From: Bizjournals

People have different aspirations, interests and skill sets. This is good, or everyone would want to be the boss.

You probably are a Type A personality being that you’re an entrepreneur or independent business owner. You need to make things happen.

Do you get frustrated when some of your people always leave the office at 5 p.m.? If they are leaving exactly at 5 p.m., they must be “packing up” at 4:45 p.m.

You could get frustrated, but don’t. Not everyone is meant to be a high-achieving executive like yourself. If they were, you would have no junior personnel or middle management within your organization.

Your job as the CEO is to find the right positions for your people after understanding their skill sets and career aspirations. If you can do this difficult task, you are a great leader and your company will experience significant growth.

Don’t sell yourself short

Customers have a hard time finding great vendors. Don’t sell yourself short. Be confident in charging a competitive price.

I started a credit card-processing company years ago which, in my opinion, may be the one of the most competitive industries. We were selling Visa, MasterCard and American Express rates to small and mid-size companies. We were and to this day continue to sell a commodity.

But how did we differentiate ourselves to grow into a major company with more than 500 salespeople and thousands of clients nationally and internationally? We preached to our people that companies would rather buy a good product from a great salesperson than buy a great product from a bad salesperson.

Our philosophy worked. Never underestimate yourself. In many cases, you are selling yourself, and your product/service just comes along for the ride.

Execution makes the difference

Is your business idea really that original? Probably not — it’s the execution that will make the difference.

Are you really smart enough to invent the next proprietary solution? I’m not. How about you?