Old-Fashion

Could you go without your cell phone or the internet for one whole day? Try running a business with never using them, in fact trying running a farm with no car or electricity. Amos Miller is able to do this with great profitability. If you have not guessed yet Amos is Amish. Mr. Miller was able to turn his dad’s Pennsylvania farm into a 1.8 million dollar national food retailer. The farm is part of the up and growing food industry of nutrient-dense foods. Organic food use to be fad and now nutrient-dense food has taking over the market share. Amos is the main person that is running the show, but needs help from his brother who grows the produce that they ferment and process at the farm. Amos runs this farm with one landline telephone to take orders and relies on FedEx to ship the orders to customers. Miller does not do advertising, but does attend one conference near Chicago, which he hires a non Amish man to drive him there. Amos said that the farm receives regular orders from food cooperatives as far away as Florida and California.

I started to really think about how Amos is able to run such a successful business with very little modern technology. There are plenty farmers around this area that make good money, but not many are able to make 1.8 million dollars. One of the main reasons is that Amos was able to see that nutrient-dense foods were going to take over the market share. He took a big risk and joined the industry. Another reason that I feel Amos was able to become so successful was the ability to self-motivate. With Amos being a big majority of the work force, because he has no luxury items asset him, he must find ways to get motivated every day. He never gets a day off he works 24/7 365 days a year. In most business’s money is get motivator to work hard, which Amos makes a great deal of, but being part of the Amish society and religion their beliefs and values are different. They work hard because that’s the way of life. The article states that Miller said elders in the church worry about the growth of the farm. They discourage him from getting to big because they do not want Amish farmer to be tempted by the marvels of modern technology. I find this to be very different with want is normal in the business society of make as much money as possible. The question that I ask myself is what actually drives Amos to work so hard day in and day out. The main reason I came to find was Amos is motivated by his family well-being and to serve the beliefs of his religion.

I also wanted to talk about all stress that Mr. Miller must be under. I could not imagine trying to run a million dollar business with no technology. I find this almost impossible to do so in the world today. Think of all the orders his must take a day and must use the old fashion way of doing things. Most people look at stress at a bad thing, but Amos is able to use all the stress he is under and use it to make himself a better business owner. He is able to thrive under it and make great decisions.

I feel that small business owners must be able to be great self-motivates and also not fold under stressful situations. There are other key attributes of being a business owner, but I feel these are close to the top or at the top of being successful. If you disagree or have any other import please feel free to give me your opinion about it.

http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/jan2010/sb2010014_284280_page_2.htm

Team 3
Jeffrey Blankenship