⌛ How to quantify the cost of delay

I mentioned last week about how the cost of indecision is often higher than the cost of a wrong decision. A few people reached out to discuss that further, so here is more.

Paying someone $500 to fix a problem that might not take long to fix yourself can be an absolute bargain. Here’s the proof (and the cost of indecision):

Let’s say your invoicing system is a mess. Clients pay late. You forget to send invoices. You keep meaning to fix it, but you're not super techy, so it keeps getting pushed down the list.

Now imagine this:

• If invoices went out on time more clients would pay (and faster).

  
  

  • For a $100k per year revenue service business, this usually frees up about $8,000 a year - money you could use to grow your business or hire help.

    
    

  • This is categorised as an “Increase Revenue” benefit, you make more money by fixing the issue.

    
    

• You also spend around 5 hours a month doing invoicing stuff yourself (when you remember!) or being otherwise distracted by invoicing.

  
  

  • At $40/hour, that’s another $2,400 a year in time you could save.

    
    

  • This saving is categorised as a “Reduce Cost” benefit, you spend less by fixing the issue.

    
    

Total value? $10,400 in this scenario (often much more!!).

That’s a cost of delay of about $200 every week.

If you wait 4 more weeks to fix it, that’s $800 lost - not just in money, but in energy, time, and peace of mind too.

You can only make an informed decision about whether it is worth paying someone the $500 to fix the issue when you can fully understand and see the cost of inaction.

These are conservative numbers, you likely make more than than $40 per hour and I didn’t factor in the opportunity cost of what you could do with that time or money instead. For example, if you took that $8,000 saving and those 5 hours per month and spent it on ads instead the least you’d be looking at should be around $24,000 more. The cost of that 4 week delay is closer to $2,000 now.

Now, of course it isn’t always clear how much extra you would make or save. I recommend people estimate these numbers for quick easy use (or ask ChatGPT!). A rough idea is often enough to work with here.

As an entrepreneur there are 1001 things you could be doing at any given moment that would help you or your business improve. You’re constantly making tradeoffs.

Most people make these tradeoffs blindly, they never consider the cost of the delay.

Quantifying the cost of delay = Potential Weekly Benefit × Weeks Delayed

I’ve made a simple cost of delay calculator you can copy and use for free. Here is a link to the sheet.

Next time you think, “I’ll get to it later,” ask yourself:

“What’s it costing me to wait?”

Screenshot from an article on the qualitative cost of delay, which is slightly different

but well worth a read.

This point came from my newsletter Work Smart Wednesday, if you would like to read the other related points I made in that email you can find it here: https://worksmartwednesday.substack.com/p/work-smart-wednesday-july-2-2025

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