Small Business Owners Quotes

“Leadership is like parenthood; just when you think you've got it all figured out, they become teenagers.”
― Colleen Ferrary Bader

“Everyone you come in contact with knows a person who runs or owns a business. Make sure they know what you do, so when the time comes, you get the call, not someone else.”
― Sarah Gerdes, The Overlooked Expert

“With the explosion of the internet has come numerous avenues for small business owners to share their expertise and position themselves as experts. And expertise is what consumers are looking for.”
― Diane Helbig, Thriving in the New Economy

“The small stores are holding the one card that large retailers cannot, personal service. A clean bathroom, lounge chairs, and a sympathetic ear concerning weight gain, sagging skin, and "batwing" arms round it all off.
C.L. McManus, Adventures in Small Business”
― C.L. McManus, Adventures in Small Business: The surprising humor and realities in owning and running a small retail store.

“Owning a small business is like getting married. You're in it for the long haul, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer. And like marriage, there's a learning curve. You learn it's best to keep your mouth shut more often than not.”
― C.L. McManus, Adventures in Small Business: The surprising humor and realities in owning and running a small retail store.

“Running a small business is a lot like spinning a roulette wheel. You can win big, you could lose everything, or maybe you'll do ok. The problem is, even after you've landed on a good space, you MUST take another spin at the wheel. On a particular day in March 2020, the wheel landed on Covid-19.”
― C.L. McManus, Adventures in Small Business: The surprising humor and realities in owning and running a small retail store.

“My expectations were pretty conventional regarding opening, operating, and ultimately closing my small store. I certainly didn't expect much emotion, nor did I expect that the faces, voices and stories would stay with me a lifetime, but they will. In reality, I ran the scale of emotions. Every significant interaction changed me. Though you can say that about most anything in life, these moments combined were, for me, truly "life-changing." My lifetime of annoyingly repetitive prayers was for exactly what I was to receive by operating that little store. I had an about-face with confidence, and although my patience will probably never be perfect, it went from a two to maybe a seven?”
― C.L. McManus, Adventures in Small Business: The surprising humor and realities in owning and running a small retail store.

“The tears the laughs the lessons learned
The products bought and then returned
The skin that was thin
Is now like buckskin
A degree in resilience well-earned”
― C.L. McManus, Adventures in Small Business: The surprising humor and realities in owning and running a small retail store.

“Most very small business owners aren’t short on effort. They’re short on honest focus.

Confidence grows when you stop trying to fix everything and start working on the right few things.”
― Rick Tracewell, The Uncomfortable Comfort Zone: Where small business owners get stuck — and how to move forward