Successful Small Business Owners: 5 Traits They All Practice

Successful small business owners tend to embody similar traits. Studying professional entrepreneurs reveals a few patterns among this lot.

Follow their lead. Observe their traits. Embodying certain qualities learned from professionals accelerates your small business’s success.

The Best Small Business Owners Are Independent Thinkers

Independent thinkers tend to thrive as small business owners. 

Learn how to think for yourself if you only worked as an employee before your current small business venture. 

Become a critical thinker to observe what strategies resonate with you and what you need to leave behind. Do not follow some business strategy solely because a professional told you to follow this technique. What resonates with you? What do you feel clear about doing? 

Think through your small business campaign. Be nimble. Demonstrate agility during times of change by being an independent thinker.

Freethinkers stand out from the small business crowd in a good way. Customers gravitate toward genuine, heartfelt individuals who generously serve them while adding their own distinctive, branded flavor to their business.

They Hit The Ground Running

Stop waiting around for someone’s permission to do anything with your business. Move into action now. Taking charge is a key trait all entrepreneurs need to adopt in order to succeed.

Show initiative. Be ambitious. Gain street smarts. 

I knew little as a new blogger and business owner 10 years ago. My prior days solely as an employee did not exactly prepare me to be a successful entrepreneur. But I gained street smarts by moving into action regularly.

I struggled and failed but learned valuable lessons in developing a certain fearlessness in what I did with my blogging business.

Start out by hitting the ground running. Gain valuable experience you can use.

Teamwork Mentality of Successful Small Business Owners

Prospering small business owners may think independently but work together with other thriving entrepreneurs to collectively multiply their success.

One person can do the work of one person. One person who generously and genuinely befriends 10 successful entrepreneurs by helping these folks and expecting nothing in return quickly observes the power of how 11 people working to accelerate your success beats your singular efforts.

Small business buddies promote you, endorse you, buy your stuff and hire you. 

As the  quote goes:

“The richest people in the world look for and build networks. Everyone else looks for work.” ~ Robert Kiyosaki

If you do not generously build your network you will be looking for a job quite soon. But networking generously makes life much easier for you; plus you’ll have fun making buddies.

Successful Small Business Owners Take Full Responsibility For Their Lives

Successful small business owners take full responsibility for their lives because what you blame or whom you blame owns you. But owning everything allows you to keep your power.

I never blame anyone, anything, or any circumstance in life – business or otherwise – because doing so gives me the power to work through all obstacles, resistance, or struggles.

My mind allows me to think, feel and work my way through or around any situation because my mind determines my course. 

Take full ownership of your business life. No matter what happens, being completely responsible allows you to keep your power of thinking, feeling, and acting your way through resistance, to become a successful small business owner.

No person, place, or thing has any power over entrepreneurs who own their lives.

High Level of Emotional Intelligence

After blogging professionally for a decade I assure you: professional blogging is virtually 100% about developing a high level of emotional intelligence.

Any action you take or do not take, any thought you act on or ignore, and any feeling you generate or do not foster completely depend on your level of emotional intelligence.

Highly emotionally intelligent small business owners become aware of their fears, follow their fun and do freeing but sometimes highly uncomfortable things in order to build thriving ventures.

Failing small business owners exhibit a low level of emotional intelligence. Demonstrating a low level of emotional intelligence simply means you are unaware of how your deep fears fuel your business struggles and failures.

Nor are you aware of the many deep fears festering in your being, if you are not emotionally intelligent.

Successful Small Business Owners Practice

Spend time in quiet. Meditate. Do yoga. Engage in awareness-expanding practices to become more aware of your feelings.

Being emotionally intelligent makes you unstoppable because you follow your fun, wade through fears, and experience increasing business success.

Why? All success sits on the other side of fear. Emotionally intelligent entrepreneurs become aware of, face, feel and move through their fears. Success follows entrepreneurs who face their fears.

Your Turn on Being Successful Business Owners

Are you a solopreneur struggling to gain traction? We’d love to hear about your struggles and offer suggestions to help you become a successful small business owner in the new year.