{"id":65557,"date":"2023-11-29T15:14:57","date_gmt":"2023-11-29T19:14:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ronellsmith.com\/?p=65557"},"modified":"2023-11-29T15:15:01","modified_gmt":"2023-11-29T19:15:01","slug":"90-10-rule-for-small-business-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ronellsmith.com\/blog\/90-10-rule-for-small-business-success\/","title":{"rendered":"Follow the 90\/10 rule for small business success"},"content":{"rendered":"

Few things hobble businesses quicker than poor decision-making. That’s my I encourage businesses to employ 90\/10 strategy for decision-making. It boils down to making sure that nine out of 10 of your decisions are as sound as possible. This level of focus spills over into every aera of the business.<\/em><\/p>\n

In 2006, I made a life-changing decision: to return to my college weight. The goal was to eat better, exercise regularly, and overall live a healthier, more active life. Immediately, I felt better, moved better and learned to enjoy foods I never thought I\u2019d sample, much less enjoy. My obsessions quickly became healthy options, including peanut butter, greek yogurt, leafy vegetables, lean meat, and eggs. ( The Abs Diet<\/a> <\/em>was instrumental in helping me reach my goals.)<\/p>\n

Even so, I still allowed myself fried fish on occasion, french fries as a once-every-few -months treat, and when I had a hankering for carrot cake, I didn\u2019t deny myself. I quickly found that I didn\u2019t enjoy junk food enough to worry about bingeing.<\/p>\n

Applying the 90\/10 rule in dieting and nutrition<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Occasionally, however, I heard \u201cYou mean you\u2019re going to eat that? That\u2019s not healthy\u201d from friends and family members. After devouring whatever food was in question, I always delivered the same terse words: \u201cIt\u2019s not what you do occasionally that hurts your chances of success; it\u2019s what you do every day that destroys your results.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is a big difference between eating ice cream every night as opposed to enjoying it infrequently. I called it my 90\/10 rule: If you eat right 90 percent of the time, going off the reservation the other 10 percent won\u2019t have an adverse impact. It\u2019s the same for business.<\/p>\n

When I talk to friends who\u2019ve hit a rough patch or listen to business owners who are in dire straits, it quickly occurs to me that it\u2019s not one fatal mistake that\u2019s sabotaged their life or business; it\u2019s a succession of errors that\u2019s gotten them to this point. It\u2019s a fact that\u2019s easy to miss, too. The business owner who makes a risky investment that doesn\u2019t pay off, resulting in him losing his company, thinks that one bad gamble that did him in.<\/p>\n

\"90\/10<\/p>\n

How to apply the 90\/10 rule in business<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In reality, it was his taking a gamble at a time when his business was already on shaky ground that ruined his chances of success. It could be a fishing guide, for example, who purchases a new boat every year, in good times and bad. But this year, with client numbers down, the smartest thing would be to eschew taking on added debt, saving whatever cash he has on hand for a rainy day. A new boat in this climate is not a must. I can assure you that his clients care more about catching fish than they do about riding in the latest Ranger or Bass Cat or Lund.<\/p>\n

I want to be clear: I\u2019m not saying your decision-making needs to be impeccable or that you need to avoid taking risks. Quite the contrary. I\u2019m saying that taking risky bets should be reserved for those periods when your company can better absorb them. The key is ensuring that risky bets do not comprise a sizeable portion of your overall strategy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In applying the 90\/10 rule to dieting, I\u2019d tell folks to divide the number of meals they eat in a week by seven, the number of days in a week. If, say, you eat three meals a day, that\u2019s 21 meals a week. That means they could eat whatever they want for two meals a week. Tough but doable<\/a>, right?<\/p>\n

To best ensure they didn\u2019t end up wearing those meals, however, it had to be consumed after some form or exercise, and there was to be no second helpings. They were indulging in risk when the body was best equipped to handle it. The strategy can work just as effectively for your business.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s an example of how a local business successfully applied the 90\/10 rule.<\/strong><\/h2>\n