Success Made Simple : An Inside Look at Why Amish Businesses Thrive

Business can be discouraging. A recent statistic showed an annual rate of over half-a-million business closures. According to US Department of Labor figures, only 44 percent of newly opened firms will last four years. That is, unless you're Amishthen there's a 95 percent chance you'll be doing well. And in many cases, remarkably wellas Donald Kraybill writes: "the phrase 'Amish millionaire' is no longer an oxymoron." The Amish business phenomenon began three decades ago and continues strong today, has been described in Kraybill and Steven Nolts Amish Enterprise: From Plows to Profits, as well as in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Forbes magazine and various other publications. Responding to changes in population and land pressures, the Amish are leaving farming in droves and opening successful businesses. Success Made Simple is the first practical book of Amish business success principles for the non-Amish reader. The work provides a platform of transferable principles that are simple and universal enough to be applied in the non-Amish world, in a wide variety of business and management settings. Readers will learn, among other things, how to: Develop productive and profitable enterprises Prosper by playing to their strengths Build fruitful relationships with employees and customers Empower and leverage their number one assetpeople Create an effective marketing story Gain satisfaction by focusing on business as a means to an end, not the end itself Success Made Simple is based on the ideas and words from over 50 interviews of Amish business owners. Amish businesspeople in their own jargon explain how they choose and manage employees, acquire skills and know-how, get and keep customers, develop a competitive edge, and lead their organizations. The book will focus on two overriding themes: the role of relationships in business and the importance of the big picture. Relationships include all of the important ties: with employees, customers, suppliers, other business owners. The big picture has a wide scope, including long-term goals, the welfare of others, and personal integrity. A basic overview of Amish beliefs and businesses opens the work, followed by seven chapters. Each one examines a main idea for practical application to non-Amish business and management situations. Ten-point summaries at the end of each chapter review the most important take-away ideas. Additionally, fourteen sidebars, two per chapter, cover poignant topics related to Amish business and culture.