The Cost of Unfinished Projects
(And how to turn them into results)

Have you ever thought about how much time and money you have already spent on unfinished projects? At Bungalo Group, we’ve been diving into several important projects that we started several weeks ago. We’ve broken them down into “chunks” and “bites” and we’re chomping away. We’re crossing stuff off the list in order to achieve our third and fourth quarter growth goals.

We all have strategic growth initiatives that (if finished) will produce results! Which projects do you need to finish in order to create results for your company?

Not finished = Zero Results.

Until a project is finished, the resources you put in are just an expense: dollars and time in, with nothing to show for it.

Use a worksheet like this one to help you calculate the cost and impact of an unfinished project. 

In this example the "cost" of the unfinished project is 2 hours of time. Spending another 8 hours to complete an unfinished project will have an estimated impact of $12,000 Gross Margin Dollars.

But what if you have several unfinished projects in the works? What's the total amount of time and money you have IN, with nothing to show for your effort and dollars? 

Some projects are worth more than others

Suppose one project will take 10 hours to complete and produce $12,000 of Gross Margin Dollars. And another project will take 40 hours and produce $150,000 of Gross Margin Dollars – Which project should you work on?

$12,000 ÷ 10 hours = $1200 per hour invested
$150,000 ÷ 40 hours = $3750 per hour invested

Instead of choosing several smaller projects – which is what most people tend to do –  you might be better off focusing on one bigger, more complex project.

As long as you finish it. 

Use the PROJECT PAYBACK WORKSHEET to calculate the impact of completing your unfinished projects. Do the math and choose the projects that will produce the highest return on your investment, then…

Finish Your Projects!

Finishing a project, especially when time is scarce can be challenging. Like eating an elephant. The best way to do it is to break it down into “chunks” (big pieces or phases) and “bites” (smaller, more manageable tasks you can complete daily, and weekly). Ideally, bites are things that can be accomplished in 4 hours or less – this makes it easier to schedule time to complete your project.

If you wait until you have a LARGE chunk of uninterrupted time to “eat your elephant” it will probably still be there – uneaten – next month, next quarter, next year!

Remember: Choose an unfinished project to finish. But instead of picking the one that is easiest, or quickest, choose the one that will have the BIGGEST IMPACT on your growth goals.

Bigger projects are more challenging to complete than small ones. We've created the ELEPHANT WORKSHEET to help you and your team break your project down into chunks or bites.

Or you can create a PROJECT PLAN WORKSHEET that looks like this:

The point is: don’t let unfinished projects become a vacuum, sucking time and money out of your Growth Zone™.

•    Choose the growth projects that will create the biggest return on your investment of money AND time.
•    Create an action plan (block out time to complete small “bites”)
•    Execute your plan to create results!

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