What To Focus On To Develop Your Business
Eben Pagan teaches entrepreneurs how to prioritize business opportunities using a three-tier focus framework. He reveals how to allocate 60% of resources to strengthening existing money-making systems, while developing discoveries and testing future opportunities.
Key Moments
How to Prioritize Business Opportunities Using the Three-Tier Focus Framework -- A systematic approach to allocating resources across current money-makers, promising discoveries, and future opportunities
Strengthening Builds Systems That Handle Greater Throughput
Strengthening means building more industrial-strength systems that can handle greater throughput, process faster, and operate more efficiently
▶ 3:16
Cash Register Activities Live at the Fringes of Your Business
Money-making activities are at the fringes of your business - marketing processes, converting ads, upselling processes, and automated systems that ring the cash register
▶ 1:12
Streamlining Means Finding and Fixing Process Sticking Points
Streamlining means removing friction from processes by identifying and fixing sticking points where the system falls over
▶ 2:01
What Do You Believe But Cannot Prove About the Future
Ask yourself 'what do you believe but you can't prove' to identify future opportunities worth testing with 10% of your resources
▶ 8:25
Success as a Paradox of Creating and Discovering the Future
Success is a paradox of creating the future and discovering it - you can only see the next step after climbing to your current one
▶ 5:25
Relevant Clips18
- How-To
How to Prioritize Business Opportunities Using the Three-Tier Focus Framework -- A systematic approach to allocating resources across current money-makers, promising discoveries, and future opportunities
- Teaching
What Money-Making Activities Actually Look Like in a Business
Money-making activities are processes at the fringes of your business that directly generate revenue - like automated marketing processes, converting ads, websites with working traffic systems, and upselling processes during transactions.
- Teaching
Find Friction Points and Build Systems to Eliminate Them
Look for friction points and sticking points where your process falls over. Identify where things don't happen consistently and create systems to ensure they occur every time, like the referral system that cost one business $2.2 million.
- Teaching
Building Controls Around Your Most Critical Business Systems
Create controls requiring approval before anyone changes customer-facing copy or critical processes. Make sure your entire team knows which systems are essential money-makers that shouldn't be modified without careful consideration.
- Teaching
The 60-30-10 Framework for Allocating Business Focus
Use a three-tier approach: spend 60% of your time strengthening existing money-making systems, develop recent discoveries that show promise, and allocate 10% to testing future opportunities you believe in but can't prove yet.
- Teaching▶ 8:25
Technology and the Great Acceleration of Global Opportunity
Ask yourself 'what do you believe but you can't prove' about the future. Look for trends that might intersect and position yourself to be ready when they converge. This is where breakthrough opportunities come from.
- Teaching▶ 1:12
Cash Register Activities Live at the Fringes of Your Business
Money-making activities are at the fringes of your business - marketing processes, converting ads, upselling processes, and automated systems that ring the cash register
- Teaching▶ 3:16
Strengthening Builds Systems That Handle Greater Throughput
Strengthening means building more industrial-strength systems that can handle greater throughput, process faster, and operate more efficiently
- Teaching
Require Approval Before Anyone Changes Customer-Facing Copy
Protect your money-making systems by controlling changes - require approval before anyone modifies customer-facing copy or processes
- Teaching▶ 5:25
Success as a Paradox of Creating and Discovering the Future
Success is a paradox of creating the future and discovering it - you can only see the next step after climbing to your current one
- Teaching▶ 8:25
What Do You Believe But Cannot Prove About the Future
Ask yourself 'what do you believe but you can't prove' to identify future opportunities worth testing with 10% of your resources
- Teaching▶ 2:01
Streamlining Means Finding and Fixing Process Sticking Points
Streamlining means removing friction from processes by identifying and fixing sticking points where the system falls over
Show 6 more
- Teaching
Positioning at the Intersection of Converging Trends
Future reality creation comes from seeing trends intersecting and positioning yourself to be ready when they converge
- Teaching▶ 3:38
Allocate 60 Percent of Focus to Already-Working Systems
Allocate 60% of your focus to strengthening and streamlining current money-making systems that are already working
- Quotable▶ 2:01
Streamlining Means Removing Friction Like Pulling Off Velcro
streamlining is removing some of the friction from the process if you're running and you've got barbs on you and it's catching on things like velcro you want to start pulling those off
- Quotable▶ 3:38
Allocate 60 Percent of Focus to Strengthening Current Revenue Systems
I think it's a good idea to maybe have 60% of your focus on strengthening and streamlining the current money-making systems that are running and bringing money in
- Quotable▶ 3:57
Protect What's Working — Tell Your Team Not to Screw It Up
take care of what's working don't abandon what's working identify it talk about it make sure everybody in the company knows not to screw it up
- Quotable▶ 8:22
What You Believe But Cannot Prove Guides Future Work
what do you believe but you can't prove about the future then you can start working on it a little bit and that might be 10% of your time
Entities Touched
Concepts
Questions
Canonical Teachings
Summary
The Three-Tier Business Focus Framework
Eben introduces a systematic approach to handling business opportunity overwhelm. He recommends allocating 60% of resources to strengthening existing money-making systems, developing promising discoveries, and testing future opportunities. This prevents entrepreneurs from abandoning what works while still pursuing growth.
Strengthening and Streamlining Money-Making Systems
Money-making activities exist at the fringes of your business - automated marketing processes, converting ads, and systematic upselling. Streamlining removes friction points, while strengthening builds industrial-grade systems. A plastic surgeon lost $2.2 million by not systematizing their referral requests.
Developing Discoveries and Creating Future Realities
Success involves both creating and discovering the future - you can only see the next step after taking your current one. Eben recommends asking 'what do you believe but you can't prove' to identify breakthrough opportunities worth testing with 10% of your resources.
Counterpoint
Claim: “Focus equally on all business opportunities to maximize growth potential”
Reframe: Allocate 60% to strengthening existing money-makers, with smaller portions for discoveries and future opportunities
Eben recommends '60% of your focus on strengthening and streamlining the current money-making systems' because abandoning what's working leads to lost revenue
Claim: “You can plan and see the entire path to business success from the beginning”
Reframe: Success involves discovering the future - you can only see the next step after taking your current one
Eben uses the staircase metaphor where 'the next stair is usually lit' but 'all the rest in between we don't know they're just not lit up' until you reach each level
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Topics
Coaching Strategies
Business Frameworks
Common Mistakes