Could You Be Creating Success More Easily?

Have you heard of the Pareto Principle? Vilfredo Pareto coined the phrase when he realised that 80% of his beans/peas came from only 20% of what he planted. In this article, we’re going to explore how the Pareto Principle can help you create success more easily in your coaching/mentoring business.

Vilfredo tested the rule across other areas and developed the Pareto Principle. Let’s focus on the principle in simplified terms.

This principle is also called the 80/20 rule, and it’s a great way to boost your productivity because you start to notice where you’re wasting time.

The rule says 20% of your work will create 80% of the results.

What’s great about this principle is that once you know it and get clear on what that 20% is for your business, you can start letting go of much of what you do. It will free up your time.

The Rule

What could it mean for your business if 80% of your results come from 20% of your action?

Let’s say your 20% is doing Facebook lives, and that’s where 80% of your business comes from. Why spend so much time writing blog posts? It would make more sense to focus on the Facebook lives.

Let’s relate it to life.

1. You may have a massive clothes wardrobe, but you only wear 20% of them.
2. You may have an extensive list of meals you could prepare, but you stick with about 20% of them.
3. You may own many books but only read 20% of them.
4. Another example often used is apps on your phone. You will likely have many, but you’ll mostly use about 20%.

How do you define your 20%, though?

We could sit here and do the calculations on where you’re spending your time, and whether they are on low-medium-high-end tasks, and in fact, we’d encourage you to do that for a time so that you know whether you’re focusing on action-producing results.

However, you can also do this in a non-numerical way.

There would be essential things in your business that would stop/stifle it if you didn’t do them. These tasks are the things that always bring money into your business. If you give it some thought, you will immediately know where your results come from, so do more of those.

20% of people you’re connected with will bring you 80% of your business. Do the maths. It does work!

If you wrote a list of people who purchased products or services from you, they will likely be the same. If that’s the case, what if you nurture those people rather than trying to bring in more new leads? Indeed, it makes more business sense to focus on them rather than spend time trying to get more people to connect with you.

We’re not saying don’t spend time growing your email list and connections, but we are saying that it’s worthwhile nurturing the connections you already have.

If you knew that 80% of your work comes from 20% of what you do in terms of your visibility, what would you do differently?

Knowing where your 20% of business comes from lets you spend your time much more wisely.

For example, let’s say your 20% of business comes from the following:

1. Writing (online articles, blogging).
2. Connecting with people 1:1 through virtual coffee chats.
3. Training/Speaking.

Once you know this, you can ask yourself whether it’s worth investing time in creating videos. They may be a good tool for visibility, but they should not be your primary tool, as they aren’t yielding great results. Focus on writing, connecting, training and speaking, as that brings in more business for you.

This week, take some time to determine what your 80/20 is because it can help you work smarter, not harder.

What you focus on, you get more of. So what if you focused on the 20% of work that brings you 80% of your results? Let us know how you get on in the comments below.