Highly successful entrepreneurs often go to the beat of their own drum, and with good reason. With most new ventures facing significant challenges in their early years, entrepreneurs must do things differently to thrive. What might seem unusual to others becomes second nature to those building successful ventures.
Certain habits consistently appear among thriving business owners who have started, grown, and sold multiple companies. These aren’t just quirks — they’re powerful practices that drive results. Here are ten habits that set successful entrepreneurs apart:
What we’ll cover:
Daily habits of successful business owners
The TLDR is that highly successful entrepreneurs develop habits that set them apart and get them going. These are strategic practices that contribute to their success. Below are 11 uncommon habits that drive entrepreneurial achievement, ranging from starting the day early to simplifying processes. These practices are designed to foster growth for any type of business owner.
Habit #1: Start early before the noise of the day
How early do you wake up? While the world sleeps, something magical happens in those pre-dawn hours. There’s a special kind of quiet that seems to amplify creativity. No buzzing phones, no urgent emails, just you and your thoughts.
Successful business owners often guard this time fiercely. Rising before the sun isn’t just about being disciplined, it’s about claiming space for big-picture thinking before the day’s demands come rushing in. It’s when vision happens, when problems that seemed impossible yesterday suddenly have clear solutions.
By tackling your most creative work while others are still dreaming, you’ve already won a significant victory before most people have their first cup of coffee. This leaves your daylight hours free for meetings, calls, and the inevitable surprises that business throws your way.
Habit #2: Read intentionally
The most successful business leaders are often the hungriest readers. They don’t just stick to business books — they’re curious about everything from history to science to philosophy. Simon Sinek, known for starting with “why,” dedicates significant time to reading widely across disciplines, which has shaped his revolutionary perspectives on leadership and organizational behavior.
Successful business owners will block off entire “reading vacations” where they do nothing but dive into books. Warren Buffett spends most of his working day reading rather than in meetings. What they understand is that fresh ideas rarely come from the same old sources.
Reading is like cross-training for your brain. A psychology book might help you understand your customers better. A biography could reveal leadership strategies you’d never considered. Even fiction can spark creativity that transforms your business approach.
The trick is reading with intent. Highlight passages that make you think. Write notes in the margins. Ask yourself: “How could this idea apply to my current challenges?” These connections build up over time, giving you insights your competitors simply don’t have.
In business, your thinking determines your success. Reading is how you upgrade your thinking.
Habit #3: Take walking or standing meetings
Ever notice how your best ideas often come when you’re not sitting at your desk? There’s something about walking that gets both your body and brain moving.
Instead of gathering around a conference table, try taking your meetings outdoors. A simple stroll around the block while talking through problems can work wonders. Your team might find it easier to speak honestly when walking side by side rather than staring across a table. The fresh air and movement keep everyone awake and thinking clearly – no more fighting the post-lunch meeting slump!
Tools like Slack can help you have these walking meetings even when teams are spread out. Slack Huddle can help you walk the talk, letting you connect for audio conversations while on the move. You can set reminders for these walking meetings, check recaps afterward, or get AI-generated summaries so nothing important gets missed just because you weren’t sitting at your desk taking notes.
Some business owners build short walks right into their team’s daily schedule. Even just 15 minutes of moving and talking can energize your energy to take on any conversation.
Boost productivity with Slack for small business
Bring together your team, your customers, and your tools to help take your business to the next level.
Habit #4: Schedule your calendar strategically
Top business owners live by the rule “what gets scheduled gets done.”
Instead of letting your day happen to you, take control with detailed scheduling. This isn’t about cramming more work in, it’s about being realistic about how long things actually take.
Most calendars default to 30 or 60-minute meetings, but real life rarely fits these neat boxes. Tools like Google Calendar let you schedule custom time blocks, 17 minutes for a quick check-in or 42 minutes for deep work on a specific problem. Salesforce’s calendar integration takes this further by connecting your schedule directly to your customer data, helping you prepare exactly what you need before each conversation.
The magic happens in those small gaps you create. A 23-minute meeting instead of 30 gives you 7 minutes to stretch, reflect, or prepare for what’s next. These intentional breaks prevent the mental exhaustion that comes from bouncing between tasks with no breathing room. By the end of the day, you’ll know exactly where your time went, and you’ll feel the difference between being busy and being productive.
Habit #5: Take power naps or short mindful moments
Feeling that afternoon slump? Instead of reaching for another coffee, try a quick power nap. A 20-minute rest can refresh your brain better than caffeine. Jason Fried, co-founder of Basecamp, champions this approach, believing our best work happens when periods of focus are balanced with real breaks. It’s why Google installed those cozy nap pods throughout their offices and Salesforce created dedicated meditation spaces for their teams.
For the best results, keep your nap short—about 15-20 minutes. Find a quiet spot, set a timer, and allow yourself to relax. You don’t even need to fall fully asleep to benefit. When you return to work, you’ll feel more alert and ready to solve problems with a clearer mind.
Good time management isn’t about packing every minute with work. It’s about knowing when to pause. These short breaks prevent burnout and actually make you more productive. Writing down your tasks instead of keeping them all in your head also helps free up mental space for better thinking.
Habit #6: Make (digital) lists for everything
Your brain wasn’t designed to remember everything, it was designed to have ideas. That’s why successful business owners are obsessed with lists.
There’s real relief when you write something down and can finally stop mentally juggling it. Some people swear by paper notebooks, feeling the satisfaction of physically crossing things off with a pen. Others use digital tools that sync across devices, making sure their lists are always at hand. The method matters less than the habit.
