Menu

Effectiveness

Building a Business Plan

The Importance of Building a Start-up Using the 80/20 Rule!

, , , , , , ,

The Pareto principle, also known as the 80/20 rule, states that 80% of the results come from 20% of the causes. This principle can be applied to many aspects of life, such as productivity, happiness, health, and wealth. As an entrepreneur about to embark on the start-up journey, it is especially important to identify and focus on the most important tasks that will generate the most value for your customers and your company. The Pareto principle can help you prioritize your actions and allocate your resources more efficiently.

Here are some steps to follow:

– Analyze your current situation and identify the key metrics that measure your progress and success. For example, revenue, profit, customer satisfaction, user retention, etc.

– Collect data and track your performance on these metrics over a period of time. You can use tools like Google Analytics, Excel, or other software to help you with this.

– Focus on the 20% of customers who generate 80% of your revenue. Identify who they are, what they need, and how you can serve them better. Don’t waste time and resources on the other 80% who are not profitable or loyal.

– Focus on the 20% of products or services that generate 80% of your value proposition. Find out what makes them unique, desirable, and competitive. Which features or functionalities are the most used and appreciated by your users? Don’t dilute your brand or quality by offering too many options or features that are not essential or differentiating.

– Focus on the marketing channels or strategies that bring the most traffic and conversions. Be very critical of the content you send out to the world. Ensure the message matches the audience. The worst thing one can do is focus on channels that will miss your target audience or a message that fails to touch your target audience.

– From an operations standpoint, focus on the 20% of tasks that generate 80% of your impact. Prioritize the most important and urgent activities that move you closer to your goals. Be very strategic with your hiring process. Design the job descriptions to fit in with the masterplan. Look for the synergies and interdependencies between positions from a matrix perspective. Only hire those that will bring the most impact to your organization.  

– Focus on the 20% of skills that generate 80% of your growth. Learn and improve the core competencies that make you a better entrepreneur, leader, and problem-solver and do the same to help your employees develop into their most productive selves. Don’t get distracted by shiny objects or irrelevant information.

Focus your efforts and resources on these 20% of factors and eliminate or outsource the rest. This will help you optimize your value proposition, improve your customer experience, increase your competitive advantage, and reduce your costs and risks.

Analyze regularly and adjust your strategy accordingly. The Pareto principle is not a one-time solution, but a continuous improvement method. You should always monitor your performance and look for new opportunities to apply the 80/20 rule.

By using the Pareto principle, you can build a lean and agile start-up business that delivers more value with less effort. You can also avoid wasting time and money on things that don’t matter and focus on what really makes a difference for your customers and your company.

REE

Needed Boost in Political Will to Stimulate Rare Earth Industry in North America

, , , , , , , , , ,

I recently completed an analysis on the global rare earth element (RRE) industry to see what the opportunities are for expanding production outside of China- specifically the North American market.

There is no shortage of resources, but extraction and processing has been expensive and environmentally challenging.  China has historically seen an advantage due to inexpensive labour, lack of labour and environment protection legislation, and general government support and domestic industry protectionism. In recent years, China’s labour costs have been increasing and the country has improved their labour and environmental policies, thereby, perceivably beginning to level the playing field with those producers outside of China.

There have been no shortage of start-ups trying to take advantage of the RRE resources in North America since 2000 with promising technologies to allow those companies to compete with China but the companies get to certain stage and then fizzle out.

The inhibitor has been the value chain. China has strategically ensured that it controls the value chain from mining to finished goods. Any mining operations outside of China that were not controlled by China have been shut out or forced to sell part or all its operations in order to participate in the downstream part of the value chain. There are some players that occupy the latter end of the value chain outside of China but due to costs, only make-up a small percentage of the total market and not enough of a customer base to make any mining operation profitable.

With the tensions between the US and China growing, the US, feeling the realization and vulnerability of China’s complete control of the value chain of many critical products is in the process of conducting a study to understand the full extent of what it needs to transition domestically to ensure economic and general regional stability and security. Funding has already been given to a few RRE projects in the US specifically to produce key REE for military applications.

Canada has yet to develop a strategy. Given that a large percentage of RREs are located in Canada, political will is necessary for the future of the West.

The Dangerous Illusion of Limits in the Metaverse

The Dangerous Illusion of Limits in the Metaverse

, , , , , , ,

One thing that I have found perplexing is companies buying up virtual real estate in the metaverse for huge sums of money, to create a storefront or entertainment venue to promote their brands.

Even though current virtual world creators are limiting their environments to generate an illusion of real estate scarcity, with a few code additions and servers, metaverse land can be virtually unlimited.

Especially when virtual world environments become non-proprietary and inexpensive, democratizing metaverse creation, how will these brand real estate owners maintain the value of their virtual real estate? Loyalty is hard to purchase, and attention spans are shorter than they have ever been. A new virtual world pops up and becomes trendy, people are going to flock to that world and forget about the old one. Companies can’t be delusional about longevity on one platform. One would hope that they are analyzing their ROI over a fraction of a period in comparison to a brick and mortar or even a web site refresh.