“You will get all you want in your your life if you help enough other people get what they want” -Zig Ziglar

It has long since been proven that numbers play a major role in just about everything that goes on in the world, even if it doesn’t necessarily seem that way to the naked eye. There are cases where numbers and the effect they have are clearly apparent, with business being the most obvious of those. In the vast majority of cases, particularly in small business, owners will look at the bottom line and make decisions based on whether the final figure is red or black. The true representation of why the color is the way it is can usually only be found by digging a little deeper.

There is a well proven theory in business known as the 80-20 rule, or Pareto’s Law to give it the proper name, which basically states that there is a minority of action (the 20%) that account for the majority of outcomes (the remaining 80%). If this is a concept you are unaware of, you need to read on, as it will reveal some rather basic truths that could turn around your business the moment you discover what they are and take steps to rectify them.

Las Vegas may very well be the largest working example of the 80-20 rule, especially when you look at the people who go there to gamble. The average person sitting at the cheap slots might receive a free drink every now and again, whereas the “whales” who blow into town and make a huge financial splash are rewarded with free suites and all kinds of other freebies. It’s not that Vegas doesn’t love the business of the average gambler, it’s that they know they are the 20% of the business, while the whale represents the 80%.

The 80-20 rule exists in a number of areas of your business, if only you take the time to look. Are your sales evenly spread out among your clients, or do you find that a smaller percentage, much like on Vegas, spend the most money? If that’s the case, you need to look at where your marketing money is going. Are you throwing out 80% of those funds trying to lure in the smaller spender, or are you targeting wisely and spending that 80% on those clients that are likely to bring in a large amount of sales volume when compared to the rest?

The same rules apply to the products in which you sell and where customer complaints lie. The majority of profits are likely to come from a small percentage of your products, just as the complaints that come in are likely to be mostly targeted at a small number of products. Your goal as a small business owner should be to do that digging and look for instances of the 80-20 rule. Once you identify them, you can make the changes necessary to ensure that Pareto’s Law is indeed putting the numbers in your favor.

Same rule hold’s true in the world of networking marketing.  80% of your team are stable and waiting and 20% are the people that want to make it happen now.  Don’t waste time with people who waste your time.  Identify those leaders and your time will best be spent getting them to exactly where they want to be.