60 Small Business Quotes to Help the Entrepreneur in You

If you’d rather run your own small business than work for someone else, these small business quotes are for you!

There are some people in the world who just want to control their own destiny.

They want to be the boss instead of the employee.

But while there are many advantages that come with life as an entrepreneur or small business owner, there are also many challenges as well.

This can stop some people from taking the leap of faith in order to pursue their dreams.

But it shouldn’t.

Running a small business requires taking some risks, including failure, in order to be successful.

These small business quotes can give you the motivation and encouragement you need.

Don’t forget to also check out these motivating entrepreneur quotes to live by.

Check out our most popular quote article, a list of short inspirational quotes for daily inspiration.

Check out our entire collection of motivational quotes here. 

Motivational Small Business Quotes About Overcoming Failures

1. “Test fast, fail fast, adjust fast.” – Tom Peters

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2. “Failure isn’t fatal, but failure to change might be.” – John Wooden

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3. “If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original.” – Ken Robinson

4. “If you don’t try at anything, you can’t fail. It takes backbone to lead the life you want.” – Richard Yates

5. “Failure should be our teacher, not our undertaker. Failure is delay, not defeat. It is a temporary detour, not a dead end. Failure is something we can avoid only by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing.” – Denis Waitley

6. “People who don’t take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year. People who do take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year.” – Peter Drucker

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7. “Failure is an attitude, not an outcome.” – Harvey Mackay

8. “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston Churchill

9. “Winners are not afraid of losing. But losers are. Failure is part of the process of success. People who avoid failure also avoid success.” – Robert T. Kiyosaki

10. “It’s not how far you fall, but how high you bounce that counts.” – Zig Ziglar

11. “Don’t worry about failure; you only have to be right once.” – Drew Houston

12. “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” – Thomas Edison

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Small Business Quotes About Perseverance and Innovation

13. “If you can’t fly then run if you can’t run then walk if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

14. “When you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and hang on.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt

15. “Continuous effort – not strength or intelligence – is the key to unlocking our potential.” – Winston Churchill

16. “I don’t look to jump over 7-foot bars — I look for 1-foot bars that I can step over.” – Warren Buffett

17. “There is no finish line. There are only mile markers.” – Michael Ventura

18. “Success is dependent upon the glands – sweat glands.” – Zig Ziglar

19. “When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.” – Henry Ford

20. “Perseverance is the hard work you do after you get tired of doing the hard work you already did.” – Newt Gingrich

21. “Success is the child of drudgery and perseverance. It cannot be coaxed or bribed; pay the price and it is yours.” – Orison Swett Mard

22. “Without change, there is no innovation, creativity, or incentive for improvement. Those who initiate change will have a better opportunity to manage the change that is inevitable.” – William Pollard

23. “The only way you survive is you continuously transform into something else. It’s this idea of continuous transformation that makes you an innovation company.” – Ginni Rometty

24. “If you look at history, innovation doesn’t come just from giving people incentives; it comes from creating environments where their ideas can connect.” – Steven Johnson

25. “Minds are like parachutes; they work best when open.” – Thomas Dewar

26. “It is not the strongest species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the most responsive to change.” – Charles Darwin

Small Business Quotes About Success and Risk-Taking and Success

27. “Be brave. Take risks. Nothing can substitute experience.” – Paulo Coelho

28. “When you take risks you learn that there will be times when you succeed and there will be times when you fail, and both are equally important.” – Ellen DeGeneres

29. “The biggest risk is not taking any risk.” – Mark Zuckerberg

30. “Make the choices that make you nervous. If you make the choice that’s the easy way out, that wasn’t the big vision or big choice to make.” – Eileen Burbidge

31. “You shouldn’t focus on why you can’t do something, which is what most people do. You should focus on why perhaps you can, and be one of the exceptions.” – Steve Case

32. “Go out on a limb. That’s where the fruit is.” – Jimmy Carter

33. “Creative risk-taking is essential to success in any goal where the stakes are high. Thoughtless risks are destructive, of course, but perhaps even more wasteful is thoughtless caution which prompts inaction and promotes failure to seize opportunity.” – Gary Ryan Blair

34. “Successful people do what unsuccessful people are not willing to do. Don’t wish it were easier; wish you were better.” – Jim Rohn

35. “The secret of success is to do the common thing uncommonly well.” – John D. Rockefeller, Jr.

36. “If people like you, they’ll listen to you, but if they trust you, they’ll do business with you.” – Zig Ziglar

37. “In order to succeed, we must first believe that we can.” – Nikos Kazantzakis

38. “Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don’t quit.” – Conrad Hilton

39. “Have the end in mind and every day make sure you’re working towards it.” – Ryan Allis

40. “The most dangerous poison is the feeling of achievement. The antidote is to every evening think what can be done better tomorrow.” – Ingvar Kamprad

41. “What the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” – Napoleon Hill

42. “Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision and relentlessly drive it to completion.” – Jack Welch

43. “The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus.” – Bruce Lee

Positive Small Business Quotes About Hope and the Right Attitude

44. “You are the master of your destiny. You can influence, direct and control your own environment. You can make your life what you want it to be.” – Napoleon Hill

45. Don’t worry about being successful but work toward being significant and the success will naturally follow.” – Oprah Winfrey

46. “Starting a successful business is not tricky. Starting a successful business does not require above-average intelligence. Starting a successful business does require having a pig-headed, purpose-driven tenacity about achieving your life goals and fulfilling your life’s vision through providing products and services that offer uncompromising quality in a scalable and duplicable way.” – Clay Clark

47. “A small business is an amazing way to serve and leave an impact on the world you live in.” – Nicole Snow

48. “Business is not just doing deals; business is having great products, doing great engineering, and providing tremendous service to customers. Finally, business is a cobweb of human relationship.” – Henry Ross Perot

49. “What do you need to start a business? Three simple things: know your product better than anyone. Know your customer, and have a burning desire to succeed.” – Dave Thomas

50. “Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion.” – Jack Welch

Small Business Quotes To Innovate Entrepreneurs

51. “You can’t be successful in business without taking risks. It’s really that simple.” — Adena Friedman

52. “Business has only two functions – marketing and Innovation.” — Peter Drucker

53. “Business is all about relationships, how well you build them determines how well they build your business.” — Brad Sugars

54. “There’s no luck in business. There’s only drive, determination and more drive.” — Sophie Kinsella

55. “Entrepreneurs understand that there is little difference between obstacle and opportunity.” — Victor Kiam

56. “Don’t find customers for your products, find products for your customers.” — Seth Godin

57. “As a small businessperson, you have no greater leverage than the truth.” — Paul Hawken

58. “The secret of business is to know something that nobody else knows.” — Aristotle

59. Business opportunities are like buses, there’s always another one coming.” — Richard Branson

60. “A satisfied customer is the best business strategy of all.” — Michael LeBoeuf

What did you learn from these small business quotes?

The life of a small business owner isn’t always easy.

There can be times when it feels like everything is stacked against you.

There are long days and obstacles in your path.

And there are times when you may fail.

But the small business owners that eventually find success are the ones that keep going even when it’s tough.

They learn to bounce back when they fail and they continue to adjust along the way.

Every small business owner faces challenges.

Remind yourself that if someone else can do it, you can too.

Choose a quote or two and put them up in your office, on your desk, or in your signature line to remind yourself to keep going.

What’s your biggest takeaway from these small business quotes and sayings?

Do you have any other motivational quotes to add?

Let us know in the comment section below.