Small Business Owner Sample

When you’re seeking new employment, you need a resume that can make the best possible impression on prospective employers. That resume needs to tell a compelling story about your skills, professional experiences, and achievements – and tell that story in a way that highlights the type of value that you can offer to any new employer. 

But what if your work experience comes primarily from your own business ownership?

If you’re a former Small Business Owner, it can sometimes be a challenge to demonstrate your qualifications to other employers. That’s why we’ve created this Small Business Owner resume guide and filled it with all the tips and tricks you need to know to create a resume that can capture a hiring manager’s attention. We’ve also included a helpful resume example that you can use as inspiration to guide you in the resume creation process.

How to write a resume

If you’re like most Small Business Owners, your skill set encompasses a wide array of abilities that impact nearly every aspect of your company’s operations. Chances are that you’re well-versed in managing everything from the company’s finances, marketing, and operations to vendor interactions and customer service. The challenge is to somehow distill your many qualifications into a concise and effective resume document that can impress employers.

The good news is that crafting a convincing Small Business Owner resume is not as difficult as you might assume. Obviously, it’s not as simple as just listing your core skills and previous work experience. However, most business owners can create resume documents that effectively convey their qualifications in a powerful way. It all begins with the basics, of course –  which include selecting the right format, structure, and narrative focus.

Choosing your resume format

Before you can even begin to create your resume, you need to select the right format to present your information. Modern resumes utilize one of three formats: the functional, reverse-chronological, or combination format. The reverse-chronological format is currently the most popular option – both with job seekers and employers. It is also one of the best options for a former Small Business resume, since its typical structure provides a fantastic way to organize key resume information.

To use the reverse-chronological resume format, you simply list details about your employment history and education in reverse order. Start with the most recent or current role and then list other key experiences in reverse order. When you use this format, employers can quickly see how your career has progressed over time.

Select the right structure

Once you’ve selected the right format, the next task is to choose a structure for your resume. Fortunately, the reverse-chronological format provides its own structure, which compartmentalizes distinct types of information into separate sections. Those sections include:

• Contact details: Make sure that you include all your important contact information right at the top of your resume. Include your full name, in bolded text, followed by your phone number, email address, and LinkedIn profile URL. You can also include your city and state, but that’s usually not necessary if you’re applying for a position in your local area.

• Resume headline: This is where you include the job title that you’re seeking, along with some descriptive language that highlights your area of expertise. For more information about headlines, check out the article, 30+ Resume Headline Examples.

• Resume summary: Your profile paragraph goes right below the headline, and provides a summary of your top skills, experiences, and achievements. You can learn more about how to create a great summary statement in our article, Understanding and Creating a Resume Profile.

• Core competencies: Otherwise known as the Skills section, this area of your resume should contain a list of all your relevant skill qualifications for the position. You can include between twelve and fifteen hard and soft skills in this section. Use bullet points and format the section into two or three columns to maximize resume space.

• Professional experience: In this work history section, you’ll want to include details about your previous job roles – including your time as a Small Business Owner. For each job role, provide your job title, company name, dates of employment, and four or more bullet point descriptions of quantifiable achievements.

• Education: You’ll also need an education section that highlights your educational qualifications. Here, you should include the name of the school, dates attended, and degrees earned. You can also list other credentials like certifications if they’re relevant to the position you’re seeking.

Focus your narrative on value

Ultimately, a resume is more than just a dry recitation of your skills and experiences. It is also a powerful marketing tool and your best chance to make that all-important positive first impression on employers. To achieve that goal, you need to focus your narrative on highlighting the type of value that you can offer to anyone who’s lucky enough to hire you.

One of the easiest ways to demonstrate that value is to showcase quantifiable achievements throughout your resume. To create a measurable achievement, you simply describe how you used your skills to overcome a challenge and provide real value for past employers. Instead of detailing your job responsibilities, focus on the results you achieved. 

