Bread and Butter: What a Bunch of Bakers Taught Me about Business and Happiness Book

From one of America's most successful independent companies comes a book about how we work and a philosophy of doing business that will change our careers - and our lives - forever. Bread and Butter is a book with three parts: First, it's the story of the birth of an extraordinarily successful kind of business called a "freedom franchise": Great Harvest Bread Co., which began as one bakery 25 years ago and is now a $60-million-a-year company with 140 stores in 35 states. The strategies and principles on which Great Harvest has built this extraordinary success set an example for organizations of any type. Second, it's the story of one employee's struggle for meaning in 'corporate' life - the author, Tom McMakin, who went looking for a job and found a lifestyle. McMakin's devotion to Great Harvest is a model for modern entrepreneurship and an inspiration in an age of failed dot-coms and dissatisfied young employees. Finally, McMakin uses Great Harvest's experience to provide advice for every businessperson: from dreamers starting their own multi-million-dollar companies, to small-business owners with more modest expectations, to those still searching for a pursuit to match their passion. McMakin covers subjects like: Great Harvest's '40-hour' rule, which decrees that every employee put in a productive 40 hours a week and no more; creating a national "learning community" using email and an extranet; and operating without loans, relying instead on profits for reinvesting in the company. Along the way he shares many more insightful and inspirational philosophies of business and life that have grown out of the Great Harvest community. Bread and Butter will help you discover how, instead of living our lives in service of business, we can create a business in service of our lives.AUTHORBIO: Tom McMakin is Chief Operating Officer of Great Harvest Bread Co., having started in 1993 as the company's newsletter editor. He's also been a legislative aid, a teacher, and a Peace Corps volunteer in Africa. He lives in Dillon, Montana, with his wife Mary and their two children.Read More