Try creating different types of lists beyond just daily tasks. Maybe one for people you should connect with, another for ideas that need more thought, and one for things you’ve delegated (so you can follow up). Each list frees up mental space so you can focus on what’s right in front of you. Slack Canvas lets you create and share flexible documents inside your Slack workspace, making it easy to organize notes, lists, and ideas right where work happens.
AI apps like Agentforce make list-making easier. It pulls action items from Slack, turns meeting notes into clear tasks, and organizes everything by priority.
The best thing about lists? They turn those fuzzy “someday” thoughts into clear next steps you can actually take today.
Habit #7: Reduce the noise by channeling all comms in one place
Business conversations don’t stop for your mornings, and are happening everywhere these days — email, text, social media, chat, — it’s a lot first thing.
The most successful business owners don’t try to be everywhere at once. Instead, they bring their professional conversations into one place where they can see the full picture.
This is where a smart customer relationship management (CRM) really shines. Imagine all your business-related messages flowing into one dashboard that automatically sorts them by what needs attention first. And, an artificial intelligence (AI) CRM learns which messages are urgent questions versus simple check-ins, and routes them accordingly.
All your business communications, from sales to service, are in one place, connected and easy to access. Whether it’s a message on Instagram, an email, or a support request, everything is linked to the customer’s history and available on mobile when you’re ready to respond.
Just get started.
No matter where you are on your journey as a small business owner, you can get started with Starter Suite — the all-in-one AI CRM your SMB needs.
Habit #8: Practice meditation or breathwork
Marc Benioff, the founder, chairman, and CEO of Salesforce, turned to meditation after stress from his previous job became overwhelming. The CEO of Executive Management Associates, Nancy Slomowitz, started offering meditation classes to employees and ended up reducing her company’s insurance costs. A number of business leaders believe meditation is a competitive advantage in the business world and have made it part of their company’s culture.
Like a quick power nap, meditation helps reset and shake off stress. It makes it easier to handle whatever’s coming up with a clear, calm mind. It also creates a little space to think things through, and sometimes, that’s when the best ideas or solutions show up. And, if you can couple that with deep breathing, you can help to calm the nervous system. Even five minutes a day of breathing into your diaphragm has been proven to help calm the nerves.
Apps like Headspace (great for guided meditations and stress relief), Calm (known for sleep stories and soothing soundscapes), and Insight Timer (offers thousands of free meditations and breathwork) make it easy to build meditation into your day, even if it’s just for a few minutes.
Habit #9: Review your goals and visualize success
It’s time to visualize your success. Review your goals, working backward from to reveal the shortest path to success. Start by picturing what success looks like. Maybe it’s hitting a sales goal, launching a product, or making a customer really happy. When you can see that finish line clearly, the path to get there often becomes surprisingly different than what you might have planned.
AI can help! AI-powered marketing tools make this planning simple. For example, if the goal is to grow your customer base by 20%, AI can show which past campaigns actually brought in new customers. Instead of guessing, you get real data on what works.
Turn to your AI CRM for analyzing your current business data, and looking at predictive forecasting.
What can your small business do with marketing automation on
Salesforce CRM?
Habit #10: Practice gratitude for all that you have
Gratitude is a powerful tool for business owners that extends beyond just saying “thank you.” As Dr. Joe Dispenza’s research shows, regularly acknowledging positive experiences actually changes your brain’s chemistry, helping you build stronger connections and become more resilient.
When you make gratitude a daily habit rather than an occasional practice, you’ll notice your focus shifting toward opportunities instead of problems, creating a more positive environment for both you and your team.
There are many simple ways to practice gratitude throughout your workday:
- Keep a small gratitude journal on your desk to jot down wins
- Send brief appreciation messages to team members
- Take a moment during meetings to acknowledge good work
- Reflect on what went well during your commute or coffee break
Habit #11: Let AI do the rest
Business owners who thrive are always looking for hidden inefficiencies. They constantly try to find simpler ways to do things. This isn’t about taking shortcuts or compromising quality. It’s about finding steps that don’t actually add value to your customers or your business.
AI tools make this streamlining process more effective. They can analyze your workflows to spot patterns you might miss – like identifying that your team spends hours each week manually entering the same data into different systems. The AI might suggest an automation that could handle this in seconds.
Grow Your Small Business With AI Agents
Learn how autonomous AI can scale your small business for efficient growth in our free e-book.
Smart service solutions can track which issues take the longest to resolve and recommend specific process improvements. It might notice that certain questions always require three separate team members to answer, then help you create a solution that needs just one.
Modern AI tools are learning from your business specifically. They see which of your emails get the fastest responses, which documents move smoothly through approvals, and which tasks consistently cause delays. Then they suggest practical improvements based on what’s actually happening in your organization.
Habits that set successful business owners apart
These eleven habits might seem simple, but they create a powerful foundation for business growth. From early-morning focus to AI-powered efficiency, they’re the daily practices that help entrepreneurs accomplish more with less stress.
You don’t need to adopt them all at once. Start with one that addresses your biggest challenge, then build from there. The consistent application of even a few of these habits can transform how you work and the results you achieve.
Ready to take your business to the next level? Start your journey with a free trial of Starter Suite today. Looking for more customization? Explore Pro Suite. Already with Salesforce? Activate Foundations and experience Agentforce today.
AI supported the writers and editors of this article.
