How To Know What You‘re Good At As An Entrepreneur

How to know what you’re good at as an entrepreneur? What are your entrepreneurial strengths?

Even more important than knowing your market or your competition, is knowing yourself. While some small business owners and entrepreneurs start out wearing many hats and doing it all, sooner or later, if that business is going to succeed and grow they must hone in on what they are good at.

Some entrepreneurs are technical geniuses, some are magnificent salespeople or organizers and managers, a few are visionaries. The sooner you get real clarity on this the better. It can make all the difference in ensuring you are focused on the right things. And, ultimately, whether your startup fails or succeeds, how high your potential is, and how easy the journey will be.

So, what’s your superpower? How to know what you’re good at as an entrepreneur?

Why Is Knowing What You Are Good At So Important As An Entrepreneur?

Knowing your strengths as an entrepreneur is critical to your success. There are actually many ways this matters.

Being sure that you are working in your zone is important. There is enough friction and drag when launching at startup in the best of times.

If you are spending all of your time working in your weak areas it is going to be even harder. It is going to be a grind.

Getting results and making progress is going to be much harder. It isn’t going to be much fun. Maybe not even on the good days.

Working in your area of strength and spending your time on it, will ensure that you are bringing your maximum possible value to the table for your company, customers, and financial backers. It will also help you maintain a lot more respect among your teams.

Knowing your stand-out strengths also means separating that from where you probably are not the strongest person to handle it.

Those are the areas where you need to prioritize hiring, and recruiting the best possible world-class talent available. These are the areas you want to seek out more coaching and learning opportunities.

Where you may need to be the most coachable and spend the most time really listening, even to your subordinates.

Figure Out How to Get the Highest ROI on Your Time

This will all help you get the highest possible ROI on your personal time, and where the company will get its ROI on keeping you employed.

Understanding yourself better can also make a big difference in understanding the optimal marketing and sales processes in the beginning, and who will make your ideal target audiences of end customers and investors.

Pulling out what you are good at will help you better complete your startup’s SWOT analysis and competitor analysis for your pitch deck. In turn, you’ll be more accurate in identifying your threats and opportunities.

It will help with identifying your USP, and the best point of differentiation for your brand. All of this is critical for raising money, winning the right partners, advisors, and talent, not to mention customers. As well as choosing the right direction and strategic roadmap.

The ROI also needs to be applied to the fundraising process which you will need to account for. You want to optimize here as much as possible. Keep in mind that in fundraising storytelling is everything. In this regard for a winning pitch deck to help you here, take a look at the template created by Silicon Valley legend, Peter Thiel (see it here) that I recently covered. Thiel was the first angel investor in Facebook with a $500K check that turned into more than $1 billion in cash.

Remember to unlock the pitch deck template that is being used by founders around the world to raise millions below.

How Would You Know What You’re Good at as an Entrepreneur

Given how vital this is, here are just some of the ways you can start digging in, exploring, and gaining proof and clarity on what you are good at when it comes to being an entrepreneur.

What Do You Love Doing?

We are often good at the things we love doing. Or at least we end up love doing the things we are good at because they produce rewards.

Working on the things we love often makes us good at them because we spend a lot of time on them. We operate in a positive mindset when doing them.

It doesn’t feel like work. It is much more likely you will commit to things you like doing for the long term. To stick it out for ten years, even if there are challenges every day.

However, do make sure you differentiate between what you love and what you are good at. They are not always the same thing.

You might love making art but never scored above a C in art class. Or you may love fishing, but that doesn’t mean operating a fish farm or industrial fishing fleet is the right choice for you. But these first steps will direct you on how to know what you’re good at as an entrepreneur?.

What Do You Spend Your Spare Time Doing?

There is a lot of crossovers here with doing things you are passionate about, but this isn’t always the same thing as doing what you love.

Still, if you are spending most of your spare time on something, you are probably getting good at that too.

What Do People Ask You For Help With?

What is the common theme in what people reach out and ask you for help with, even if it isn’t your main job or line of business?

This could be a big clue as to what you are really good at. It may even show you where you have product-market fit professionally, even before launching a company around it.

What Have You Trained To Do More Than Anyone Else?

Have you specialized in studying a certain subject or technology for years longer than 99% of other people on the planet?

Have you been in a certain industry or niche far longer than 90% of other players? What have you spent 10,000 hours doing? That’s the amount of time it is estimated it takes you to become an expert at something.

Identifying these factors is how to know what you’re good at as an entrepreneur?

Where Are Your Natural Talents?

