100+ Motivational Quotes to Inspire Small Business Owners & Entrepreneurs
Being a small business owner or entrepreneur is tough and challenging. Every day is a new day, a new challenge, a new adventure, a new opportunity. To deal with highs and lows, ups and downs of entrepreneurship, to keep your fire ignited and keep your passion going, you need motivation.
We have put together a list of more than 100 small business quotes that contain meaningful and motivational lessons from some of the most successful and famous entrepreneurs.
Best Small Business Quotes for Inspiration & Motivation
1. “Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision.”
— Peter F. Drucker, Management Consultant, Educator, and Author
2. “Where do you put the fear when you choose to innovate? The fear is there, but you have to find a place to put it.”
— Seth Godin, Writer and Business Visionary
3. “The Golden Rule for Every Business is this: Put Yourself in your Customer’s Place.”
— Orison Swett Marden, American Inspirational Author
4. “Never Give up. Today is hard and tomorrow will be Worse, but the day after Tomorrow will be Sunshine.”
— Jack Ma, Founder Alibaba Group
5. “If you don’t drive your business, you will be driven out of business.”
— B.C. Forbes, Financial Journalist and Author Forbes Magazine
6. “If you can dream it, you can do it.”
— Walt Disney, Entrepreneur, Animator, Voice actor and Film producer
7. “Opportunities don’t happen. You create them.”
— Chris Grosser, Photographer
8. “To be successful, you must act big, think big and talk big.”
— Aristotle Onassis, Greek Shipping Magnate
9. “Great things in business are never done by one person.”
— Steve Jobs, Founder Apple Inc.
10. “Don’t find customers for your products, find products for your customers.”
— Seth Godin, Author & Former Dot Com Business Executive
11. “Patience: This is the greatest business asset. Wait for the right time to make your moves.”
— J. Paul Getty, British American Petrol Industrialist
12. “A satisfied customer is the best business strategy of all.”
— Michael LeBoeuf, Business Author and Motivational Speaker
13. “There are no working hours for leaders.”
— James Cardinal Gibbons, American Prelate of the Catholic Church
14. “Make a Customer, Not a sale.”
— Katherine Barchetti, Owner of K. Barchetti Shops
15. “Capital isn’t scarce. Vision is.”
— Sam Walton, Walmart Founder
16. “To win big, you sometimes have to take big risks.”
— Bill Gates, Founder Microsoft Corporation
17. “You never achieve real success unless you like what you are doing.”
— Dale Carnegie, Writer and Lecturer
18. “The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.”
— Walt Disney, Entrepreneur, Animator, Voice actor, and Film producer
19. “Satisfaction is a rating. Loyalty is a brand.”
— Shep Hyken, Author and Speaker
20. “The best way to predict the future is to create it.”
— Peter F. Drucker, Management Consultant, Educator, and Author
21. “The best preparation for tomorrow is doing your best today.”
— H. Jackson Brown, Jr., American Author
22. “First, think. Second, believe. Third, dream. And finally, dare.”
— Walt Disney, Entrepreneur, Animator, Voice actor and Film producer
23. “A goal without a plan is just a wish.”
— Antoine De Saint-Exupery, Writer, Poet, Aristocrat and Journalist
24. “The only way to do great work is to love what you do.”
— Steve Jobs, Apple Founder
25. “Don’t follow the crowd, let the crowd follow you.”
— Margaret Thatcher, British Stateswoman, Former British Prime Minister
26. “It’s not about ideas. It’s about making ideas happen.”
— Scott Belsky, Entrepreneur, Author and Early-Stage Investor
27. “There’s nothing wrong with staying small. You can do big things with a small team.”
— Jason Fried, Founder & CEO at Basecamp
28. “Success is how high you bounce after you hit bottom.”
— General George Patton Jr., General of the United States Army
29. “By failing to prepare you are preparing to fail.”
— Benjamin Franklin, American polymath, Founding Fathers of the United States
30. “Make the customer the hero of your story.”
— Ann Handley, Chief Content Officer, Speaker and Author
31. “The goal as a company is to have customer service that is not just the best, but legendary.”
