When your business is

born of faith, you march 

to a different drum . . .

That most small business owners maintain any kind of long-term allegiance to the place their businesses were born is doubtful. Yet, as entrepreneurs, they are the most likely group to appreciate and respect the origins and uniquenesses of a business that is born of faith.

Both kinds of small business enterprise owners —those who believe their business calling comes from God, and those who don’t– experience similar dynamics, challenges, problems, and opportunities. The differences are essentially differences in attitude, motivation, and the treatment of internal and external resources.

Small businesses all suffer growing pains. And being on the cusp of economic catastrophe while getting bludgeoned by over-taxation without representation (considering the SBA is a joke) and by over-regulation from a naive, misguided, rampaging  White House that appears intentionally and spitefully clueless, doesn’t help.   

Not many corporate giant, union, or government career types would understand the dynamics, challenges, problems, and opportunities faced daily by small business –any kind of small business– let alone the charitable, servant leadership nature of a business that is faith-based.

Entrepreneurs of every ilk recognize that their own and others’ existences depend on their own initiatives. Unlike corporate and government counterparts, when you own and/or manage a small business, and you’re too hungover to get out of bed in the morning, there’s no option for tossing it off by calling in to take a “sick day”

When you skip work or drag in hours late because you’re feeling depressed or had an upsetting incident at home, or simply didn’t want to face up to a scheduled meeting with a disgruntled partner or financial supporter, or an irate customer, what happens? The business suffers. Do it too often and the business folds.

But when your business is firmly grounded in commitments to serving God by serving all others who come into contact with your enterprise, you have a different perspective on what’s important.

Secular, or non-spiritually-based businesses exist to make money. They are primarily devoted to satisfying their principals and their investors with profits. Faith-based businesses exist to make money to distribute more to their employees, their communities, and to become stronger resources for charitable giving.

Many secular businesses will put income-source customers first and actually disregard their employees, vendors, and “outside” consultants and sales reps. Financial gain and competitive edge become the driving forces. Faith-based businesses typically seek to embrace everyone equally, seeking to distribute trust, respect, and opportunities.

Most secular businesses consider community support efforts non-essential line items to abandon when economic uncertainty drives budgetary belt-tightening. Faith-based businesses facing the same financial stresses may simply switch gears to make their community contributions ones of time and effort, or expertise, or goods and services.

Having had the privledge of working extensively in both secular and faith-based business arenas, I frequently hear questions about what the differences and similarities are. This post is intended to address a few of my observations. They may not all be correct, and certainly they are not all-inclusive.

Can you add some comments

from your experiences? 

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  Hal@Businessworks.US   302.933.0116

  Open Minds Open Doors 

   Thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

  Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

“Uh, let’s see, Beer Fest?

Chunkin’ Punkin?

Or 5-Mile Run?”

     You can’t even dream up  an event that some business isn’t sponsoring these days! And aren’t we all suckers for the fundraising solicitations of candy-bar-bearing cherubic-smiling Brownie troops, aluminum can-collecting T-ball teams and car-washing high school cheerleaders?

     And of course there’re  the church bake sales, fire department carnivals, VFW clambakes, and all the other terrific events that are the very fabric of small town America.

     How great is the temptation  to get behind everything that comes along? How special it feels to be the stuff that a community-minded business leader is made of? But you know what? Today more than ever, you need to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with your business and face (ta-ta-ta-ta, ta-ta!): reality!

     Sponsoring charities and community events  is a truly wonderful and charitable behavior and experience BUT… do not hesitate to focus whatever time, effort, money, products and services, and attention you contribute on situations that will have some return on your investment! 

     If you’re going to give money away,  make it count for yourself as well as the recipient. You worked hard to earn it. There’s nothing wrong with your business getting some recognition in the process.

     Ack! That’s a terrible thing to suggest,  you may say. But, no. It’s a realistic thing to say, and here’s why:

     If you want to quietly  and anonymously plunk a thousand bucks into a deserving cause that has nothing whatsoever to do with your business or your customers or your employees or your suppliers, or your community you might as well be throwing it out the window!

     If you want to do that  for a cause that does have some business-related value, you might as well be throwing it out the window! And if you throw enough out the window, you put your business in jeopardy.

