80/20

Do you ever notice the difference in hairstylist? The salon may have eight stylist but only one or two are constantly busy creating revenue for the salon and themselves. The others are faced with a lot of "down time."

What is this phenomenon that seems to stretch from one industry to another? In one form or another, it's called the 80/20 rule.

The 80/20 rule says that 20% of the people do 80% of the work; or 20% of the staff brings in 80% of the revenue. There are countless variations on this theme, but it seems to hold amazingly true to nearly any situation to which you apply it. The rules opposite corollary, it stands to reason, must also be true-that 80% of the people do the remaining 20% of the work and so on.

First of all, it appears to be true that the top 20% of the stylist do 80% of the customers. These are the high level performers... the people who have made a commitment to their career. So what happens to the remaining 80% of the stylist-the masses? They fight for all the left over 20% customer crumbs after the "high level performers" have had their 80% lunch.