Most Important Skills for a CEO and Founder at Revival Roots

For a job like mine, and I think this can carry over to anyone who wants to start their own business, the most important thing is creating value for your customer. This often takes the form of service.

Whether you're providing a product or a service, you want to be of service to your customer. You're either making their life easier, simpler, or enhancing it in some way. For me, this looks like having really good communication skills.

This means letting the client know about good things and bad things. Just having that really open line of communication is important. If a client doesn't want to engage in that, they don't have to, but many clients do enjoy that level of communication. They can respond, and we can have that dialogue.

I think there's also a level of commitment to hard work and being okay with that. In my job here at Revival Roots, it's a pretty physical job. We're physically building gardens, maintaining gardens, and planting trees.

As physically demanding as it can be, it's also really enjoyable. Being able to get up every morning with a smile and do some physical labor feels very good for the soul. Accepting that hard work can pay off and being okay with the physical labor, and even enjoying it, is really important.

Many good things require hard work. Understanding that and pushing through is a good skill to have. You are serving your clients, so carry yourself professionally and thoughtfully.

Even though you are starting your own business and are technically the boss, your boss is actually the customer. You are always on the job, and your communication has to be really professional.