Cindy Ratzlaff

Bestselling author, award winning brand marketing and social media pro, Cindy Ratzlaff, creates sales driving campaigns for authors, books and publishers.

Genius Spot | Entrepreneurs Success Tips

By Cindy Ratzlaff

Identifying your “genius spot” is an important business asset. Knowing what you’re good at and more importantly, what you’re not good at, will save you time, money and frustration.

Entrepreneurs must learn to play in their Genius spot.

Start up entrepreneurs must often be their own financial advisor, tech expert, sales force, marketing and publicity team, and personal assistant. All responsibilities that a larger company would delegate to a full time employee.  Doing these things yourself can leave an entrepreneur with little to no time to do what he or she went into business to do in the first place.

Making the commitment to find your genius spot and put the majority of your energy and time there can accelerate your business growth.  Outsource those things that drain your time and energy to make room for your genius spot.

Ask yourself:

Which tasks in my business day absolutely must be done by me and no one else? Most likely the answer to this question includes creating your product concepts and delivering your services.

Which tasks could be done by someone else under my supervision? This could include your bookkeeping, mailings, design work, implementation of your marketing plan, and your legal work.

Which tasks can be completely outsourced with very little supervision by me? Perhaps, computer and software updates and maintenance, travel arrangements, supply ordering, printing.

What is the cost of continuing to do everything myself? The cost of doing it all yourself could be the failure of your business as you burn out or produce less.  Compare that to the cost of outsourcing some tasks and the cost comes into perspective.

Virtual assistants, temps, freelancers and other options are used by Fortune 500 companies when needed to supplement their workforce and keep productivity and performance at peak levels.  Consider whether you ought to borrow this success tip from the big players and outsource some tasks.

Let’s inspire one another. What could you outsource, right now, to create space for you to play in your genius spot.

About Cindy Ratzlaff

Cindy Ratzlaff was named to the Forbes “20 Best Branded Women on Twitter” list and Forbes Woman called her one of the “Most Influential Women Tweeting about Entrepreneurship.”

During her 20-plus years as a publishing executive, Cindy created branded marketing and PR campaigns that ushered more than 200 books onto the New York Times bestseller lists. She was named to the Ad Age Marketing 50 list for the launch campaign behind The South Beach Diet.

She is the author of three books, and her essays on happiness have appeared on Oprah.com, CNN.com and her articles on social marketing have can be read on Business Insider. She speaks to conferences such as BookExpo America, Pennsylvania Conference for Women, Romance Writers of America, Ernst & Young, Garden Writers Association, Texas Conference for Women, United Way’s Ignite Leadership Network, Massachusetts Conference for Women, and more on the topics of happiness, personal branding and creating a digital footprint.

She engages daily with more than 450,000 people through her popular Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and blog sites.

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