THE KEYS TO BETTER BUSINESS FROM AMISH BUSINESS OWNERS

BUSINESS CAN BE discouraging. According to United States Small Business Administration figures, only half of newly opened companies will last five years. That is, unless you're Amish; then there's a ninety-five percent chance your business will still be open. And in many cases, doing remarkably well, as noted scholar Donald Kraybill writes: "The phrase 'Amish millionaire' is no longer an oxymoron."

Success Made Simple is the first practical book of Amish business success principles for the non-Amish reader. Written by Erik Wesner, a noted expert on the Amish, the book includes a wealth of transferable principles that are as straightforward to apply as they are universal in scope.

Based on in-depth access gained while working, living, and researching in Amish communities across the nation, as well as on interviews with more than fifty Amish business owners, the book offers a fascinating look at reasons for the remarkable success of Amish businesspeople.

Success Made Simple reveals how, with only an eighth-grade education, these thriving businesspeople choose and manage employees, acquire skills and know-how, get and keep customers, and lead their organizations to lasting success. The common threads woven throughout their experiences stress the vital importance of cultivating strong relationships (with employees, customers, other business owners), creating long-term goals, taking the welfare of others into account, and maintaining personal integrity. Wesner makes the lessons of Amish business easy to absorb by distilling essential take-away ideas in a ten-point summary at the end of each chapter.

With a focus on relationship building and the big picture, Success Made Simple offers business owners everywhere the time-tested tools for better, smarter, and more successful enterprises.