The Business Of Personal Training – Prioritization
In the last several posts and articles I’ve written, I have explored the question of structuring a business for success, but where does one start? Let us assume that you have started working on the business and that you have analyzed the business using the concepts I’ve previously talked about. If so you’re probably thinking “where do I begin?”
Quite frequently confusion arises between opportunities and weaknesses. For instance, you may have incorrectly assumed that preparing systems to operate your business, so as to have a better handle on the business would be an opportunity for improving the business. No! The absence of well-constructed systems actually indicates a weakness in the business. In other words developing systems should be a routine part of every business. Of course systems are likely to improve the chances of success, but their absence only indicates weakness in your current approach.
Not surprisingly, we generally find that there are some under-exploited opportunities in most businesses. It often takes an outsider to see those opportunities because the owners are so caught up in the detail that they see the individual trees and are blind to the forest.
Having mentioned these different items, the next step is to build on your strengths, eliminate weaknesses and exploit opportunities. Believe me, you will have a fair list of things to do, so back to the question of where to start.
Quite obviously some issues will be very important while others, though not as important, will be urgent. Thus we can categorize each item according to its importance and its urgency. Human nature being what it is we tend to handle the urgent, pressing problems first while ignoring those aspects that may have a far greater impact on the success of the business. For that reason the cardinal rule is to always prioritize first according to importance. Building on that idea - I have developed a simple numerical system for determining importance.
An item rated ‘1’ will have virtually no impact on the success of the business. A ‘3’ indicates it would be nice if this could be done but is of little consequence in determining success. Five means this is item is very important to the success of the business while a ‘10’ means this issue will either make or break the business depending upon whether it is positive or negative. There are unlikely to be many ‘10’s in your list but if there are they will most likely fall in the category of opportunity or threat. You better pay attention to them even if they are not at all urgent. Therefore, the next step is to establish how urgent each issue is. It may be that an item which is a ‘5’ in terms of importance is very much more urgent than something rated a ‘10’ and therefore should take precedence.
We use 1 to 10 to rate urgency, where a ‘1’ means not at all urgent but a ‘10’ means it should have been done yesterday. In summary you should now have a list of things that need to be done. Rather than a mere jumbled list each item will be rated first according to its importance and secondly according to its urgency. Instead of simply jumping from crisis to crisis it provides a base for achieving a successful business.
Quite frequently confusion arises between opportunities and weaknesses. For instance, you may have incorrectly assumed that preparing systems to operate your business, so as to have a better handle on the business would be an opportunity for improving the business. No! The absence of well-constructed systems actually indicates a weakness in the business. In other words developing systems should be a routine part of every business. Of course systems are likely to improve the chances of success, but their absence only indicates weakness in your current approach.
Not surprisingly, we generally find that there are some under-exploited opportunities in most businesses. It often takes an outsider to see those opportunities because the owners are so caught up in the detail that they see the individual trees and are blind to the forest.
Having mentioned these different items, the next step is to build on your strengths, eliminate weaknesses and exploit opportunities. Believe me, you will have a fair list of things to do, so back to the question of where to start.
Quite obviously some issues will be very important while others, though not as important, will be urgent. Thus we can categorize each item according to its importance and its urgency. Human nature being what it is we tend to handle the urgent, pressing problems first while ignoring those aspects that may have a far greater impact on the success of the business. For that reason the cardinal rule is to always prioritize first according to importance. Building on that idea - I have developed a simple numerical system for determining importance.
An item rated ‘1’ will have virtually no impact on the success of the business. A ‘3’ indicates it would be nice if this could be done but is of little consequence in determining success. Five means this is item is very important to the success of the business while a ‘10’ means this issue will either make or break the business depending upon whether it is positive or negative. There are unlikely to be many ‘10’s in your list but if there are they will most likely fall in the category of opportunity or threat. You better pay attention to them even if they are not at all urgent. Therefore, the next step is to establish how urgent each issue is. It may be that an item which is a ‘5’ in terms of importance is very much more urgent than something rated a ‘10’ and therefore should take precedence.
We use 1 to 10 to rate urgency, where a ‘1’ means not at all urgent but a ‘10’ means it should have been done yesterday. In summary you should now have a list of things that need to be done. Rather than a mere jumbled list each item will be rated first according to its importance and secondly according to its urgency. Instead of simply jumping from crisis to crisis it provides a base for achieving a successful business.
posted by Pat Rigsby at 11:52 AM
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