An $800 Invoice Design

This story must be shared with you to make you stop, think, rethink and comprehend (!) that your greatest commodity is your time.

There was this sole business owner – let’s name her Jill – who was running her firm from home. Her average hourly billing rate was in the $300-400 range. She used QuickBooks. She was one of those “I-can-do-it-all” type of person. For a long period of time she did not do any “customization” in QuickBooks, her invoices did not have a logo or any fancy design distinguishing her invoice.

One day, she decided to “customize” it. She has never been trained on QuickBooks, but found her way around it, was able to take care of her business accounting needs. She was sure she can figure it out and make her invoice pretty and unique.

And she succeeded. In 2 hours she figured it out. She put a logo up in the left corner, changed the font type and size, and added some other small changes. But she figured it out and differentiated her invoice from other QuickBooks invoices.

How much did it cost? About $800. Probably one of the most expensive and overpaid piece of task ever.

How overpaid? If Jill had a contact to a QuickBooks ProAdvisor, it probably took 15 minutes and significantly less money.

The moral of this story: life is short, we have only 24 billable hours a day, so think and rethink what the best use of your greatest commodity ever is. Your time.


My name is Sylvia Pacher, managing director for CCG- Virtual Corporate Services group, and I am always here to talk about your business goals and needs to reach those goals. My success is your success - please feel free to contact me personally if you are ready to see how we can make your company stronger, bigger, better, more competitive and profitable. Visit www.myvirtualcorporate.com for more deatils about our unparalelled services and I am looking forward to hearing from you (spacher@myvirtualcorporate.com)!