Most entrepreneurs have heard some version of the line "nice guys finish last." Virtuous Business, the new book from Tom DuFore, Debbie Philpott, and Ethan Slaughter, makes the opposite argument, and backs it up with research instead of platitudes.

As CEO of Big Sky Franchise Team, Tom DuFore helped scale over 600 businesses through franchising, and he hosts his own show, the Multiply Your Success podcast, where he regularly digs into what actually makes companies durable. Virtuous Business takes that experience and pairs it with the Virtuous Business Model, a framework developed at Indiana Wesleyan University, to answer a question a lot of founders wrestle with privately: can you build a business with real integrity and still win?

The book's answer is yes, and it gives you the tools to prove it inside your own organization. A few things that make it worth your time:

  • It's built on research, not just opinion. The Virtuous Business Model draws on academic study into what actually distinguishes virtuous organizations from the rest, not just anecdotes about "company culture."
  • It's genuinely practical. With more than 300 reflection questions woven throughout, this isn't a book you passively read. It's one you use to actually audit how your business makes decisions, treats people, and defines success.
  • It comes from someone who's lived it. DuFore's franchise consulting work means the ideas here are tested against real operators, not just theorized in a classroom.

Why this matters for entrepreneurs specifically: Scaling a business puts pressure on every value you claim to hold. It's easy to run an ethical company when you're small and every decision passes through you personally. Virtuous Business is really a guide for holding onto that integrity as you grow, systemize, and hand off decisions to others, which is exactly the stage many of you listening to this podcast are navigating right now.

If you've ever wondered whether "doing the right thing" and "building a scalable, profitable business" are actually compatible goals, this book gives you a framework for making sure the answer stays yes as you grow.

This book is available on Amazon.