Using Freudian language, the ego denotes a sort of baseline state of a personality, but that’s not the usage I wish to convey here. Here, I wish to mean “ego” in the more colloquial sense to convey arrogance.
Always — but especially when running your own business — projecting a small ego is essential. Customers want to accomplish some goal (we hope!), and they look to vendors to provide solutions. A narcissistic ego is a distraction that doesn’t really do your customers any good.
When running a business well, a key element to smooth operations is negotiating well. I once interned at a pretty big ad agency that philosophically didn’t believe in negotiating. Their belief was that you should propose your best offer initially so the buyer gets a simple yes-or-no choice, saving both parties time and frustration. The idea was that this approach would be substantially more efficient.
I don’t disagree with that approach, but I think it’s quite easy to lack awareness of essential details. Given that, I’m a big proponent of checklists, in order to help ensure both parties are talking about the same thing.