— Sam Walton, Founder of Walmart
31. “The secret of getting ahead is getting started.”
— Mark Twain, American Writer, Publisher, and Lecturer
33. “Business is all about relationships, how well you build them determines how well they build your business.”
— Brad Sugars, Chairman and Founder ActionCOACH
34. “Customer service is an opportunity to exceed your customer’s expectations.”
— John Jantsch, Author Duct Tape Marketing, Speaker and Author
35. “It’s not an experiment if you know it’s going to work.”
— Jeff Bezos, Founder, Chairman, CEO, and President of Amazon
36. “An obstacle is often a stepped stone.”
— William Prescott, Military Commander
37. “Business is the salt of life.”
— Voltaire, French writer, historian and philosopher
38. “Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t, you’re right.”
— Henry Ford, American Captain of Industry, Founder Ford Motor Assembly
39. “Don’t watch the clock; do what it does. Keep going.”
— Sam Levenson, Humourist, Writer, Teacher, Television Host, and Journalist.
40. “Don’t deliver a product, deliver an experience.”
— Unknown
41. “Don’t count the days, Make the days count.”
— Muhammad Ali, Professional Boxer
42. “In order to succeed. We must first believe that we can.”
— Nikos Kazantzakis, Greek writer – Zorba the Greek.
43. “The biggest mistake a small business can make is to think like a small business.”
— Aruna Bhayana, Lawyer & Digital Marketer
44. “Setting Goal is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.”
— Tony Robbins, Author & Business Strategist
45. “Don’t give up, the beginning is always the hardest.”
— Kemmy Nola, Motivational Speaker
46. “Small opportunities are often beginning of great achievements.”
— Demosthenes, Greek statesman and Orator of Ancient Athens
47. “To be successful you have to have your heart in your business and your business in your heart.”
— Thomas J. Watson, Chairman and CEO of IBM
48. “A winner never stops trying.”
— Tom Landry, American Football Player and Coach
49. “It’s fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.”
— Bill Gates, Microsoft Founder
50. “You must not only aim right but draw the bow with all your might.”
— Henry David Thoreau, American essayist, poet, philosopher, and historian.
51. “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.”
— Steve Jobs, Apple Founder
52. “Plan for what it is difficult while it is easy, Do what is great while it is small.”
— Sun Tzu, Chinese Strategist, Writer, and Philosopher
53. “The well-satisfied customer will bring the repeat sale that counts.”
— James Cash Penney, Founder of J.C. Penney
54. “If you don’t understand the details of your business you are going to fail.”
— Jeff Bezos, Amazon Founder
55. “The heart and soul of a company is creativity and innovation.”
— Robert Iger, CEO of Walt Disney
56. “Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.”
— John D. Rockefeller, Industrialist and Philanthropist
57. “Courteous treatment will make a customer a walking advertisement.”
— James Cash Penny, Founder J.C. Penney Stores
58. “Know what your customer want most and what your company does best. Focus on where those two meet.”
— Kevin Stirtz, Author of more loyal customers
59. “The goal as a company is to have customer service that is not just the best but legendary.”
— Sam Walton, Founder of Walmart
60. “Tough times never last, but tough people do.”
— Robert H. Schuller, Televangelist, Pastor, Motivational Speaker, and Author
61. “Get closer than ever to your customers. So close that you tell them what they need well before they realize it themselves.”
— Steve Jobs, Apple Founder
62. “The best customer service is if the customer doesn’t need to call you, doesn’t need to talk to you. It just works.”
— Jeff Bezos, Founder and CEO of Amazon
63. “Every company’s greatest assets are its customers because without customers there is no company.”
— Michael LeBoeuf, Business Author and Motivational Speaker
64. “Every contact we have with a customer influences whether or not they’ll come back. We have to be great every time or we’ll lose them.”
— Kevin Stirtz, Author
65. “Customers may forget what you said but they’ll never forget how you made them feel.”
— Anonymous
66. “Everything starts with the customer.”
— Lou Gerstner, Chairman of the board and CEO of IBM
67. “Customer don’t expect you to be perfect. They do expect you to fix things when they go wrong.”
— Donald Porter, Actor
68. “Great customer service is a critical competitive advantage for a business.”
