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An Amish Entrepreneur’s Success Story
photo credit: cloudsoup
Imagine trying to build a national food retailing business based on mail order, far-flung distributors, and trade shows—without using the Internet. No e-mail newsletters or Web site for taking orders and handling complaints, no Facebook fans, or Google ads, or Twitter following.
That’s not all. Imagine doing it without using cell phones or computers. No BlackBerry for expediting orders. No CRM software for segmenting customer lists. Absolutely no texting.
Let your imagination go a little further and picture doing it without driving a car or without using electricity. No quick trips to the post office to ship orders, and no fax machine, scanner, or copier.
This is the world of Miller Farm, a Pennsylvania food producer that has grown to $1.8 million in annual sales from less than half that four years ago. The farm is so busy it’s turning away orders from food cooperatives around the country.
Read the rest at Business Week.
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Tom - marketing tips on January 7th, 2010 3:21 pm
I must say they are very persistent :) Doing business without any technical help is probably really difficult and time consuming.
Shawn on January 7th, 2010 4:57 pm
Like anything else, technology is a tool. The basics of marketing haven’t changed and can be used by anyone with a basic strategic approach.
Amish America on January 8th, 2010 1:32 am
Amish operate within a set of church guidelines known as the Ordnung. There is much variation between communities, with some Amish using cell phones, or able to hire drivers or lease (but not own) their own vehicle, while others such as those of the conservative Swartzentruber group would be highly restricted in what technology they could make use of.
Self-promotion is an issue for Amish–it can smack of pride, a no-no in the culture–which is why it was interesting for me to see Amos Miller and his business featured in such a prominent way. Some Amish are ‘boundary-pushers’, and this seems to be the case here. Lancaster Amish entrepreneurs Mose Smucker and Sam Stoltzfus appeared in articles in major business publications in the 90s, but these tend to be the exception.
On a related note, Amish are particularly wary of using the ‘Amish’ name explicitly in promoting their firms–which can present a conundrum, as a product’s ‘Amishness’ is often a huge selling point. I write a bit more on this issue here: http://amishamerica.typepad.com/amish_america/2008/09/marketing-the-amish.html
Thanks for the great blog! Erik
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