The Vital Few and The Useful Many

You may not have heard of Pareto’s 80/20 theory, but you have seen it in action. According to Wikipedia, “The Pareto principle states that, for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.” Pareto’s principal was later adopted by business-management consultant Joseph M. Juran who coined the term “The vital few and useful many” which has developed into “the vital few and trivial many”. This theory has become a common rule of thumb in business.

So what does Pareto’s theory have to do with hiring a virtual assistant? If you apply this theory to your business, then only 20% of the tasks you perform each day are vital to the success of your business. That leaves 80% of tasks that are trivial, or useful but of lesser importance.  So what are these less important tasks? What are you spending time on that could be done by someone else while you spend your talents on the vital tasks that make your business successful?  Once these areas have been identified then the benefits of a virtual assistant (VA) can be seen. Most virtual assistants offer a comprehensive service menu and package options. A virtual assistant is a business partner, not an employee. When you delegate those “trivial” tasks to a virtual assistant they become vital tasks.  Now all of your work is vital making your business streamed-lined and successful.