Small Business Quotes: Motivational & Funny

Being a small business owner is not always easy. As a serial entrepreneur, I like to read quotes about starting a business for motivation, inspiration, perspective on failure and a good laugh about the entrepreneurial life. The wisdom of successful business people and respected leaders inspires me and I hope you too.

Here are my favorite quotes about how to start a business, divided into sections; motivational, funny, success and failure, sales and marketing, team leadership and entrepreneur passion. Included are images you can save or add to Pinterest.

“The way to get started in business is to quit talking and start doing.” –Walt Disney, Co-Founder, Disney

Motivational Quotes- For Tough Times

• “You can’t have a million-dollar business dream with a minimum-wage work ethic.” – Stephen C. Hogan

• “I’m convinced that about half of what separates the successful business entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance.” –Steve Jobs, Co-Founder, and CEO, Apple

• “Never, never, never give up.” –Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister

• “Act enthusiastic and you will be enthusiastic.” –Dale Carnegie, Author, and Motivational Speaker

• “Don’t be afraid to assert yourself, have confidence in your abilities, and don’t let the bastards get you down.” –Michael Bloomberg, Former Mayor of New York and Founder of Bloomberg L.P.

• “Don’t limit yourself. Many people limit themselves to what they think they can do. You can go as far as your mind lets you. What you believe, remember, you can achieve.” –Mary Kay Ash, Mary Kay Cosmetics Founder

• “Life is not always a matter of holding good cards, but sometimes playing a poor hand well.” –Jack London, Author

• “If you’re going through hell, keep going.” –Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister

Inspirational Business Quotes – For Spiritual Help

• “Every worthwhile accomplishment, big or little, has its stages of drudgery and triumph: a beginning, a struggle, and a victory.” –Mahatma Gandhi, Political and Spiritual Leader

• “Challenges are gifts that force us to search for a new center of gravity. Don’t fight them. Just find a new way to stand.” – Oprah Winfrey

• You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.” – Maya Angelou

• “Whether you think you can, or think you can’t — you’re right.” –Henry Ford, Ford Motor Company Founder

• “One can get anything if he is willing to help enough others get what they want.” –Zig Ziglar, Motivational Speaker, and Author

• “Time is more valuable than money. You can get more money, but you cannot get more time.” – Jim Rohn

• “Trust your instincts.” –Estée Lauder, Founder, Estée Lauder

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

• “To be successful, you have to have your heart in your business, and your business in your heart.” Thomas Watson, CEO of IBM

• “I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.” –Wayne Gretzy, Hockey Star

• “Remember to celebrate milestones as you prepare for the road ahead.” –Nelson Mandela, South African Leader

• “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” –Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister

Funny Quotes- For a Good Laugh

• “It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up.” –Babe Ruth, Baseball Legend

• “In between goals is a thing called life, that has to be lived and enjoyed.” –Sid Caesar, Entertainer

• “If everything seems under control, you’re just not going fast enough.” – Mario Andretti, Legendary Race Car Driver

• “If you’re not a risk taker, you should get the hell out of business.” –Ray Kroc, McDonald’s Founder

• “Hustle until you no longer need to introduce yourself.” – Anonymous Entrepreneur

• “Things work out best for those who make the best of how things work out.” – John Wooden

• “If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.” –Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn Co-Founder, and Venture Capitalist

• “The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into smaller manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.” –Mark Twain, American Humorist, and Author

• “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” – Thomas Edison

Success & Failure Quotes – For a Better Perspective

• “You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing and falling over.” –Richard Branson, Virgin Group Founder

• “Failure is not to be feared. It is from failure that most growth comes.” -Dee Hock

• “I knew that if I failed I wouldn’t regret that, but I knew the one thing I might regret is not trying.” –Jeff Bezos, Amazon Founder, and CEO

• “Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently” – Henry Ford, founder of Ford Motor Co.

• “There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.” – Colin Powell

• “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, AOL Co-Founder, and CEO

• “Most great people have attained their greatest success just one step beyond their greatest failure.” —Napoleon Hill, author of “Think and Grow Rich”

• “Don’t worry about people stealing your design work. Worry about the day they stop.” – Jeffrey Zeldman

• “A big business starts small” – Richard Branson

• “Waiting for perfect is never as smart as making progress.” –Seth Godin, Author

• “I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed.” –Michael Jordan, NBA Legendary Basketball MVP

• “Don’t worry about failure; you only have to be right once.” –Drew Houston, Dropbox Co-Founder, and CEO

• “When you find an idea that you just can’t stop thinking about, that’s probably a good one to pursue.” –Josh James, Omniture CEO and Co-Founder

• “Don’t be cocky. Don’t be flashy. There’s always someone better than you.” –Tony Hsieh, Zappos CEO

• “Success and abundance isn’t just for some people. It’s not just for those people over there, from that family, from that geographical orientation, from that culture, from that bank account balance. Abundance is all of our birth right.”

Marketing & Sales

• “Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.” –Bill Gates, Microsoft Founder, and former CEO

• “Wonder what your customer really wants? Ask. Don’t tell.” –Lisa Stone, BlogHer Co-Founder, and CEO

• “Always deliver more than expected.” –Larry Page, Co-Founder, Google

Entrepreneur Passion & Lifestyle

• “Chase the vision, not the money; the money will end up following you.” –Tony Hsieh, Zappos CEO

• “Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.” –Steve Jobs, Co-Founder, Chairman, and CEO, Apple

• “If you just work on stuff that you like and you’re passionate about, you don’t have to have a master plan with how things will play out.” –Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook Founder, and CEO

• “Find a great mentor, someone who has already been through the many challenges of being an entrepreneur.” -Jodi Levine

• “The critical ingredient is getting off your butt and doing something. It’s as simple as that. A lot of people have ideas, but there are few who decide to do something about them now. Not tomorrow. Not next week. But today. The true entrepreneur is a doer, not a dreamer.” –Nolan Bushnell, Entrepreneur

• “Ideas are easy. Implementation is hard.” –Guy Kawasaki, Alltop Co-Founder, and Entrepreneur

• “Any time is a good time to start a company.” –Ron Conway, Noted Startup Investor, SV Angel

• “The entrepreneur always searches for change, responds to it, and exploits it as an opportunity.” – Peter Drucker

• “Ideas are a commodity. Execution of them is not.” –Michael Dell, Dell Chairman, and CEO

• “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, Founder, Wendy’s

• “If someone gives you coaching, be respectful enough to take action.”

• “You’ve got to be willing to say the thing you didn’t think you would say and do the thing you didn’t think you would do to get the results you’ve always said you deserve.”

Small Business Team Leadership Quotes

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

• “Don’t spread yourself too thin… focus trumps freneticism any day.”– John Coleman

• “You don’t build a business, you build people, then people build the business.” – Zig Zigler

• “Make your team feel respected, empowered and genuinely excited about the company’s mission.” –Tim Westergen, Pandora Founder

• “Always treat your employees exactly as you want them to treat your best customers.” –Stephen R. Covey, Author

• “Bringing great people onto your team is about demonstrating that size really doesn’t matter – people do.” Jess Campbell

• “The secret to successful hiring is this: look for the people who want to change the world.” –Marc Benioff, Salesforce CEO

If your business is already launched and operational and you desire to sell your company without a business broker yourself – check out my expert step by step plan here.

Next Up: For more examples, check out our “Inspirational presidential quotes” post.

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