GIVE FROM YOUR HEART BUT USE YOUR BRAIN TO PICK THE CIRCUMSTANCES.

     The more you contribute  to situations that help enhance your business name and posture, the more loyalty and sales you’ll build so the more you can be in a position to donate more! It’s called “Enlightened Self-Interest”! If you find that each year, more and more groups and organizations seem to be chasing after your support and it’s getting too draining:

     Establish an annual budget  (with a sidecar emergency fund) and stick to it; direct latecomer solicitors to put their dibs in earlier next year because your budget is all appropriated. This doesn’t mean you’re a scrooge.

     It means you’re being smart  about what you choose to support and the amounts that won’t cripple your business so that you can make your contributions be more productive for your business so you can increase your budget next year.

     The other step  that many business owners take is to establish a private non-profit foundation specifically for the purpose of screening and awarding and managing charitable and community contributions. Many of these entities even conduct their own fundraising programs to support needy organization causes and events.              

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Aaaargh, OOoooh, Umpf,

GlugGlug, Gurgle, Gobble,

FaLaLaLaLa, Hiccup, Yum,

STOP YELLING!   

     Well, a little digest-yesterday’s-turkey-soccer-game today with my son-in-law, my all-state soccer star nephew, my travel team soccer star grandson and my two soccer-player grandaughters reminded me about the notion of time slippage (funny, I would have sworn I was hitting my late teens before the game started as surely as I felt 95 by the time we finished –10 to 8 final score), and the need to eat less next year!

Have you ever seen a beaver wearing glasses? 

      As for sounds of the season, btw (thumb-basher-text-messaging-shorthand for “by the way”), by the way, I’m really not a bah-humbug guy; in fact, I LOVE Christmas, BUT I TRULY HATE Christmas music and commercials that start before Halloween, and that steamroller over Thanksgiving like it was Ground Hog’s Day. 

     What in the world makes retailers think they will make more money if they advertise earlier? Right-o, jolly-good, and all that.  Of course I’ll just dig deeper in my wallet and start pulling out all those sequestered thousand dollar bills to spend on gifts because all that wonderful, exilarating advertising is reaching me earlier this year!

     Oh, yeah, and all those blessed charitable moods that start to kick in about now . . . you know, the ones that are sabotaged by print, broadcast, online and direct mail requests for my hard-earned dollars that came by way of hard-working wage-earning needy neighbors right here in my community.   

     Well, la-de-dah, now I’m supposed to pile up those hard-earned dollars and kiss them goodbye (along with my needy neighbors!), and immediately wire my money half-way around the planet to such needy causes as the NFACLISSYBB (Nonprofit Foundation for the Astigmatic Correctional Lens Implants of Speckle-Spotted, Yellow-Bellied Beavers).

     Of course, with some tenacious googling, I might find that these poor, afflicted beavers are critically essential (like cones and cups are to ice cream) to nocturnal pigmies in the Outback who rely on them for nighttime navigation when the moon is not full . . . because numerous pigmies will undoubtedly wander about aimlessly through the night, midst crocodiles, snakes and wild boars without beaver beacons to guide them.  I mean have you ever seen a beaver wearing glasses or contact lenses?

     So present-wise, what’s a person to do?  Do you go for these needy charities and hope your relatives and friends will understand and appreciate the potential tax deduction possibilities? 

     OR, does one, for example, spring for the $400 electronic book reader as a potentially emancipating Christmas gift accompanied by expressions of your seasonal hopes and prayers for cousin Billy Bob (whose idea of a book is something he was told that the judge once threw at him when he was brought in on a DUI charge for riding a large senior citizen tricycle . . . yes, of course one with a tall antenna brandishing a bright orange pennant . . . for cutting across the 20-something lane plaza at the foot of the Driscoll Bridge on New Jersey’s infamous Garden State Parkway at morning rush hour when the 65 mph speed limit goes to 387 mph (350 mph if roads are wet!) OR, do you just get him the antique Arthur Godfrey ukulele he fawns over at the corner pawn shop?

     Such a quandary!  Oh, and to the sounds of the season list, add:

Y  I  K  E  S  !               

  halalpiar

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