Roughly half of new businesses in America fail within 5 years, but 95% of Amish Businesses hit the 5 year point. Despite stereotypes about the Amish and their businesses, the budding ranks of Amish Entrepreneurs combine their strong, traditional work ethic and craftsmanship with modern business practices.
Despite the avoidance of technology in the personal lives of the Amish, Amish owned business to use technology, albeit in often unusual ways, to run modern businesses. To avoid connections with “the English,” the Amish have historically used generators for power, but now appear to use solar and wind power to avoid using the power grid while still providing modern amenities. An Amish business owner isn’t going to be using a Blackberry at home to keep on top of their business, but computerized accounting, air conditioned stores, and other parts of modern business will take place.
A strong work ethic, building a business based upon what you know, modesty and politeness as the cornerstones of a service oriented business are lessons for all of us.