Who are they?  What to Look for In Employees of a Small Business

Another trait I have noticed about successful employees of a small business...

Commitment - I’ve found that people that really do well in small businesses have this unrealistic commitment.  We just feel like owners.  Even if there is no real reason for us to feel that way, we feel very committed to the company. 

My mother ran a day care out our home for almost the entire time I was growing up.  She is one of the most successful entrepreneurs I know because she enjoyed what she did and she was good at it.  After my sister and I grew up she decided that she had enough of doing it on her own and decided to go work for someone else at a day care center.  She ends up working for this woman who was not a savvy business woman to say the least.  She couldn’t pay her bills, she couldn’t pay her employees, she was unorganized, and nobody really liked her.  So for months my mom would laugh about how she had to go straight to the bank to deposit her pay check because if she waited until everyone else deposited their checks, it probably wouldn’t clear.  I think a lot of people would have drawn the line there.  My mom could have gone to any daycare and done what she was doing.  She could probably have left and all of the kids she was watching would have just moved to the new center.  But she was committed to it, so she stayed.