As your business evolves from startup to growth stage, so must your role. You may decide to stay small, especially if you like to do everything yourself, and that's okay. But if you dream of scaling up , you will need an effective CEO. Until you have enough money to bring in someone who can step into that role, that someone needs to be you.

I learned this the hard way. I once recruited a buttoned-up senior executive from an advisory services firm to help us scale. In the first month, this soon-to-be former employee repeatedly told my team that "everyone knows founders are terrible CEOs" — especially when a decision was made they didn't agree with. They cited research that said mid-to-large-sized companies led by the people who founded them were less productive.

Even if that may be tr

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