Sit, Lulu, Sit!

Names and ages: Mitchell Gold, 46, and Bob Williams, 36

Company name and description: The Mitchell Gold Co. designs and manufactures cutting-edge furniture, specifically slip-covered couches, chairs, ottomans and sleeper sofas.

Based: Taylorsville, North Carolina

Founded: 1989, after both partners left stifling corporate careers

Start-up costs: Less than $200,000

1998 sales projections: $40 million

Power of two: Williams designs; Gold orchestrates the business end of the company. "I think it's very hard for people to go out and do something 100 percent on their own," says Gold. "I like the idea of having a partner."

Catbird seat: Williams and Gold focus on selling to home furnishing retailers such as Pottery Barn, Crate & Barrel, and ABC in New York City. Their products are sold nationwide and throughout Europe, Japan and South America.

Rx for success: The partners believe a healthy staff equals heightened productivity. They sponsor yearly on-site physicals and eye exams, educate their employees with regular tips on healthy living, and recently introduced daily warm-ups and stretching exercises to factory workers. They're also constructing a new factory on 70 acres of land that will have a walking track, gym and day-care center. Another therapeutic gesture: Gold's English bulldog, Lulu, comes into the office every day, visiting with customers and employees.

No couch potatoes allowed: "We hire the best people, and that's what makes a company grow. It's not just the entrepreneurs on top--it's the people who make the team," Gold says.

Sofa, so good: "We've proven that doing the things that show employees you care about them rewards you because they end up working that much harder," says Gold. "And the proof is in the pudding because our employee productivity is really great."

This article was originally published in the January 1998 print edition of Entrepreneur with the headline: Sit, Lulu, Sit!.