What have you just naturally been good at your whole life? Even as a child? Even the best professional athletes need to add organized training on top of that, but the raw talent is a huge advantage. Some will never have that in your field.

What is it your teachers recommended you pursue or your grandmother thinks you are great at?

What Can’t You Find Someone Better To Hire For

There is probably at least one person in the world that is better in everything. Though there will definitely be something you really find it hard to hire for.

Something you just can’t find someone to replace yourself with. In most cases, if you can find someone to do something at least 80% as good as you, you shouldn’t be doing that task.

You can’t afford it. So, focus on that other 20% to find your strengths.

Identifying your skills, strengths, and weaknesses is the critical step when you’re figuring out how to come up with an investor-worth business. Check out this video I have put together explaining how to find the best ideas.

How Do Other People Refer You?

How do others introduce you, refer you or refer to you? “Meet my ___ guy.” This is the biggest tell as to how others see what you are good at, and would likely pay you for.

Try Everything

The road to becoming a hyper-successful startup founder is often one full of discovering things that you don’t enjoy or just aren’t that fantastic at.

This may take switching college majors a couple of times, and trying out a few different jobs and industries.

When it comes to launching your own company, in the beginning, it is beneficial to work on all of the roles and get familiar with them.

At least just so you know what it’s like for those you hire and can hire better and know what is fair in terms of compensation and performance.

Just don’t get stuck doing it all. That’s a fatal mistake. Try it all out, find out what’s your jam.

Ask Why People Hire You & Don’t Fire You

If you are still working for someone else, ask why they choose to hire you. It may not be for the same reasons you applied or expected. Why have they kept you on so far? Where do they see your value?

Check Previous Performance Reviews

Of all the previous performance reviews you have received, what are the common threads? What did they rank you good at? Where did they say you needed improvement?

Why Do People Want To Work For You?

Whether you have already owned and operated entire companies, or have just managed teams for someone else before, why have people wanted to work with you?

Look At Your Patterns

Look back across your life. What are the patterns in the different jobs you’ve had, and other life events? If you keep a journal go back through it now. It’s a great tool for how to know what you’re good at as an entrepreneur.

Write Out What You Do

What is your view of what you do? Write out a description of what you do as an entrepreneur. Take a step back and how you write this job description may be very telling as to your strengths.

Ask Others For Feedback

Use open-ended questions, and ask others directly what they think you are best at.

Take A Behavioral Or Skills Test

Utilize some of the same tests you may be considering using for recruiting and take them yourself. Looking from the outside, where do the results show your strengths are?

What Would People Who Know You Give You Money To Do?

Of the people who know you best, what do they believe in you enough to give you money to invest? You probably already know some of the things they would trust you to be able to accomplish and not.

Read Your Resume

Break out your resume and check out your LinkedIn bio. Where do they say your strengths are? Where do you agree and not?

Imagine Solving A New Project

If you were handed a new problem or project to solve, where would you start championing it? How would you lend your skills to it?

Track Your Screen Time

Track your mobile phone, laptop, and desktop screen time and activity. You might be surprised at what you spend most of your time doing.

This can give you some great clues as to what you are good at, and not so much.

Track What You Are Spending Your Money On

Where you spend your money says a lot about you. It says what you prioritize, value, and where you are probably headed. It is leadership training programs, new technology, on your health, or certain types of books?

Argue Your Seat On The Bus

If the world was ending and you had to argue your case to be one of the few given a seat on the rocket ship to survive and to go populate a new planet with only a handful of other people, why should they pick you?

What Expertise Can You Share?

If you were asked to speak about something or write an article for a notable publication, what would it be about? What’s your area of expertise?

Where Do You Ask For Help The Most?

What things do you ask for help with the most? They may still be weaknesses, which is okay because you are getting help. Or it could be a sign you are mastering it.

Compile Your Feedback

Put together your feedback from the critique of your coaches and advisors, what investors have said about your pitch presentations, and benchmark performance indicators from running your business. Use the feedback as a benchmark of how to know what you’re good at as an entrepreneur?

Take Time Out To Think About It

Most entrepreneurs simply don’t take serious time to analyze and think about what they are good at. Especially not objectively.

You have to be intentional about it, and give it the time and value it deserves. So, spend a few hours meditating, check into a local hotel, or travel. Zoom out.

Do nothing else but get clarity on this. Make this your top priority and the first thing on your to-do list until you know what you are good at.

You may find interesting as well our free library of business templates. There you will find every single template you will need when building and scaling your business completely for free. See it here.