5 Traits of Highly Successful Business Owners

What makes some business owners more successful than others?

Over the past 20 years, I’ve worked with nearly 400 business owners.

I’ve noticed that there are certain traits associated with stand-out success.

The owners who triple the size of their business, or 10x it, or simply free up their time have a few things in common.

Here are 5 of those “success traits.”

How many do you have? Do you see anything you need to work on?

1. Willing to Grow and Change

“What got you here won’t get you there.” ~ Marshall Goldsmith

Successful owners realize that they need to grow and change.

For established owners, this means changing the role they occupy in their business from the Operator Owner who still makes all the decisions to the Leader Owner who delegates responsibility to others.

This requires changing how they think, not just what they do.

It means catching themselves solving a problem that belongs on someone else’s desk, or making a decision that should never have reached them in the first place, and doing it differently next time.

Building a successful business requires a commitment to life-long learning.

2. Willing to Take Risks

Growing a business requires some risk-taking.

This might mean handing a piece of the business you’ve always run yourself over to someone else and trusting them to run it without you standing over their shoulder.

You take a risk every time you put someone in a role where they own the outcome: will they make the same decisions you’d have made?

Will the business keep delivering the same results if you’re not as closely involved in the work?

Successful owners trust their intuition and take measured risks.

Then they do what they need to do to make it work.

3. Don’t Let Perfectionism Get in the Way of Action

Some owners say they want to change, but then they don’t take the action that change actually requires.

This often comes down to treating every decision like a tattoo. Permanent. High-stakes. Something to get exactly right before moving.

Most business decisions aren’t tattoos. They’re hats: easy to put on, easy to take off, easy to change your mind about if it’s not working.

Successful owners get good at telling the difference.

They act on the best information they have instead of waiting for perfect information, and they recognize the decisions they can adjust later vs the ones they have to get right the first time.

4. Confront Problems Directly

People can stay stuck in bad situations for a very long time before finally taking action.

They know something needs to change. But naming the problem, having the conversation, making the decision, keeps getting put off for another week.

The owners who move are the ones who finally say the real problem out loud instead of managing around it.

Once it’s named clearly, the decision that follows is usually the easy part.

The owners who confront problems directly, instead of tolerating them or working around them, are the ones who get unstuck the fastest.

5. Value a Sounding Board and Outside Perspective

High achievers want outside perspective and honest feedback, not just someone nodding along.

The higher you climb in your own business, the harder it gets to find people who’ll tell you the truth.

Your team manages up. Your spouse didn’t sign up to be your board member on the partner buyout. Your competitors are the last people you’d call.

Successful business owners bring in a coach for that reason.

Not because they can’t eventually work it out alone, but because talking a problem through with someone who has no stake in flattering them gets to a better answer faster than circling it alone for weeks.

You can’t read the label from inside the jar. An outside perspective helps you see what you’re too close to see, and holds you to the decisions you make once you see it.

Are you ready to get to work?

Book 15 minutes on my calendar to talk about coaching: Book a Call with John.

Additional Reading

Stuck in the Middle of Everything? It’s Time to Become a Leader Owner.
Walks through the full owner evolution from operator to leader owner, including what actually has to change to make that shift.

The Owner’s Real Job: Build a Business That Runs Without You
Goes deeper on what it takes to delegate authority instead of just tasks, including why your team should be writing their own SOPs, not you.

What do you do when you’re stuck trying to decide between 2 bad options?
Breaks down the tattoos-vs-hats way of sizing up a decision, useful any time a call feels bigger and more permanent than it actually is.

The Leadership Skill Most Business Owners are Avoiding
Digs into why owners put off the conversation that would actually solve the problem, and how to have it without it turning into a blowup.

What is it Like to Work with a Business Coach?
Explains why an outside sounding board gets you to a better answer faster than working through a hard decision alone.