Business Owner’s Resume Tips
Have you been a private practice owner and decided to return to employment instead?
Through your self-employment history, you’ll have developed business acumen, bookkeeping skills, financial knowledge, industry expertise, the ability to market a business, and you’ll know how to take calculated risks.
When you’ve got the skills needed to be a business owner, these can easily transfer into the workforce and impress an employer.
Here, we’re going to help you learn to write a business owner resume and we’ve got some useful self-employed resume examples.
Top Tips to Write a Business Owner’s Resume Career Summary/Objective
The first step - know which one to use.
A personal summary resume statement will work when you’ve more than two years of experience, business management skills, and wins you can back up with numbers.
Need some professional summary examples?
Check this example for a resume summary:
Alternatively...
You’d use a career objective when you’ve not got a lot of experience that relates to the job you’re applying for.
In this case, focus on your goals and still offer up your achievements to show your skills.
This is a great example of a career objective:
Whichever you choose for your transition from business owner to employee resume, write 3-4 sentences that show what you’ve done and what you can bring to the role.

Work Experience Section for a Business Owner’s Resume
You’ll have lots of questions about your work experience section, like how to say trained new employees on your resume? How to put family business on a resume?
To help, here’s our example to answer your question, as well as how to put a startup on a resume, if that applies to you.
January 2014 - Present
Charming Children Fashion, Seattle, WA
Responsibilities:
- Ran and managed a successful online child’s clothing boutique, handling online marketing, sourcing stock, logistics of ordering and delivery, customer care, and hiring staff and freelancers.
- Handled all accounting including accounts receivable and payable, payroll, and credit card settlement.
- Increased account sizes and engagement rates by 300% per year through planned SMM strategies.
- Worked with local college to provide business management internships for students.
- Profits increased 10% per year in the last three years of operation
It’s not about your tasks, it’s about what you can show you achieved.
How To Showcase Your Business Owner Skills on a Resume
The skills section of your business professional resume can include your business skills that can transfer into your new workplace.
- Used social media marketing? Include that, such as automation tools like Biteable, Buzzsumo, Hootsuite, Mention, Sumo.
- Add business management tools you used like Zoho, WorkEtc, Adios, 1CRM, or Booker
- Want to know how to list budget experience on resume? Put down the tools you utilised such as Freshbooks, InDinero, Expensify, Floats, SosInventory
- For your HR management, add on ZenPayroll, SpiderGroups, Zenefits, i-Sight, OpenElevator if you used them
- Sales management platforms are also important to note, plus customer relationship management (CRM) tools like Sage, SAP, Oracle, Vanguard, Lotus Notes
- In terms of communication and collaboration tools, list when you’ve got skills with Slack, Trello, Asana, or even Skype.

Show what a great business boss you’ve been by noting your skills from your business owner job:
- Management
- Time management
- Decision making
- Communications
- Marketing
- Creative thinking
- Leadership
- Project management
Make your skills section like this example:
- Managed four social media platforms using Hootsuite and Buzzsumo
- Planned and executed workflows with Trello and Slack
- Managed finances and invoicing through InDinero
- Delivered three change projects utilizing Zoho
And remember that soft skills as much important as hard skills in your resume.
Pro-TipUse the job description to understand the skills the hiring manager wants. List those skills and abilities on your resume with examples.
Education Section on a Business Owner’s Resume
On a small business owner resume, use your education to your advantage.
Make sure to include:
- University and location
- Degree type
- Major
- Awards, honors, relevant coursework, and other achievements
An example:
University of Washington, Seattle WA
2001-2013
GPA 3.8
Cum Laude
Completed internship at Nordstrom, Seattle
Awarded Future Leadership title in Class Honors
Writing a Cover Letter for a Business Owner’s Resume
It’s a challenge to write a business owner resume when you used to call yourself the boss, CEO, or President.
Don’t let this get in your way.
Any hiring manager should be highly interested in your skills to run a business.
Grad the recruiter’s attention quickly with a great cover letter.
The HR team will quickly see the value you can add when you explain your owner job description at your last business.
Let’s look at an effective example cover letter:
To sum up...
Your experience as a business owner is valuable so be sure your resume shows that to your next employer, rather than how much you loved your independence.
How do you do this? Here are our tips:
- Show off your business management skills such as accounting and stock control
- Explain what you’ve learned as a business manager and that you can be disciplined and responsible
Good luck!
Take advantage of our free resume writing services and business professional resume in minutes!