Sam Walton is the youngest of four children born to James “Bud” and Helen Walton. He was raised in Arkansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma. His father died when he was 14 years old.
At age 16, Sam left school to join his brother Bud at a JCPenney store in Des Moines, Iowa. After two years there, they joined their older brother John’s Ben Franklin variety store in Tulsa, Oklahoma, to eventually buy it from him upon retirement.
The brothers worked hard for five years but had no success saving enough money to buy the store from John, who was reluctant to sell it anyway because he thought that one day soon, all stores would be owned by large corporations like Walmart Stores Inc.
1. “There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else.”
This quote by Sam Walton is one of his most famous quotes. It may be a very simple quote, but many people get it wrong. Walmart’s customer isn’t just any regular person on the street. They’re someone who will spend their money in your store if you satisfy them.
To please your customers, you need to understand what they’re buying, how much they’re willing to spend on something, and why they’re buying it. Knowing this information will help you cater to your customers’ needs.
2. “I treat the company’s money like it was my own”
Sam Walton believes that his stores are his own because he pays for most of them with his money, so he treats the company’s money like his own. Since Walmart stores were growing and expanding, Sam Walton used what he earned from the sale of his Ben Franklin store and other properties to pay for half of these new projects while everyone else was pitching in with what they had.
Like any smart business a person would do, Sam Walton wanted to minimize his losses, so he disposed of anything that wasn’t up-to-date, or that was past its prime. He also invested in top-of-the-line machinery, the latest technology, and cutting edge strategy.
3. “I learned early on that saving money isn’t just a stunt. Saving is a smart investment when you are in business to make money.”
This quote by Sam Walton is another one of his advice to all entrepreneurs who are struggling with the idea of spending lots of money on something that might not even bring them profit. He wanted his stores to be an example for other businesses, too.
Instead of wasting his company’s money on something that was overpriced or out of fashion, Sam Walton decided to invest in the future. His motto was ‘Buy right, and buy once,’ which means that you should only spend your money on something if it’s good quality so it won’t have to be replaced anytime soon.
4. “We also knew when to quit & move on to the next idea.”
This quote by Sam Walton is another one of his famous quotes about business because it involves all the lessons he has learned in starting and growing Walmart Stores, Inc. He knew when it was time to cut your losses if something wasn’t working out, so he stopped everything he was doing and focused on where he was already succeeding.
For example, he tried selling motorcycles for a while, but they didn’t sell very well, so he gave up and transferred all of his attention to grocery items. If he hadn’t given up on the motorcycle business, Walmart would probably sell bikes now instead of groceries.
5. “There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else.”
This quote by Sam Walton is one of his most famous quotes because it advises on how to please your customers so that they will never forget your business and always return when in need of something you offer.
To have a satisfied customer, you need to understand what they’re buying, how much they’re willing to spend on something, and why they’re buying it. Once you figure out these things, you’ll be able to cater to your customer’s needs by providing them with exactly what they want or offering them different alternatives if you can’t. In addition, if you treat your customers well, they’ll keep returning to you in the future and spread the good news about your business so other people will walk in.
6. “Take care of your customers and employees first, then worry about the rest.”
Sam Walton believed that if you took care of your customers and employees by providing them with a comfortable working environment and all of the benefits they deserve, then everything else would fall into place. These two things are crucial in building a successful business because satisfied customers ensure that your business will be around for years to come. At the same time, loyal employees help you develop better strategies to please more people.
To take care of your customers, you have to know all about them and what they want. To do that, you have to maintain a good relationship with them by talking with as many as possible and paying attention to what they’re saying so you can follow up later on. Service is extremely important because if customers aren’t satisfied with something, they’ll feel cheated, which means they won’t want to return.
As for employees, you have to make sure that they’re happy with what they do and who is in charge of them because this will affect how well they work. If there is no real leader, then employees will probably slack off or don’t care about their jobs at all if it’s as simple as putting a price on something. To keep your employees motivated, you have to allow them to move up within the company through different training and promotions.
7. “In this business, it’s our job every day to sell reasons for people to love us.”
This quote by Sam Walton is one of his famous business quotes because it involves all the lessons he has learned in starting and growing Walmart Stores, Inc. First, he realized that no matter how good your products are, without customers, nothing will get done, so you have to sell yourself to them by making them feel welcome and appreciated so they’ll return again and again.
For this strategy to work, you have to know exactly who your customers are, what they want from your business, and how to make them feel comfortable. From a sales standpoint, you have to be more than just helpful by offering extra perks such as gift-wrapping or free shipping if necessary, so your customer can’t resist doing more shopping with you. Once you provide the best service, you’ll earn more sales, and your customers will be able to see the difference between your business and others while also raving about it on their social media channels.
8. “The way America works is, you work hard, put some money away, reach a comfortable level of financial security, retire with grace.”
Sam Walton specializes in spreading his motivating business quotes by sharing this one. The American Dream is one of the most treasured ideas in our society, especially since our country was built on capitalism, where if you work hard, then your efforts will pay off. As a result, you’ll be able to live comfortably at a later stage in life without worrying about financial insecurity.
The best thing you can do is to save money where you can so it won’t get in the way of your overall lifestyle and happiness. For example, suppose you’re able to put some money away in a bank or other type of savings account that’s interest-accruing. In that case, you’ll be able to build up your finances at a faster rate so you can bridge the gap between working and retirement.
9. “If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.”
An important business quote by Sam Walton is that if all your employees are focused on achieving the same goal, then it will be much easier to accomplish because they’ll have each other’s back to succeed. No matter how much you want a project or a business to succeed, it won’t be able to unless everyone who works on it is willing to work together and have each other’s backs. This type of teamwork will allow your employees to go above and beyond their assigned tasks so they can meet the overall goal for your company.
As you can see, Sam Walton has quite a few famous business quotes that he’s shared throughout his lifetime. They can be used as inspiration on how to become successful in the world of business, so keep them in mind whenever you need some words of wisdom to motivate yourself.