1. Sales & Customers

  • Identify your top 20% of customers who bring in the most revenue
  • Look at what products/services these customers buy
  • Segment your customer list by sales value (top, middle, bottom)
  • Consider how you can better serve or upsell to your top customers
  • Review low-value or high-maintenance clients—is it time to adjust pricing or boundaries?

2. Products & Services

  • List all your products/services and rank them by profitability
  • Highlight the top 20% that bring in 80% of the profits
  • Focus marketing and sales efforts on these top products/services
  • Consider removing or improving the bottom 20% that are not profitable
  • Review cost structure: Are certain offerings eating up time or money?
80/20 Rule Checklist

3. Time Management

  • List your daily/weekly tasks
  • Highlight the 20% of tasks that contribute most to growth or revenue
  • Schedule those tasks during your most productive hours
  • Delegate or automate tasks that fall into the “busy work” category
  • Use tools (e.g., calendar, task manager, AI assistants) to manage low-impact work

4. Marketing & Advertising

  • Identify which 20% of marketing channels bring in 80% of your leads
  • Focus your marketing budget on those top-performing channels
  • Analyze your marketing content: Which types get the best response?
  • Eliminate low-performing campaigns to avoid wasting time and money
  • Use analytics (e.g., Facebook Insights, Google Analytics) to guide your decisions

5. Customer Service

  • Track where most customer complaints or support requests come from
  • Identify if a few clients or issues are taking up a lot of your time
  • Create FAQs, templates, or automation to handle common queries
  • Consider improving onboarding or communication with those “needy” clients
  • Review refund or dispute data to find recurring issues

6. Expenses & Suppliers

  • List all your regular business expenses
  • Highlight the top 20% of costs—are they worth the value they bring?
  • Renegotiate with major vendors or consider alternatives
  • Cut or downgrade non-essential tools or subscriptions
  • Compare costs vs returns (e.g., software, freelancers, advertising)

7. Review & Repeat

  • Set a reminder to review the 80/20 impact every quarter
  • Track what’s working and what’s not
  • Make small adjustments instead of big changes all at once
  • Use simple KPIs (sales per client, cost per lead, etc.) to measure

Originally observed by Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, who noticed that 80% of Italy’s land was owned by 20% of the population, this principle has since been applied to almost every area of business and life.

This isn’t about exact math — it’s a mindset shift. It’s about identifying the small percentage of inputs that generate the most significant outcomes and focusing your time, energy, and resources there.

What is the 80/20 Rule?

80 20 rule