Resume template · Updated October 2026
Resume template for small business owners
Short answer
Henrietta suits a small business owner applying for a salaried job. Its plain business layout puts the years you ran the company straight under the summary, then education, then a skills grid with room for the many jobs an owner covers. The fictional sample sold her two-location bakery café after nine years and is applying for operations manager roles.
Download the small business owner sample
Teresa is a fictional operations manager. Replace every detail with your own before you send it.
The files are made in your browser by Resumity's own exporters, from this sample. The builder opens it as your own resume: click any line to replace it. Free plan, no watermark.
Why Henrietta suits a small business owner resume
Henrietta prints experience right after the summary and education right after that, a conventional order a regional operations director or HR screener reads without effort. Its three-column skills grid drops the group labels, which suits an owner whose skills run from food cost to payroll and do not sort neatly into categories.
Second choice: Leslie. Leslie also keeps experience first and adds one touch of blue in the header, a good choice for a customer-facing owner moving into sales or account work.
What goes in each section, in Henrietta's order
Henrietta prints its sections in a fixed order, the same in the PDF and the Word file. Here is that order for this sample, and what to put in each section.
- Professional Summary. Say what the business was, how long you ran it and how big it got (staff, sales, locations), then the job you want now. Mentioning that you sold or closed it answers the reader's first question before they reach the dates.
- Work Experience. Your title is Owner, or Owner and General Manager. Write the bullets an employer's manager would recognise: staff hired and scheduled, costs controlled, sales grown. Finish the entry with one line on how you left: sold, closed or handed over.
- Education. A culinary, business or trade qualification goes here with its year. If you have none, list your high school diploma and let the food safety or trade credentials show your training.
- Skills. Henrietta prints these in a grid without labels, so start with the skills the posting names (P&L, labor planning, vendor management). Owner chores like fixing the espresso machine are good interview stories, not resume skills.
- Certifications. Food safety, trade or licensing certificates show your training is current. Keep the issuer and year, and drop any that lapsed when you sold the business unless you are renewing them.
The sample resume as text
The same content as the files above, so you can copy a line or compare it with your own.
Teresa Gallo
Operations Manager, Former Bakery Café Owner (2 Locations)
Portland, ME | teresa.gallo@example.com | (207) 555-0129 | linkedin.com/in/sample-teresa-gallo
Former owner of a two-location bakery café, run for nine years with up to 22 staff and about $1.4M in annual sales before selling the business in 2026. Handles hiring, scheduling, food cost, vendor contracts and the monthly books. Looking for an operations or multi-unit manager role with a regional food service or retail employer.
Experience
Owner and General Manager, Hearth and Honey Bakery, Portland, ME (04/2017 to 06/2026)
- Opened the first café in 2017 and a second location in 2021, growing combined sales to about $1.4M a year.
- Hired, trained and scheduled up to 22 staff across both sites, including two shift supervisors who now run the cafés for the new owner.
- Kept food cost near 30% of sales by renegotiating flour and dairy contracts each year and adjusting the menu by season.
- Ran payroll, sales tax filings and the monthly books in QuickBooks Online, with an outside accountant for year-end.
- Sold the business in 2026 and stayed on for four weeks to train the buyer.
Assistant Manager, Northline Coffee Company, Boston, MA (08/2013 to 03/2017)
- Ran morning shifts at a busy downtown store and balanced the cash drawers at close.
- Moved pastry ordering to a par sheet, which cut end-of-day waste.
Education
Associate of Applied Science, Culinary Arts and Food Service Management, Casco Shore Community College (05/2013)
Certifications
- ServSafe Food Protection Manager Certification, National Restaurant Association (2025)
Skills
P&L management, Food cost control, Labor planning, Vendor negotiation, Health inspection readiness, QuickBooks Online, Square POS, 7shifts, Excel, Hiring and coaching, Resolving customer complaints
How to make the sample yours
Translate owner tasks into the employer's job
You did hiring, purchasing, bookkeeping and marketing. An operations manager posting cares most about the first two; an office manager posting about the books. Reorder the bullets for each application.
Give scale without opening your accounts
Annual sales, staff count and number of locations show what you ran. Round the figures ("about $1.4M") and leave profit out unless it helps; plenty of owners prefer to keep margins private.
Show the work you handed to others
An employer is hiring you to work inside a structure. Bullets about supervisors you trained or the accountant you worked with show you can delegate and take advice, not only run everything yourself.
Keep the job you had before the business
The assistant manager role proves you have worked for someone else. Two short bullets are enough, but leave it on the page.
Pick references who are not family
A long-standing supplier, your accountant or a former employee who now manages a team can speak for your work. Relatives who helped in the business carry less weight with a hiring manager.
Keywords to keep where they are true
Terms this kind of resume is usually searched for. Use the posting's exact wording, and only for work you have done.
- operations management
- P&L responsibility
- food cost
- labor scheduling
- inventory management
- vendor negotiation
- hiring and training
- customer service
- multi-unit operations
- health and safety compliance
- QuickBooks
- POS systems
- budgeting
Mistakes to avoid
- Calling yourself CEO or President of a small shop. "Owner" is honest and still shows full responsibility.
- Leaving the business off and showing a nine-year gap. Running a company is work experience, and an employer will see it on LinkedIn anyway.
- Listing every task you did as owner. Twenty duties in one entry bury the five that match the job.
- Sounding as if you will want to run things your own way. Bullets about working with partners, landlords and advisers show you can share decisions.
How the sample PDF reads in text extractors
We exported this sample with Resumity's PDF exporter in Chrome on 2026-10-29 and read the file back with three open-source text extractors. This shows whether software that turns a PDF into text can recover it; it is not a test of any commercial applicant tracking system. How we test templates.
| Extractor | Name, email, phone | Headings | Bullets intact |
|---|---|---|---|
| pdf.js 4.10.38 | All found | 5 of 5 | 7 of 7 |
| pdftotext (Xpdf) 4.00 | All found | 5 of 5 | 7 of 7 |
| pypdf 6.13.0 | All found | 5 of 5 | 7 of 7 |
Frequently asked questions
How do I list owning a small business on a resume?
List the business as the employer, your title as Owner or Owner and General Manager, the city and your dates. Add bullets on staff, sales and results, the same way you would for any job.
Will employers think I will quit to start another business?
Some will wonder. Name the salaried role you want in the summary, say that you sold or closed the business, and be ready to explain in the interview why you want to work for an employer now.
Should I put my business revenue on my resume?
Sales and staff numbers show scale, so include them if you are comfortable. Round them, and leave out profit, debt or anything the buyer of your business asked you to keep private.
Who can I use as a reference if I was my own boss?
People who saw your work from outside: a long-time supplier, your accountant, a landlord, or a former employee who now manages a team. Ask them first and keep their details off the resume.
What jobs suit a former small business owner?
Operations manager, general manager, store or branch manager, office manager and account manager are common next steps. Match the headline to the posting and the bullets to the parts of the business you ran best.
Will applicant tracking systems read this Henrietta PDF?
The sample PDF read back with its contact details, all 5 section headings and all 7 bullets intact in three open-source text extractors (pdf.js, pdftotext and pypdf). Commercial systems such as Workday, Greenhouse or Taleo were not tested, and each employer configures its own.