If only each of you reading this blog could have been a fly on the wall the day I bought Silly Farm. If only each of you could see where we started and how far we have come, you would look at Silly Farm in a whole new light. But my road to success wasn’t paved with gold, but rather it’s a road built of Starbucks, birthday candles, ladies nights, caring, sharing, and sweet treats.

Allow me to explain:
Your company is only as good as the team that runs it. Man power is powerful, teamwork is essential, and treating the people that work within your company with respect and appreciation can be your GPS to success.

We have a ritual at Silly Farm. When someone is celebrating a birthday we each pitch in money, sign a great big card, celebrate with cake, balloons, and flowers and a roaring, pitchy version of Happy birthday. We stop what we are doing, put aside the work, and take those 20 minutes to acknowledge and appreciate the relationship we have as fellow ‘farmers’. These rituals create loyalty, love, and devotion within our walls. Silly Farmers know that we are a family, and when a family stays together they can move mountains.

Many of you might be operating as a one man show, and some of you have grown your businesses to new levels. Some of you have several employees working underneath you. Regardless of the level of your business, treating your employees right can be the push that gets you over the hump. Simple gestures like an employee movie night, or surprise Starbucks day, shout to your employees that they are important. At the end of the day people want to feel validated, and sweet treats are sure fire ways to make someone feel special.

I had a great talk with a fellow entrepreneur in the previous month, and she was telling me that she is so grateful for her staff. They were working so hard and treated her business as if it was their own. She was saddened because she could not afford to give them a raise at that moment, because she needed to invest in a new processor. So I told her about our Team Twilight (yes, the movie) parties. Everytime a new Twilight movie premieres I sponsor a dinner date with the girls. We dress up, wear our shirts, and have a blast. So, my friend decided to surprise her staff with a dinner date to the karaoke bar, dinner, and a $25 gas card to each employee. It cost her about $700 in all, but the goodwill and enthusiasm it created could not be quantified.

If you truly want to grow your company, you need to start at the top and work your way down. The same way you want your customers to be happy with your services, you want your employees to feel important. Start at the top, set the standard of paying it forward, praising good work, saying please and thank you, sending handwritten notes, and random sweet treats will build the foundation for a strong business.

Thank you for supporting my blog. Individually we are one drop, together we are a bucket of paint! Happy painting! Leave a comment below and tell us how you treat your employees!

P.S. Make sure to check out FABAtv, Silly Farm, and the new FaBAIC convention info.