8/15: More on 80/20

I work 2 jobs, which is sometimes stress-inducing. Recently, it’s become a knowledge base, as I see skills transfer from one job to the other. Several times this week I’ve seen the ‘80/20’ rule (which I’ve discussed earlier) come into play.

 

Specifically, at one job, there’s a large but very low margin customer. We make almost no money in the account, but it helps absorb fixed costs, so any profit is better than nothing. (Still, it takes few sales to ‘regular’ accounts to generate a larger profit than all the time and effort that are needed for the low-margin account.) At this job, we’re very conscious of the 80/20 rule, so all this effort for little money can be frustrating.

 

It pays dividends at the other job, where few of my coworkers know about ‘80/20’. I use the knowledge gained both in one job and in real life to educate coworkers at the 2^nd job about 80/20. I encourage others by showing them how a few sales that are higher-dollar amount take the same amount of effort as a few sales of low-dollar amount transactions.  However, higher-dollar transactions generally make the employer more profit, which benefits all who work there. Uniformly, I see the point ‘sink in’ quickly. (Side note: my sales skills are enhanced at both jobs, mainly through my work at the 2^nd job, so the 1^st job benefits from the 2^nd job.)

 

Wrapping up this entry, I sometimes ask myself why I spend an inordinate amount of time doing things with little benefit. This is especially true with leisure time: at the end of the day, how did I invest my leisure time? For most people, 80% is wasted; 20% is used productively. We generally look for more leisure time in our lives, so staying organized (writing down lists, etc) is more essential than ever…100% of the time.