Bajan Sun Magazine - Caribbean Entrepreneurs Vol 1 Issue 11 | Page 113

JAN 2015 You must focus on doing one thing better than anyone. Everybody knows they need to differentiate but few understand what that really means. It means coming up with a customer value proposition that your company and your company alone does better than anyone else. Once you figure out what that is, focus on doing that and just that. Business is about understanding people. Business is not about building your personal brand, your network or your Twitter following. It’s not about your blog or what you post on LinkedIn or Facebook. Business is about people. It’s about relationships. If you want to do business in the real world, you’ve got to connect and build relationships with real people in the real world - period. You have to know what you’re doing. Passion alone won’t cut it these days. Whatever it is you’ve decided to do, if you have no idea what you’re doing, you will fail and fail miserably. Sooner or later you’ll have to make smart decisions and that means having enough experience and capability to k now smart from not-sosmart. And no, just thinking you’re smart won’t cut it either. Everyone thinks they’re smart. You’ve got to hire, motivate and retain talented people. This is one of the trickiest aspects of running a company. I’ve known dozens of corporate CEOs who couldn’t hire the right people or keep them motivated to save their lives. It’s a remarkably common pitfall of small businesses and startups, as well. If you think running a company is like falling off a log, be my guest, go for it. But I guarantee you’ll see things differently after falling on your face a few times. Save yourself the trouble and get a handle on things. Don’t be in such a hurry to call yourself a CEO. Better off becoming one first. www.bajansunonline.com/MAGAZINE/ | [email protected] | @BajanSunOnline