Archimedes, one of the most influential thinkers and inventors of antiquity, understood the power of leverage. While “moving the world” is not quite technically possible with his lever, he was absolutely on the mark with his deep appreciation of leverage.
Leverage is about receiving benefits (and profits) disproportionate to the (relatively smaller) amount of work you put in to create those benefits.
Where are the leverage potentials in your business? You can look at leverage in many different ways. I see leverage in two parts: The levers and the leverage points.
In my business, for instance, I conduct customer surveys, on behalf of my clients. These surveys allow us to gauge the impact on customer satisfaction of what we are doing.
Here my levers are the instructions, templates, and phone scripts, etc, that go into conducting this survey. Now I can pass all the work on surveys on to someone else in my business who can run this service as if I’m doing it myself.
The same principle applies to the tools and methods that I use with my clients in live workshops. Once prepared, I can use this material in books, DVDs, marketing material, etc.
Systems and processes are natural levers you must exploit in your business. They are the “low fruit” in leverage that will yield the quickest rewards in productivity.
Leverage points are the holy grail of any business. And how (and why) many business owners don’t look for them like gold rush is a topic on its own.
Unexploited leverage points can become hidden bottlenecks choking your productivity (no matter how hard you push). I will discuss leverage points further in a future post.
But, for now, remember that levers are your ‘low fruit’ and leverage points are your ‘golden nuggets’!
