These days, you can find a how-to video to fix just about anything. Your car. Your air conditioner. That weirdo vintage lamp you bought on auction during your last bout with insomnia. You know you fixed the problem when the thing works again. Simple.

While there are a gazillion videos online about how to fix some aspect of your business, it’s not as easy to figure out if the solutions would work for your company’s issue, and even hard to figure out if you’ve actually solved the problem.

To eliminate the guesswork and get out of the trap of fixing only the problems that are right in front of me, I created a tool to identify what to fix in my business next: The Business Priority Pyramid. Just as Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs states that there are five categories of human need, the Business Priority Pyramid identifies five categories of need for any business, regardless of size, gross revenue, or industry. They are:

Sales: The creation and collection of cash.
Profit: The creation of profit and cash reserves, and the eradication of debt.
Order: The creation of organizational efficiency.
Impact: The creation of client transformation and company alignment with staff, vendors and your community.
Legacy: The creation of permanence and the ability to adapt to change.
To figure out which category to address first, we start with the most basic level and work our way up. Within each level are five core needs that every business must address. Pinpoint the core needs that need to be met at the base level and, as soon as you’ve address them, move on to the next. The most urgent need to be addressed is the Vital Need.

Once you’ve identified the Vital Need you must fix next, you need a system to ideate a solution and the measure the fix to make sure it actually works. You can’t just check to see if your business will start, like a car, or turn on, like an air conditioner or a lamp. You need simple metrics to track your progress and a plan to make adjustments in case your measurements reveal a tweak is required.

This process does not have to be complicated. To help you fix your next right problem, your next Vital Need, I created the OMEN method:

O—Objective. What is the result you intend to achieve?

M—Measurement. What is the most straightforward way to measure your progress toward your outcome?

E—Evaluation. With what frequency will you analyze your measurements?

N—Nurture. If necessary, how will you tweak the objective and/or measurements?

1. Objective: What is the outcome you want to achieve for your Vital Need? Where does it currently stand (the baseline)? Identify the requirements for your goal to be considered successful and how you are going to move from your baseline to your objective.
2. Measurement: This includes the metric(s) for your outcome, within a specific time frame. What is the simplest way to effectively track your progress toward the objective? The fewer metrics the better. Minimize the number of metrics to avoid distraction and confusion, but have enough to give you an adequate reading of your progress.
3. Evaluation: Determine the frequency with which you will check your metrics and set interim goals on your way to the intended outcome.
4. Nurture: As you progress, you may notice that your objective isn’t quite right or you aren’t measuring it effectively. Make the objective and measurements highly visible/accessible to the relevant people. Then give you and your team permission to change the settings (objective, measurements and/or evaluation frequency) to improve the progress toward the objective.

The OMEN method gives scrutiny and attention to the Vital Need you identified to resolve it as efficiently as possible. Then, move on to your next Vital Need and fix it next. Before you know it, you’ll have a strong foundation and your business will hum along like a well-oiled engine. And you won’t have to search through millions of how-to videos to get the job done.

Join me on the journey: Instagram