn this “magic.” Otherfirms are encouraging as many as twenty hours a month tobe devoted to non-billable hours for training and practice inthe skill of rainmaking. This non-billable time has thepotential for creating more billable hours as it generates newbusiness.

One way to develop the skills of rainmaking within a firmis to develop a team approach, where young professionalsteam up with the firm’s best rainmaker to act as assistantsand protégés. The result is a mentor relationship where less-experienced team members also learn the important indus-try issues with which the senior member specializes. Smallerfirms have accepted team-building programs as a way of bet-ter competing with larger companies and bringing juniorpartners along more quickly.

The highly fragmented pool of non-billable time can seemlike a great waste of time and money if the firm doesn’t gaina handle on it. However, once this time is assigned to“investment” purposes, and begins to have its intendedeffect of bringing in more billable time, the result could bea serious shortage of non-billable time.

m a n a g e m e n t

Mike Davids a member of Newcomb Marketing Solutions’ Creative Team, withover 20 years of experience in marketing and print communications. Mike hasa graduate certificate in Direct Marketing from DePaul University, Chicago, anMA from Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT, and a BA from the University ofIowa. He can be reached at mike@mikedavids.us or at 800-921-1221.