Ticktock. Ticktock. Ticktock. For some, that’s what the passage of time sounds like. For others, it goes more like this: Cha-ching. Cha-ching. Cha-ching.

The most productive people—from Fortune 500 CEOs to 20-something yuppies— view their time in dollars and cents. Yet many of us persist in thinking, “It’s cheaper to do it myself,” or “Why pay someone else to do something I can do?” The answer, of course, is that your time is precious and could be spent on activities that ultimately reap great rewards—financial, as well as personal.

Even if you aren’t a victim of your own misguided work ethic or thriftiness, it’s easy to get sucked into a time-wasting task—filing, doing laundry, entering data. You think that chore will just take a few minutes, but over time, all the busywork adds up.

So how are you budgeting your time? Just as we scrutinize home and office budgets down to the last penny, it’s important to look at how we’re spending our time and whether or not each activity is a worthy allocation. (See sidebars on the following pages to help you figure out the value of your time and what’s worth doing yourself.) Seriously, why spend an hour on data entry—which you could pay someone maybe $10 an hour to do—when you could spend those 60 minutes preparing a proposal that could result in thousands of dollars in returns?

That’s just what Debra Cohen wondered. This self-described “mompreneur” started a home-improvement contractor referral business in 1997 when the first of her two daughters was born. “In the beginning, I tried to do as much as I could on my own to save money, and, in the end, it cost me in time,” she says. “I quickly realized that I needed help in order to focus on the money-making aspects of my business.”

Resourceful Outsourcing

Cohen was pleased to find outsourcing more economical than she thought. After hours spent unsuccessfully trying to design her own logo, she figured she’d have to hire an expensive agency. But she found a retired artist for much less.

When her business, Home Remedies of NY Inc., started to really take off, Cohen found herself at another critical juncture. “I couldn’t keep up with my job orders, follow-up calls, invoicing, etc. We had just planned our fi rst family vacation in more than five years and couldn’t figure out how I could possibly leave my business.” At that point, Cohen found a local mom who was looking for work. She trained and hired her immediately, and the woman still works with her as her virtual assistant.

Today, Cohen’s workforce also includes a webmaster, an accountant and another stay-at-home mom who used to practice law but who now handles structure and trademark issues. “With the help of my outsourced workforce, I’m able to focus my limited work hours [three to five a day] on client follow-up, networking and contractor recruiting—the three most important aspects of my business,” she says.

Cohen is equally judicious about her personal time. As her business thrived, she hired a housekeeper and gardener. And when work is busier than usual, she doesn’t hesitate to order dinners in or buy prepared meals. “At the same time, I try not to compromise time with my family. I may order in dinner, but we will still sit down at the table together to eat as a family. After all, they are the reason that I decided to work from home in the first place.”