Operating your own business is a rewarding experience; you’re passionate about your product or service, and your unique business brings joy to many customers.
If you’re considering traditional employment or stepping into a new venture, it’s probably time to access a quick resume builder. However, writing your resume is more complicated than it looks when it comes to summarizing your activities and responsibilities.
Fortunately, we’ve done all the hard work for you!
We’ve researched numerous business owners’ resumes to determine what worked to get an interview in 2025. We’ve distilled our research into nine free business owner resume samples to inspire your business owner resume. Check out our tips to perfect your resume and land you an interview for the job of your dreams!
Why this resume works
- When should you include a resume objective on your business owner resume?
- We’d recommend adding an objective if you’re undergoing a career change or if you have minimal experience with the job you’re seeking.
- Use an objective to describe why your unique background prepares you for the job you’re seeking, and why you’re transitioning to a new job.
- You had countless responsibilities when you owned your business, so it can be frustrating trying to make everything fit on a page.
- Don’t try! An online cover letter generator can save you precious space on your resume (not to mention time!), giving you room to share the how and why of your business-savvy decisions.
Why this resume works
- Owning a business is all about numbers, so you’ll want to prove you can make an impact by providing plenty of quantifiable metrics on your small business owner resume.
- You can provide metrics regarding revenue, the number of store locations you opened, the amount of positive performance reviews, customer and employee satisfaction scores, or the amount of awards you won. If you can find numbers for something, include it!
- You know you have the right skills for the job you’re seeking, but how can you convince your future employer?
- Start by including relevant skill keywords in your resume’s skill section. Check your list against the job description so your resume matches their expectations.
Why this resume works
- If you’ve been a business owner for a while now, your construction business owner resume may be years out of date. You’ll need to translate your valuable self-employed work experiences into bullet points.
- Highlight your marketing capabilities, customer service skills, fiscal responsibility, and management abilities regarding your construction company.
- When you’re polishing your resume, don’t hit “submit” until you’ve fixed your resume’s formatting, clarity, and readability for any errors.
View more construction business owner resumes >
Why this resume works
- You don’t have to give equal weight to all the work experience on your resume. Instead, devote more space to the most relevant roles you’ve held.
- This cleaning business owner resume focuses on the duties that come with owning an enterprise, while drawing less attention to the ancillary cleaning position.
Why this resume works
- It may feel like resume formatting is purely for aesthetics, but the layout of your content can make a difference in how hiring managers read your online business owner resume.
- We’d recommend putting your online business owner resume in reverse-chronological order, meaning your most recent work experience is listed first.
- Employers will pay the most attention to the top third of your resume, so make sure they see your (likely) most impressive experience first.
- When you’re writing your work experience, make sure to keep it to three to four jobs maximum.
- For each job, list three to six bullet points with relevant content. Start each bullet point with an action verb and minimize personal pronouns to keep your resume concise.
View more online business owner resumes >
Why this resume works
- Your title itself radiates a sense of authority so make sure your former business owner resume does the same, too! We’re not asking you to scare off employers but include achievements of your previous company to show you mean business!
- You can also be a bit creative and focus on your specialty like Jordan. Check out how he displays his expertise in digital marketing by only writing about his contribution to improving his brand’s online presence.
Why this resume works
- As a business owner, you’re a dynamic professional. Do justice to your multifaceted skill set by including personal projects as well as formal employment.
- For event planners, personal parties you’ve organized can fit nicely on your self-employed business owner resume.
Why this resume works
- Some employers require you to submit your resume as a Word document or a Google Doc, so you may need to make adjustments to your resume’s format.
- If that’s the case, use a Word resume template or a Google Doc resume template to format your resume correctly, but always download it after you’re done. Sometimes your resume formatting doesn’t translate properly, so do one last check to make sure it looks polished and professional.
- You’re bound to have at least four sections on your restaurant business owner resume, but the placement of those sections is up to you.
- As a business owner with years of experience, your best bet is to place your skills and work experience sections higher on your resume but underneath your contact header.
View more restaurant business owner resumes >
Why this resume works
- You’ve already guessed it by the name—this one’s all about proving your self-worth and how you’ve earned success from scratch.
- For your small self-employed business owner resume, include achievements like expanding your brand’s store locations or growing its online presence to show employers that you’re a one-man army who knows how to take a company to the moon!
