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

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, is now a $60-million-a-year company with 140 stores in 40 states.

Second, it's the story of one employee's success--the author, Tom McMakin, who was looking for a job and found a lifestyle. McMakin's immersion into Great Harvest is a model for modern entrepreneurship and an inspiration in this age of failed dot-coms and dissatisfied young employees.

Third, McMakin uses GH's experience to provide advice for everyone from dreamers starting their own multi-million-dollar companies to small-business owners to someone who doesn't know what she wants to do. Things like: creating a "learning community" using email and an extranet; operating without loans, relying instead on profits for reinvesting in the company; GH's "40-hour" rule so no one works more than 40 hours a week; and more. Bread and Butter can help you discover how, instead of living your life in service to the business, you can create a business in service of your life.

© 2025 St. Martin's Press (Ebook): 9781429938112

Release date

Ebook: 21 May 2025