Running a successful company

[Steve]

From the book Sam Walton - Made in America. Sam discussed 10 rules for running a successful company. I will post them all one at a time and hopefully they will inspire you. Please feel free to discuss each rule and how you can apply them to your business. Rule 1: "COMMIT to your business. Believe in it more than anybody else. I think I overcame every single one of my personal shortcomings by the sheer passion I brought to my work. I don't know if you're born with this kind of passion, or if you can learn it. But I do know you need it. If you love your work, you'll be out there every day trying to do it the best you possibly can, and pretty soon everybody around will catch the passion from you-like a fever."

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[Steve]

Lawn care business tips

Rule 2: SHARE your profits with all your associates, and treat them as a partner, and together you will all perform beyond your wildest expectations. Remain a corporation and retain control if you like, but behave as a servant leader in a partnership. Encourage your assoiciates to hold a stake in the company. Offer discounted stock, and grant them stock for their retirement. It's the single best thing we ever did.

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[Steve]

Rule 3: Motivate your partners. Money and ownership alone aren't enough. Constantly, day by day, think of new and more interesting ways to motivate and challenge your partners. Set high goals, encourage competition, and then keep score. Make bets with outrageous payoffs. If things get stale, cross-pollinate; have managers switch jobs with one another to stay challenged. Keep everybody guessing as to what your next trick is going to be. Don't become too predictable.

It's a shame they haven't kept all of these proviison's that Sam Walton was so good at doing.

[Steve]

Rule 4: Communicate everything you possibly can to your partners. The more they know, the more they'll understand. The more they understand, the more they'll care. Once they care, there's no stopping them. If you don't trust your associates to know what's going on, they'll know you don't really consider them partners. Information is power and the gain you get from empowering your associates more than off-sets the risk of informing your competitors.

[Steve]

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] ]It's a shame they haven't kept all of these proviison's that Sam Walton was so good at doing.

What have you seen that has changed?

[Steve]

Rule 5: Appreciate everything your associates do for the business. A paycheck and a stock option will buy one kind of loyalty. But all of us like to be told how much somebody appreciates what we do for them. We like to hear if often, and especially when we have done something we're really proud of. Nothing else can quite substitute for a few well-chosen, well-timed, sincere words of praise. They're absolutely free and worth a fortune.