When you start a business from scratch, there might be one or two people who are involved at the onset. Then if God is willing, and it thrives, it might begin to involve more people. That is what happened with Mountain Arts Pottery. When we began, the business was so tenuous and we were so uncertain about whether or not it would be a success that we actually did not include the word "Pottery" when we were trying to think of a name for our business. Our thinking was that if we didn’t make it with a pottery studio, we would at least be able to preserve the name for some other venture if the need arose.
With God’s help and a lot of hard work, we did begin to grow. As we included more people to work with us, it was our goal that they treat the business as their own and take ownership.
When I was going to be a junior in high school, my shop teacher found me a summer job on a ranch south of Miles City, Montana. I was working for an older gentleman. His son owned a ranch that bordered his. His grandson was one class up from me, and we were fairly good friends. We were in a group at some function talking about what everyone had done in the last week or two. I said that we had branded about 178 of our calves (meaning, of course, the owner's calves). The grandson corrected me and said that were not my calves, and asked what I thought I was talking about.
That was a formative interaction and I have thought a lot about that conversation over the years. Jennie's and my hope is that anyone who works for us feels like such an integral part of our business that they consider it "theirs". It makes us happy when, in conversation, they say "we have this or that" to our customers. Our team members are such a valuable part of our business that their ownership only enhances what we all do to ensure great customer satisfaction.
-Dave Lockie
With God’s help and a lot of hard work, we did begin to grow. As we included more people to work with us, it was our goal that they treat the business as their own and take ownership.
When I was going to be a junior in high school, my shop teacher found me a summer job on a ranch south of Miles City, Montana. I was working for an older gentleman. His son owned a ranch that bordered his. His grandson was one class up from me, and we were fairly good friends. We were in a group at some function talking about what everyone had done in the last week or two. I said that we had branded about 178 of our calves (meaning, of course, the owner's calves). The grandson corrected me and said that were not my calves, and asked what I thought I was talking about.
That was a formative interaction and I have thought a lot about that conversation over the years. Jennie's and my hope is that anyone who works for us feels like such an integral part of our business that they consider it "theirs". It makes us happy when, in conversation, they say "we have this or that" to our customers. Our team members are such a valuable part of our business that their ownership only enhances what we all do to ensure great customer satisfaction.
-Dave Lockie