— Steve Benson, Editorial Cartoonist
69. “The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.”
— Lao Tzu, Ancient Chinese Philosopher and Writer
70. “Don’t find fault. Find a remedy.”
— Henry Ford, Founder of Ford Motor Assembly
71. “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.”
— Helen Keller, American Author, Political Activist, and lecturer
72. “In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.”
— Albert Einstein, Theoretical physicist
73. “Always give your best effort even when the odds are against you.”
— Arnold Palmer, American Professional Golfer
74. “If you are not taking care of your customer, your competitor will.”
— Bob Hooey, Author
75. “When you serve the customer better, they always return on your investment.”
— Arnold Palmer, American Professional Golfer
76. “One way to keep momentum going is to have constantly greater goals.”
— Michael Korda, Writer, Novelist and Editor-in-Chief of Simon & Schuster
77. “Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough.”
— OG Mandino, American Author
78. “Never ever give up! Constant effort is the key to success.”
— Xavier Davis, American jazz pianist and Music Educator
79. “Your Customer doesn’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”
— Damon Richards, Professional DJ, and Music Producer
80. “There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: The fear of failure.”
— Paulo Coelho, Brazilian Lyricist and Novelist
81. “What you do today can improve all your tomorrows.”
— Ralph Marston, Professional Football Player
82. “All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them.”
— Walt Disney, Entrepreneur and Film producer
83. “The secret of business is to know something that nobody else knows.”
— Aristotle, Greek Philosopher
84. “Action is the foundational key to all success.”
— Pablo Picasso, Spanish Painter, Sculptor, Stage Designer, Poet and Playwright
85. “Never give up. Great things take time.”
— Unknown
86. “Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny.”
— C.S. Lewis, British Writer and Lay Theologian.
87. “The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus.”
— Bruce Lee, Actor, Director, Martial Artist and Philosopher
88. “The man who has confidence in himself gains the confidence of others.”
— Hasidic Proverb
89. “I find that the harder I work the more luck I seem to have.”
— Thomas Jefferson, Former U.S. President
90. “Opportunities don’t happen. You create them.”
— Chris Grosser, Sales Advisor
91. “Strength doesn’t come from what you can do. It comes from overcoming the things you once thought you couldn’t.”
— Rikki Rogers, Writer and Marketer
92. “The secret of getting ahead is getting started.”
— Mark Twain, American Writer and Publisher
93. “Keep your face always toward the sunshine and shadows will fall behind you.”
— Walt Whitman, American Poet, Essayist and Journalist
94. “You can’t be successful in business without taking risks. It’s really that simple.”
— Adena Friedman, President and CEO of NASDAQ
95. “Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.”
— Truman Capot, American Novelist
96. “The successful man is the one who finds out what is the matter with his business before his competitors do.”
— Roy L. Smith, Author
97. “There’s no luck in business. There’s only drive, determination and more drive.”
— Sophie Kinsella, Author
98. “If your business is not on the internet then your business will be out of business.”
— Bill Gates, Founder of Microsoft Corporation
99. “All you have in business is your reputation – So it’s very important that you keep your work.”
— Richard Branson, Founder Virgin Group
100. “Business has only two functions – marketing and Innovation.”
— Peter Drucker, Management Consultant, Educator, and Author
101. “You have to work on the business first before it works for you.”
— Idowu Koyenikan, Consultant and Author USA Today Network
102. “In the business world, everyone is paid in two coins: cash and experience. Take the experience first; the cash will come later.”
— Harold Geneen, President of the ITT Corporation
103. “The greatest ability in business is to get along with others and to influence their actions.”
— John Hancock, Statesman and President of the Second Continental Congress
104. “You don’t build a business. You build people and people build the business.”
— Zig Ziglar, American Author, Salesman and Motivational Speaker
105. “The purpose of business is to create and keep a customer.”
— Peter Drucker, Management Consultant, Educator, and Author
106. “A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business.”
— Henry Ford, Founder Ford Motor Assembly
107. “The difference between who you are and who you want to be is what you do.”
— Anonymous
If you think we missed any motivational small business quotes, then let us know through comments.