“What do the most successful small business owners have in common?” [Milestone Video]

Milestones for Small Business are weekly answers to questions from small business owners across the world. At the end of a year, we’ll have a created a 52-point roadmap to small business success.

Milestone for Small Business #1

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Hi. This is Tim Miles, and welcome to this week’s Milestone for Small Business.

“What do the most successful small business owners have in common?”

It’s a great question, and I’ve been doing this now for almost twenty years, and I’ve seen three common themes emerge:

1. The most successful small business owner … really, the most successful anybody … is dependable. 

Rock solid dependable.

The most successful people are almost boring in their dependability because you never have to question whether or not you can count on them to do the things they say they’re going to do when they say they’re going to do them.

2. They have guts.

These people – the most successful small business owners – accept responsibility not only for their actions, but for the actions of their team.

They’re accountable. They do the hard thing – always when it’s the most important time to do it.

And they’re willing to take risks, and if the risks don’t pan out, they don’t whine or make excuses. They accept responsibility and have the courage to move forward fiercely – often when other people say they shouldn’t!

And you wave behind you to the followers in the rearview mirror.

And finally, and probably most importantly … I was reminded of this third one in a tweet by Tom Peters over the weekend when he said:

CEO to EVP: “What remarkable new learning experience have you had in last 6 months?” (Never heard that. Better yet, EVP asks CEO same same.)

3. The most successful small business owners never stop learning.

Back when I started in marketing and advertising in 1995, I remember working for Bruce Welker at Z100’s radio station – I made something like $305 every two weeks.

It wasn’t a lot of money, but even then, I made it a point to essentially tithe for my career. I gave 10% back to my career. I bought seminars and tapes and tried to go to conferences – anything I could do to improve my craft. That continues to this day.

So, to answer the first Milestone for Small Business:

1. Dependable – almost boring in their dependability.
2. These business owners have the guts to own up, do the hard thing, do the right thing, and take risks.
3. They never want to stop learning. They’re always curious about how they could improve their company, their employees, and themselves.

I’m Tim Miles of The Imagination Advisory Group. Thanks for joining us.

Have a successful week.

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