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The word “entrepreneur” is thrown about a lot these days. Most people use it interchangeably with “business owner” or “founder,” but that’s not quite accurate.

Jean-Baptiste Say, a French economist who first coined the word entrepreneur in about 1800, said: “The entrepreneur shifts economic resources out of an area of lower and into an area of higher productivity and greater yield.”

Think about that for a moment. 

You have a resource (capital, labor, whatever) that could be producing a higher yield elsewhere. Your primary job as an entrepreneur is to identify this and move it where you can produce a greater yield.

Start this process with your most valuable resource. Your time.

Many entrepreneurs are trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. They lack some skill, experience, or discipline that’s outside of their genius zone, yet they persist in wasting time, money, and opportunities trying to crack that nut. 

Sometimes, it’s due to pride. Sometimes, it’s due to the challenge. But most of the time it's because they’re operating on autopilot.

We entrepreneurs are problem solvers. We take on whatever problem comes our way.

In my new book, Lean Marketing, I have an important chapter on building your team (Chapter 11). Here’s a quote from there:

“With hard work, you can brute-force your way into making your weaknesses less weak. However, nobody cares what you’re bad at. Focusing your efforts in areas where you’re already strong or have an aptitude gives you a far better return on time, money, and energy. It’s also more fun. It usually takes the same effort to make your weaknesses slightly less weak as it takes to make your strengths exceptional.”

My biggest wins have come from staffing my weaknesses and doubling down on my strengths.

Business is a team sport.

Great sports teams spend enormous time and resources figuring out the strongest players for each position.

You should, too — starting with yourself. If you doubled or tripled the time you spent in your genius zone, what impact would that have on your business?

It would be huge.

A large part of our work with entrepreneurs in our Accelerator program is helping them staff their weaknesses. Usually, these are the boring (but critical) daily, weekly, and monthly marketing processes they know they need to do but won’t, can’t, or don’t have time to do.

A marketing coordinator has been a game-changer for them because while their weaknesses are being handled, they’re free to focus on their strengths.

What’s your genius zone that you want to spend more time in?