For example, let’s say that you’ve been responsible for your company’s marketing efforts. You can turn that into a quantifiable value-added result like this:

Designed and executed marketing campaign that expanded client base by 20%, online customer engagement by 130%, and annual revenues by 17%.

Optimize using keywords

You should also optimize your resume to make sure that it can get past any applicant tracking systems it may encounter. ATS screening involves searching resumes for specified keywords before the documents ever reach human eyes. Try to thoroughly review job postings to ensure that you identify the terms used to describe required skills and experience. Chances are that the ATS will be scanning your resume to locate those terms, so make sure that you include them in your document.

Former Small Business Owner resume example

Obviously, that’s a lot of information to digest in one sitting. The good news is that we’ve provided a resume example that you can review to better understand exactly how those tips translate into an effective resume. You can use the example below as inspiration or as a template that you can customize to create your own great resume.

Key hard & soft skills for a Former Small Business Owner

Earlier in our guide, we provided tips to help you create your resume’s Skills section in a way that draws employers’ attention to your core competencies. Now it’s time to consider exactly which skills you should highlight in that vital part of your resume. Fortunately, you’ll have plenty of options to choose from, since your role as an owner will have provided plenty of opportunity for you to develop a whole host of marketable skills.

As noted previously, you should create a list of skills that encompass both hard and soft skills, including job-specific technical skills and core interpersonal abilities. If you’re wondering how to tell the difference between these two types of skills, it’s easier than you might think:

• Hard skills are measurable abilities that you use to perform your job duties—like knowing how to program a computer, type a certain number of words per minute, or use specific job-related knowledge. These skills are typically acquired in school, formal training, or on-the-job use.

• Soft skills are harder to measure but include things like the ability to communicate with others, work as part of a team, or engage in conflict resolution. While these skills can also be developed through formal education, they are often gained through continual use over the course of your life.

Related post: Top 15 Skills Employers Are Hiring For in 2024

Small Business Owner resume hard skills

When it comes to hard skills, there’s a good chance that you’ll only be able to include some of your many talents. Take a good look at the job posting that you’re responding to and try to identify the core technical qualifications that any employer may be looking for. You can then list those exact skill terms in your skill section. Some possible examples include:

Small Business Owner resume soft skills

You’ll also need to include some of your top soft skills in this section of the resume. Again, refer to the job description for any required qualifications. You’ll likely be limited in the number of soft skills that you can add to your resume, but that list could include:

Summary & last words

As a former Small Business Owner, you may feel as though your experiences and achievements don’t always perfectly align with other employers’ needs. The reality, however, is that your broad range of skills and experiences should enable you to create a powerful narrative that sells your qualifications to hiring managers. If you can figure out how to identify the right relevant skills, experiences, and achievements – and highlight them in your resume – your story should be compelling enough to help you land that coveted interview.

Introduction to ZipJob: Professional resume writers

Of course, busy professionals don’t always have the time to sit down and craft this type of complex document. That’s why so many rely on professional resume writing services to help them ensure that their resumes deliver the right message to employers. At ZipJob, our resume experts have helped thousands of professionals achieve their job search and career goals. Contact us today to learn more about how our team can help you take the next step in your professional journey.

Why you should make use of our resume writing services to land your next job as a Former Small Business Owner

As we mentioned earlier in this guide, it’s vital to make the right first impression on hiring managers if you want to secure interviews and job offers. Our team of resume professionals have the industry knowledge and experience needed to help you display your skills and achievements in a way that’s sure to catch an employer’s attention. Best of all, your assigned writer will work with you every step of the way to ensure that your resume captures your unique value as a person and a professional.

Resume writing service for Former Small Business Owners: Let us write your resume

Whether you’re a current business owner who wants a resume for loan purposes, or a former owner looking to employ your talents with another company, we have the solutions you need. When you partner with our resume writing team, you can rest assured that you’ll receive a powerful Small Business Owner resume that delivers tangible results for your job search. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you fuel your continued career success.