More Than a Hobby: How a $600 Startup Became America’s Home and Craft Superstore (The Inside Story

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A quick rundown of this product’s key features:

Discover the behind-the-scenes story of the founding and exponential growth of Hobby Lobby.

Learn the secrets of retail success from the man you built America’s home-and-craft superstore—from the ground up.

The retail industry has undergone enormous changes during the last thirty years. But there is one retailer that not only has remained consistent in the fluctuating—even tenuous—market but also has grown in the process.

More Than a Hobby takes you inside the story of David Green, the man who built the phenomenal success of Hobby Lobby. Green went beyond surviving in a competitive retail market to thriving, ultimately expanding his $600 start-up company into a $1.3 billion per-year enterprise.

Green’s incredible accomplishments were based not on business-school theory but on his grassroots experiences as a store manager and his creative application of cutting-edge ideas, including:

Allow managers to spend no more than thirty minutes per day on paperworkInstead of paying a middleman, assemble as much of the product as possible in-houseGive buyers the freedom to purchase without restraint?but within the realm of common senseKeep God and family first

More Than a Hobby is a practical field manual, filled with revolutionary ideas for all those who dream of success in the world of retail business.

Our Top Reviews

Reviewer: C. E. Gregory
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: I’d work for this man in a heartbeat!
Review: I admire this man! This book is a must read for anyone in business where management is driving you nuts with unreasonable and questionable decisions that are counterproductive to growth and success. Much of what Mr. Green explains is good old common sense, which unfortunately is no longer so common! Ethical and family oriented – that is why Hobby lobby has been so successful. Greed and mismanagement has become so imbedded in many businesses, and in the long run it ruins once great companies. Go back to the basics and run a company which values its employees for what they contribute and see how productivity increases and how employee happiness grows. Having people that want to work for you is a key to success. To often we see companies who browbeat their people and take them for granted, forgetting that if it weren’t for these people, they would not be in business. I am recommending this book to everyone I know, and I am going to read it a second time so that I absorb more of his wisdom. PS – it’s a great place to shop also!

Reviewer: G. Crocker
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Truly More Than a Hobby!
Review: I can’t add much more to what the other reviewers have already said. I think anyone planning on being an entrepreneur would do themselves a great service by reading this book. Simple but powerful advice. The Lord has blessed Mr Green and his family by and through this business(es) and, they in turn, have blessed many others.One thing I will say to Mr Green…your mother kept on asking ‘How are you serving the Lord?’ Well..you answered it, You see…all Christians are called into “full-time” Christian service – no matter what their vocations. We all can’t be pastors, evangelists, etc – how else can those in these calling get paid if there are none of God’s people earning money???????…but we all can serve Him (God) where we are “at”. And the Greens have done and have shown that. For God is Lord over all. His mother would be proud (she went on to be with her Lord before Hobby Lobby even took off).As I said above David Green has very good advice and anyone wanting to be successful in business can certainly learn a thing or two from him and his business operations. Truly it was, is and will be more than just a hobby.

Reviewer: chinny
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: inspiring
Review: Very inspirational and thought provoking. I highly recommend to anyone struggling with thoughts about purpose and building a legacy for the future.

Reviewer: Amazon Customer
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Smart Man, Smart Business
Review: David Green is a smart man, there is no doubt. “More Than A Hobby” profiles Green’s background from his childhood through the present. He writes of the strong influence his parents had on his work ethic and the values that drive him to make a difference in the way his business is run.He outlines how he found a void in the retail store in which he was employed and set out with some business partners to create the product and bring it to market. He describes the lean times he and his wife encountered and the faith that kept them going.As we know, he built a successful business. What I wanted to hear was how he runs his inventory system and how they can possibly survive without a Point of Sale system. I was amazed how he specifically addressed my question and found his answer to be quite logical. (I hate to spoil the book for anyone reading this review…I tend write simply an overview of the book.)I liked the book – it was an easy read and informative. I admire his business acumen and kudos to his wonderful successes. This is the kind of employer which should comprise our marketplace – that is, his logic, morals, faith and humanity toward employees are great characteristics. Unfortunately he and his business have fallen prey to the import of CHinese goods however can any US businesses survive today without importing from the Far East? His business dealings there are only logical with the bottom line always in mind – as well as his customers.Read the book – it is interesting. It should be required reading for anyone studying business, marketing, retail management.

Reviewer: Sherry P
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: What an exciting book and story!
Review: I enjoyed reading David’s book on how God helped David start Hobby Lobby. This is a story of a humble man that continually was thankful to God and became a generous with all he had been given.

Reviewer: Johan Sulaiman
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: humility and hard work
Review: Mr. Green is not your ordinary CEO, and Hobby Lobby is not your ordinary retail company. You quickly get this sense from the get go, as he recounted his rise from an unspectacular, exceedingly shy elementary student, to store handyman, store manager, and finally an owner of a $1.4 billion dollars operation. Along the way he nearly picks up everything that would categorize a businessman as a success: spectacular growth, stable family business with family members actively working for the company, and community impact. All except a college degree. Good insights in this book about running a company with strong distinct values of integrity first, and then hard work, while at the same time impacting the community with moves such as putting out Christian ads in newspapers every Christmas and Easter, close on Sundays, closing stores an hour earlier daily for better work/life balance to workers, and generating various community building organizations (I did not know Hobby Lobby is behind Every Tribe Entertainment that produces “End of the Spear”!). Green’s business formula is not novel nor complicated, for example for a retailer the size of HL barcodes are still not instituted, and they seem to get by fine without. Refreshing proof that basic, bread-and-butter business common sense, strong principles, and execution can still thrive in today’s economy.

Reviewer: sherry
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Great read
Review: I very much enjoyed reading Mr. Greens book. I’m a needle art lead at Hobby Lobby and I consider it an honor to work for someone who is not willing to compromise God’s principles for the all mighty dollar. I have customers ask me all the time why does Hobby Lobby do this or that and a lot of times I just didn’t know. This book answered a lot of those questions. So if you’ve been wondering why Hobby Lobby does things the way they do this book js one you’ll want to read

Reviewer: Ade Adetona
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Deep insight

Reviewer: Manon Jodoin
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: A man who make the things with differents values. An interesting book for who want to make business with human first. A little to ”religious” for me, but I loved my reading and it just tell me that you can make business and be proud of your values too.

Reviewer: Dr. Manisha joshi
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: I liked it v much..strategies for retail bussiness and think big..how to get organised and keep things simple..Dr manisha joshi

Reviewer: Peter George Ehimeh
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Excellent

Price effective as of Jun 20, 2025 12:09:25 UTC

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