Tracking Time Keeps Branding Business on Track

Okay friends and fans!  We’re in a groove here at OfficeTime!  This week’s interview on time management and how vital it is to a successful business is with Dan Crask of BrandShepherd.com.

Dan is one of our favorite people – a real odd-ball among fellow creatives, he somehow finds a balance between right-brain creativity and left-brain organization. (Being a creative tech company ourselves, we like that.)  Dan’s a creative that understands business and brings that to Brand Shepherd and every client they work with. Dan believes that “good design” is relative to the goals of the project and goes far beyond the obvious.

Tell us about Brand Shepherd, Dan, and about the services you provide.

The simple truth is that brands, like anything in a business, need to be managed and constantly updated as a business grows. Since your brand is the face of your company, being sure it’s vibrant, attractive, and that the look and messaging carries through thoroughly is invaluable.  That’s what Brand Shepherd does.  We create and / or corral all of a company’s branded assets – Logo, Web, Consumer Packaging, Mobile, Printed Stuff, Social Media, etc.  You name it – we herd it.

Here’s the pain out there today:  It’s easy for a company or product to develop over time, in many places, and not have a consistent and significant brand. So instead of clearly leading a client or consumer to your business, your brand ends up scattered everywhere, disorganized and inconsistent, which loses business.

How important is time management in the day-to-day running of your business AND your life?

The very foundation of balance is time management.  If I lose my time, I have nothing to work with.  My clients need me present, not thinking about all sorts of other things.  My family needs me present, not with my head focused on work.  Ultimately, time management is the most efficient method of keeping my head where it’s needed. My approach to being a business owner, father, and husband (among other hats) was greatly impacted by a woman whom I worked for ten years ago. She definitely walked the talk of fighting to balance quality of life with career goals, and the hard choices that balance sometimes required.  This inspired me to fight for the same balance in my own life, later, as a CEO. My son is now 3 years old, and we have a second child due in October, so efficient time management is vitally important to me.

Talk to me specifically about OfficeTime. What’s been your biggest takeaway of using it?

Gosh…where do I begin?!  The biggest takeaway is its adaptability.  That’s a big umbrella to put all the myriad benefits under.  Adaptability:  When I started the business I needed to simply track my time on projects.  Then we began to offer a retainer fee structure, but like many service providers, Brand Shepherd’s retainer rate is different than our non-retainer rate.  I needed the ability to easily track all my work, at varying prices, per hour.  The nature of my work is that I sometimes switch between projects in a snap, so the way OfficeTime handles switching super fast is really efficient. Then, t the start of 2011, Brand Shepherd overhauled how we invoice projects from start to finish, and this put heavy emphasis on generating time reports every 30 days.

For each of these changes OfficeTime has been adaptable to the need at hand.  Setting different rates, being able to quickly switch, edit, and add projects, generating time reports every 30 days…every need has been met. Come to think of it, I don’t stop to wonder if OfficeTime can handle a need to I have with time management, I just assume it can.  A good assumption so far!  We are presently in a big growth period, and I see OfficeTime being used by different employees as we add them. OfficeTime’s adaptability is the #1 biggest benefit I rely on.

So what new and awesome thing have you been able to create at Brand Shepherd, since you’ve freed up so much time with the OfficeTime time tracking tool?

With the extra time I’ve gained I’ve started a side project with some friends who are, like me, fathers and gadget geeks.  The project is a new website called Gadget Dads™, and it will launch by Father’s Day 2011. If you visit between now and Father’s Day 2011 you’ll see posts as we prep the site for an official launch.  When my pals and I get together, inevitably we end up talking about gadgets and tech stuff – our phones, apps, iPads, cameras, TVs, etc. One day the idea was floated that we should start a website where we offer up reviews, news, and maybe some rumors and rumblings.  It’s very much in its infancy, but we’re all really excited about this. Check in on the site often to watch our progress and root us on!

Any final words about Brand Shepherd that you’d like our audience to know, Dan?

Yes.  At Brand Shepherd, our approach to branding and graphic design is different than other companies.  We are grounded in what we call Practical Humility.  We listen, think, create, and serve. And we succeed over and over, which is the most important piece of the branding puzzle.

Time. The real commodity.
OfficeTime.net