Related resume guides
How to Write a Business Owner Resume
As a business owner, you know the importance of hiring the right candidates and flushing out the substandard applicants. To ensure your resume doesn’t fall prey to an ATS system or be ignored by recruiters, follow these steps:
Use the right format
A business isn’t the only thing you know how to build. You’re an entrepreneur, and your resume should do justice to your career’s innovation journey. And that’s exactly why we’re here, to give that journey the spotlight it deserves—in the right way.
After combing through the best practices and hiring trends, here’s how we recommend business owners to format their resume:
- Resume length: We get it—there’s a lot from your story you want to unpack, but the key is keeping it concise. A one-page resume will be enough to get all your points across.
- Bullet points: Skip the long walls of text, describe your past work experiences using bullet points, each tailored to the job description, but we’ll go into the specifics later.
- Reverse-chronological format: List every work experience (or startup journey) in descending order. This puts your latest achievements and business expertise at the top.
Quantify work experience
You may have worked for different organizations before starting your own company, and that can work greatly in your favor. Using the right words, you can show how your experiences shaped you into the entrepreneur you are today.
The best way to do that is using quantified bullet points. Here are a few good examples you can take inspiration from:
- Founded a startup and delegated operations to part-timers, making a net profit of 86K+ within two years.
- Negotiated contracts with software vendors, securing deals at 29% reduced annual pricing.
- Partnered with local media houses for PR, boosting the brand’s online visibility by 51%.
Demonstrate transferrable skills
While building a company from scratch is a skill in and of itself, you cannot simply write “Business Building” in your skills section and expect it to land. Rather, break your capabilities down into job-relevant skills that workspaces know about:
- Budgeting & Financial Forecasting
- B2B & B2C Sales Strategy
- Project Management
- Salesforce
- Hubspot
- Team Leadership
Add education and certifications
Not every business owner holds a degree, but if you do, you know where to add it. Even if your bachelor’s wasn’t in business administration, yet relevant to your industry, include it. It shows you’re a subject matter expert who knows what it takes to run a business in the industry.
In general, having a Bachelor in Business Administration, Management Studies, or anything similar helps.
Key Takeaways
- Summarize your business journey as a work experience within four quantified bullet points.
- Include realistic skills that show your ability to take leadership, turn challenges into opportunities, drive sales, and use relevant software.
- Include any relevant educational background tied to business administration or your specific industry.
Business Owner Resume FAQs
A good business owner’s resume contains the business’s name, title such as founder or CEO, and outstanding achievements. It’s also crucial to highlight transferrable skills in project management, marketing, and sales and demonstrate leadership. Most importantly, ensure your application explicitly fits into the requirements of the job description.
Show measurable results to prove your impact. Focus on metrics demonstrating revenue growth, customer satisfaction, market expansion, increased website traffic, etc. You want recruiters to see your value the moment they read your resume, and you can be sure they’ll be more likely to call for an interview.
A business ownership resume will prove your leadership, strategic thinking, and initiative. It will also show you solving real-world problems, managing teams, and communicating with employees and stakeholders—things that matter to potential employers.
List yourself as a “Business Owner/Founder” in the job title section and treat it like any other role. Use bullet points to show what you achieved, like growing revenue, managing teams, or launching new products. Include relevant metrics (annual growth, gross margin, NPS, etc) that align with the job you’re applying for and demonstrate your entrepreneurial skills.
The most common titles for business owners are “Owner” and “Founder.” If you have a board of directors team, use leadership titles like “Chief Executive Officer (CEO).” Alternatively, a role-specific title like “Operations Head” can be a better choice if it accurately reflects your daily responsibilities.
Yes. It’s completely fine to label yourself as a “Business Owner” in the job title field of your resume. This shows employers that you’re an innovative professional who brought a new solution to the market.
A resume summary is a 2–4 sentence overview at the top of your resume that:
✅Introduces you
✅Mentions the business you own or owned
✅Highlights your stand-out achievements and skills
✅Focuses on how your background matches the position you’re applying for
Example Business Owner Resume Summary
Former Founder & CEO of TopBean Coffee Co., a local cafe chain that grew from 1 to 6 locations in 5 years. Increased annual revenue from $121K to $1.1M while maintaining 27% profit margins. Led a team of 21 employees and launched a successful mobile ordering app (+35% in daily orders). Skilled in operations management, digital marketing, and customer retention strategies. Eager to bring entrepreneurial drive to OceanBlue’s dynamic corporate team.
