Profits Aren't Everything, They're the Only Thing

When small- and medium-sized business owners first hear George Cloutier's rules for doing business, they often think he's a madman. His controversial rules—-rules that aren't taught at Harvard Business School—-include:

—-The best family business has one member.

—-Weekends are for working, not playing golf or coaching.

—-Never pay your vendors on time.

—-Wear your control freak badge with pride.

—-Quit denial: if your business is failing during a recession, it's your fault.

As the founder and CEO of American Management Services, Cloutier has spent over thirty years guiding business owners through the tough choices that line the road to profitability. He and his company have worked with more than six thousand companies, averting certain ruin for some and generating seemingly impossible growth and profitability for others.

Cloutier graduated from Harvard College and Harvard Business School, but the lessons in this book aren't from there. Unlike his classmates, most of whom headed straight to Wall Street, Cloutier has been on the docks at two in the morning counting heads of lettuce for food distributors to make sure nothing would disappear without a waybill. He's spent long overnight hours in truck stops, making sure sticky fingers stayed out of the tills. Cloutier and his colleagues at American Management Services become personal pit bulls to the CEOs who hire them, doing whatever it takes to bring their clients' businesses back into long-term profitability.