Business career of Sam Walton Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Business career of Sam Walton - Research Paper Example In the same year, Walton paid $25,000 to the owners of the Ben Franklin stores for the rights to franchise the store. According to Tedlow (2001) Walton was inexperienced at running a business and he did not know what to do with a variety store. In fact, the only experience Walton had was from working retail at J.C. Penny’s (Brooks, 2012). Walton had paid too much for the store and was also paying too much for rent. Both of these issues could have meant failure for Walton but he did not fail. The first step for him was to go to a two week training program that was provided for franchise owners. Next, he studied his competition that happened to be across the street from him, and he read retail publications (Tedlow, 2001). He soon learned how to run the business, learned all the rules, and then found ways to break the rules that did not make sense to him. Walton was inspired by what he learned in retail and wanted something bigger. He also wanted to provide more value for his customers. He decided it was time to open a larger store, which became the first Walmart (Walton, 2012). Walton had backers until he decided to cut prices, and his backers felt this was not a good idea. He started Walmart with his own funds (Brooks, 2012). One of the reasons that Walton was successful was because in the early days, he cared about his employees and his customers. He realized that if he had lower prices than his competitors, he would have satisfied customers. He also realized if he treated his employees well and taught them how to take care of the customers, he would have successful employees and customers (Walton, 2012). By 1967, Walton owned 24 stores and was making $12.7 million in sales (Duke, 2012). In 1969, Walton incorporated Walmart and by 1970 they went public (Duke, 2012). Walton attributed the success of Walmart to his employees who were the ones who worked directly with the customers (Walton, 2012). In 1971, Walton opened his