Entrepreneurial Triage

 

By William G. Vicars, EdD, 1/11/2025


Entrepreneurial Triage (n.): A decision-making framework used by entrepreneurs to allocate their limited time, energy, and resources among competing opportunities and challenges based on urgency, potential impact on business survival, and available windows of opportunity. Derived from medical triage principles, this approach helps business leaders systematically prioritize actions when faced with multiple simultaneous demands.

 


By mastering entrepreneurial triage, business leaders can move from feeling overwhelmed by opportunities and challenges to handling them systematically and strategically.

 

Understanding and Applying Entrepreneurial Triage: A Guide for Business Leaders

In the fast-paced world of entrepreneurship, opportunities and challenges don't arrive in an orderly queue – they flood in simultaneously, demanding attention and action. Just as emergency medical professionals must make rapid decisions about which patients to treat first, entrepreneurs face the daily challenge of deciding where to focus their limited resources for maximum impact.
 

The Core Principle At its heart, entrepreneurial triage recognizes that not all business opportunities or challenges can be addressed simultaneously, nor should they be. Some situations demand immediate attention to ensure business survival or capitalize on fleeting opportunities, while others can – and should – wait.
 

The Three Levels of Priority

Critical (Red Zone) These situations demand immediate attention and often share key characteristics:

  • Time-sensitive opportunities with firm deadlines
  • Issues directly affecting cash flow or business survival
  • Critical stakeholder relationships at decision points
  • Immediate competitive threats
  • Legal or regulatory compliance issues

Urgent but Stable (Yellow Zone) These matters are important but allow for short-term strategic planning:

  • Growth opportunities with flexible timelines
  • Operational inefficiencies affecting profitability
  • Team expansion needs
  • Product improvements based on customer feedback
  • Partnership opportunities still in discussion phase

Stable (Green Zone) While valuable, these activities can be scheduled for later attention:

  • Long-term strategic planning
  • Market research for future expansion
  • Nice-to-have product features
  • Professional development
  • System optimizations

Implementing Entrepreneurial Triage

  1. Assessment Phase
  • Regularly scan your environment for both opportunities and challenges
  • Gather key information quickly but thoroughly
  • Identify which situations have true deadlines versus self-imposed ones
  1. Categorization
  • Sort issues into your red/yellow/green zones
  • Consider both urgency and potential impact
  • Account for resource availability and team capacity
  1. Action Planning
  • Address red zone items immediately
  • Schedule yellow zone items with clear timelines
  • Keep green zone items visible but don't let them distract from higher priorities
  1. Regular Review
  • Reassess priorities as situations evolve
  • Move items between categories as needed
  • Learn from past decisions to improve future triage

The Entrepreneurial Triage Mindset Success with this approach requires developing:

  • Quick but thorough assessment skills
  • Comfort with uncertainty and incomplete information
  • Ability to say "not now" to good opportunities
  • Recognition that perfect timing rarely exists


Remember: The goal isn't to do everything –  it's to do as many of the right things as possible at as close to the right time as possible for your business's survival and growth.

Making decisions in times of stress, rapid change, and limited resources will likely always be hard but at least we can use a structured and defensible approach -- leading to better outcomes and more efficient use of time and resources.

 

 

Notes: 

A few notes from a professor who became an entrepreneur:

Early-career tenure-track university instructors aspiring to become professors are expected to contribute a significant amount of effort and time to advancing the university and serving the community for no extra pay. 

Notice I stated no "extra" pay.

Let's not pretend that full-time tenure-track university instructors are not being paid to do the non-teaching duties that are expected to be successfully completed (and peer reviewed) as part of their tenure, advancement, and retention.

This is not a surprise to university instructors who were awake (and free from the influence of mind altering substances) during the hiring process.  The university informs future (tenure track) instructors up front before hiring that the university expects instructors to do more than just show up a few times a week, ramble (or wave their arms around) in front of a group of impressionable young people for (almost) 50 minutes each time, and go home.

What is university tenure?

University tenure is an indefinite teaching appointment that can only be terminated for cause or in extraordinary circumstances.  The word "indefinite" in that sentence means that there is no definite time planned for you to end your employment. The word "cause" in this situation means "good reason."  In other words, you can and likely will be definitely fired from a tenure-track university instructor position if you do not achieve tenure within a certain time frame -- typically six years.

After you get tenure you can keep showing up (at least from time to time) and continue getting a paycheck (on a regular schedule) until you die -- as long as you do at least a minimally passable job of teaching and don't do something (somebody else decides is) really, really bad.

Paychecks are nice. Paychecks until you die (and/or until you and your significant other dies -- often available if you know how to work a contract) are even nicer -- so, yah, aspiring professors tend to put "get tenure" on their mental list of "things to do in the next six years."
 
A key difference between entrepreneurs and professors is that entrepreneurs tend to get paid only when they actually provide a valuable service or produce a product of value (or at least perceived value) to society and then convince someone in society to actually hand over the money (or click the transfer button).

Blah, blah, blah... I could keep explaining this but I'm an entrepreneur now and (other than perhaps advertising revenue, referrals, or donations) I'm not going to get a paycheck for this -- plus I'm starting to get antsy --  and your ADHD meds may or may not be working so I'm going to jump to the point:

If you want someone to review your new technology, give a speech to your organization for free, or help you at no cost with your society-improving project -- there is a better person to ask than an entrepreneur or even a late-career tenured college professor. The person to ask is an assistant or associate professor seeking activities and opportunities to expand their tenure application file.  They are the ones getting paid (typically by taxpayers) to help you for free.   

Case study:


On Tuesday, January 7, 20██ at 02:03:26 AM PST, ██████@gmail(dot)com> wrote:

Dear Bill,

Hi and Happy new year!  I hope everything is going well.

First of all, thank you so much for your support and guidance.

I'm excited to share with you that we just have launched the very first beta version of ███████!

If you're curious to check it out, test, and give your feedback we would be happy.

You need to create account first, then text me back and I'll give you free trial access.

Best regards,
██████
[Minor edits to protect privacy]


 

 


Hello ██████,

How exciting for you and your team.

I find myself needing to triage my time and focus.

Back when I was a university instructor -- activities such as checking something out, testing, and providing feedback were an aspect of tenure and rank advancement. Eventually after years of effort, research, extra-curricular service, and community support activities -- I achieved tenure and reached the rank of full professor.

Then during the covid pandemic I decided to avail myself of the university's offer of an early separation opportunity, transition to emeritus professor status, and become an entrepreneur (again).

Now that I have returned my focus to the private sector -- checking out people's products, testing those products, and providing feedback are billable activities that come with opportunity costs and compete with my queue of existing to-dos such as taking care of Lifeprint(dot)com, my YouTube @sign-language & @aslu channels, studio projects, paying clients, private students, and various grant contract obligations.

Regardless I wish you and your current team the absolute best in your endeavors.
It is an amazing time to be alive.

Warm regards,
+ Bill
________________________
William G. Vicars, Ed.D.
ASL University
https://Lifeprint.com
https://YouTube.com/billvicars
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ

 


 
Notes: