A New Take on the 80/20 Rule

Have you heard the 80/20 rule?

20% of actions lead to 80% of results & 20% of customers are responsible for 80% of your business.

This knowledge is very popular and in my experience it is true, which means that 80% of the time we are only achieving 20% of the results... This is an important concept to examine for your business and has vast implications.

Something My Mentor Said Recently That Shocked Me

Russel Wright from ThemeZoom (one of my online business mentors) suggested that we should spend 80% of our time in Research and 20% of our time in Development.

This is radical.

Honestly, how much time are you investing in Research? Just like a more precise question will receive a more precise answer, quality research can dramatically change your business. The more relevant information we have about our business and market, the easier it becomes to make quality decisions to achieve our goals.

How Can We Spend Only 20% Of Our Time In Development?

Systemizing and Outsourcing are powerful tools that you can implement in your business. Systemizing creates efficiency and makes it easy to train your employees or outsourcees.

Imagine that you are in a kayak about a km from shore and it springs a leak - you have to swim back to shore and you are a poor swimmer.

Your journey back to shore will involve swimming forward and treading water. Because you are not a strong swimmer you will have to rest and tread water in order to get the energy to keep going forward.

In your business, how much time are you spending swimming forward and how much time do you spend treading water?

I have experienced a huge liberation since I started outsourcing all the tedious tasks in my business. One of the important shifts for me was my attitude. I am much happier now doing the things that I enjoy (brainstorming, blueprinting, planning, etc), and I get way more done.

Why not leave the gardening to the gardner and the pool-keeping to the pool guy? Do what you do best and enjoy doing it!

I have achieved a new balance spending about 50% of my time in R & B (Research and Blueprinting) and 50% in accomplishing tasks.

I realize that this "80/20 Research to Implementation" idea is not for everyone and every business. What is important though is to analyze the effect that lack of research and planning is having on your business.