Amish Business Relations Essay, Research Paper

Amish Business Relations

The Amish are a group of people that teach separation from the outside world. A group that originated from Switzerland is centered in the United States and Canada. Their rules as a society require farming and personal simplicity as their way of life. the luxury of having electricity and telephones are not accepted in this odd way of life. Their transportation is reduced to horse and carriages as a way for them to remain simple. These old order Amish traditions are very strictly enforced. Those who break from the Amish usually join the Mennonites, a society with similar rules and values, just less strict.

As a way for their society to survive as a culture they have turned to the business of selling the products that these people grow and make. The Amish are fine craftsmen, skilled in everything from building the barns to sewing some of the finest quilts around. In recent years, many Amish have opened small shops to help supplement their modest earnings from farming. Skills handed down from generation to generation have resulted in the best quality products, a proud Amish tradition.

Of course, the Amish did not choose this newly found way of life, they were forced in by greater urbanization and the diminished availability and affordability of farmland. They would rather stay and go into small business than move to a more rural state. One of the most known societies is in the town of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. There is an estimated 1,000 Amish businesses in the Amish community. Within these 1,000 businesses one third of them were newly formed within the last five years. Some of these businesses have grown rapidly in sales and profit. Fourteen percent of these businesses have earned annual sales in excess of $500,000. Also, it is not just a few businesses doing well, its everyone. The failure rate for these businesses is only about five percent. This is very good, considering they don’t use electricity or telephones. Another reason it is amazing the failure rate is so low is because the Amish stop education at the eighth grade, not permitting any further education. Therefore, the importance of apprenticeship is stressed heavily in the Amish Society.

While searching this topic I found out that it wouldn’t be that difficult to get some of these crafts and quilts. Instead of having to travel to Amish country to get these quality products there have been web sites built around the selling of these goods over the Internet. With the Amish rules of not being allowed to have electricity I am assuming that people out of the society set up and run these sites. It seems weird when some Amish are still selling the goods out of their house.

With the growth of these newly found Amish business ways, I think it would not be a bad idea to invest in these kind of family owned and operated companies. I don’t believe that there is any stock or anything you can buy in order to invest in a company like this. But if you could it would be a sure thing. You would make more money than you would ever loose. This has to do with the small failure rate of five percent, making almost impossible to loose money.