When you are working through gaps in your business, you have to decide not only what you are going to solve but when you will resolve it. Some people jump in and start with the first problem they identify, or what they consider to be the easiest fix. But at the end of the day, prioritize how you resolve your gaps in order to see the biggest return.
There are several ways you can create a priority. There is no wrong way, only the way that will work best for your business. For me, there are 3 general ways to prioritize.
First, you have to understand that of all the issues you discovered, are any of them foundational to the rest? Said differently, if you have identified 5 issues in your business, are any of those 5 foundational to the other 4, such that if you do not fix that one issue first, the other fixes won’t matter or won’t work? How do the issues work together and impact each other? Do they stack on to each other like a pyramid such that you have to resolve the 5 issues in a specific order? Knowing the answer to these questions will help you establish a prioritization that is most effective.
I would then ask you to determine if you get a significantly large impact for improving one of the 5 issues first. For example, if one resolution would improve your sales by 5% but the other 4 issues would only improve it by 0.5%, then naturally you should start with improving the one issue that will get you the most return.
Now, the caveat to that is if the 4 impacts would only take a month to put into place and see the improvements whereas let’s say the 5th resolution at 5% would actually take you 6 months to realize. I would then say to go ahead and resolve the smaller 4 issues. 2% now is better than waiting 6 months to see the 5%, right?
The point here is that we should never blindly start to execute on a resolution. We should have a method to our madness as they say. Prioritize how you resolve your gaps.
At the end of the day though, I’m going to challenge you to do one thing above all else, once you have an idea of your path, simply START executing on a resolution. Improvement requires action. If you don’t act, you are wasting precious time to improve your business. If you are paralyzed by the decision, just get started. You can always change the order or the priority once you start. The point is don’t waste time trying to create the best method. Some action, however imperfect, is better than no action at all.
Be Legendary!