“I can guarantee a profit in your business!” Do you believe me? All you need is for your income to exceed your expenses. In my first 7 years of business ownership my accounting system was terrible and I believed that if I worked harder than my competition, I would make a profit.  For many weeks, my only goal was to have money for payroll.  I had no way to know if I was making a profit.  A few times, I questioned if it was even possible to make a profit.   Profit is not a 4-letter word!

I like to illustrate “profit” using world cup soccer, which the rest of the world calls “football”. The offensive side is attempting to score, which represents “income”. Whereas, the defensive side is attempting to keep the opposing team from scoring, which represents “expenses”.   The team with the highest score wins.  The score board for all businesses is “profit”, like it or not.  If you are in business without profit as your goal, I suggest you identify your business as a “non-profit” organization or  a “hobby”. Profit is not a 4-letter word!

I think some people “over spiritualize” their business.  Don’t get me wrong, I want God’s leading in every aspect of my business.  In the book of Acts, Jesus told his disciples He must leave this earth so He could send The Comforter, The Holy Spirit, Our Helper.   When I was the lead-person loading furniture in my moving business, I would ask my helper to lift the other end of the furniture to help me.  If we had a long distance to walk, it was good if we walked in step.   This other person was my helper and he was looking for me to lead and give him guidance.  God is waiting for us to take the lead in making a profit.   God can’t help us very much unless we are willing to:  work hard, concentrate on gaining product knowledge, keep current in technology, understand my competition,  control my spending, and etc.   Profit is not a 4-letter word!

Using profit for the glory of God must be our purpose.  We can learn to hear God’s voice in how to use profit for His Kingdom.  Providing good jobs with fair wages, providing good products/services for our customers, being a part of the supply chain in our local economy, and giving to advance the Kingdom of God,  are exciting reasons.  In the process, I am blessed to use a portion of the profit for my enjoyment.

If you have business experience,  I encourage you to go out of your way to help a younger businessperson with encouragement and mentoring.   I believe helping others is critical because when we are willing to help others, a special blessing flow from God is opened to us.  If you should be in a position to travel abroad with us, we have many opportunities for you to share business lessons like this lesson.  Contact us at www.BusinessMissionTrips.org.

I was recently able to spend 3 days in Guadalajara, Mexico with Bernardo and Noelle (husband and wife) and their three small children.  This was my first official business consulting job.  My goal was to assist in making their bakery more profitable and to help them create time to raise their children.

We worked together on many aspects of business, including:

1.  Increasing Sales – Currently, most of their sales come from renting a space at farmers markets.   We discussed new sales from producing partially baked and frozen bread for restaurants who would then use their ovens to finish the baking.  Everyone felt positive about this idea and agreed to experiment with the good, old trial-and-error method.  It seems when the process is perfected, a lot of new sales could be developed.

2.  Controlling Expenses – Reducing production costs  normally starts with learning to value every minute.  Every minute lost is a loss of revenue and profit.  Some areas we discussed included; reducing unnecessary trips to purchase raw materials, managing inventory of raw materials, and that the order size is large enough to receive free delivery on raw materials.

3. Accounting– We worked together to set up an accounting spread sheet using, Excel.    I suggested that a more sophisticated accounting software can come later. Good business decisions come with good accounting records. And poor decisions come with poor records.

4.  Team work – It is important to listen and value all ideas from everyone in the team.  Building teamwork does not happen over-night.  When this culture is created the benefits are tremendous.

5.  Working with your spouse –  I shared a number of mistakes I made in this area and  suggested using a few words  like: “I respect you”, “I am sorry”, and “Let’s work together”.

For those that might be in a position to travel abroad to a developing nation, join us on a www.BusinessMissionTrips.org .

It is my desire to encourage everyone reading these articles to find their place in the Body of Christ and especially those called to the marketplace.  A personal satisfaction comes when we discover and develop our God given gifting.  As each part of the Body matures, we can see how all the parts fit together uniquely with a bigger purpose of reaching the lost and dying world with answers.

It seems to me that the light that shines the brightest afar should shine the brightest at home.  Let’s encourage each other to reach into our world and help those around us with our light.

I was recently able to spend 3 days in Guadalajara, Mexico with Bernardo and Noelle (husband and wife) and their three small children.  This was my first official business consulting job.  My goal was to assist in making their bakery more profitable and to help them create time to raise their children.  Noelle has taken the lead on sales through networking and connecting with the customers.   Whereas, Bernardo has taken the lead on bread production. The products they make are consistent with their personal commitment to eat very healthy.  Their bakery also produces gluten free breads and they make specialty breads, like rye and oat bread.  Care is also taken to support the local economy and to give to God’s work.

 

My approach in consulting was pretty simple because I mostly shared from my personal experiences.  Some of you may not know, but in 1982 my wife and I moved to the Tulsa Metro and I was expecting a good paying job because I was a graduate engineer with 10 years experience. That plan did not work and I started a moving and storage company using a horse trailer pulled by our family car. This business gave me 17 years of pretty good experience.  The trip to Mexico to mentor brought back many things from my past, and at one point I even shed a couple tears as I remembered an especially difficult time in which I could not see how I could make it.

 

The instructor always learns more than the student. These are the three “A’s” of coaching that made me want to go:

1.  “A” – Authentic – Bernardo and  Noelle needed me to be authentic with them, which meant sharing stories about my life.  The good, the bad, and the ugly.

2.  “A” – Accessible – I became accessible because Bernardo and Noelle had been our interpreters on previous trips to Mexico.  They started their business two years ago after applying several of the lessons I taught, including “How to start a business with no money”.  This made it easy for me to purchase my tickets and set aside these days to help them.

3.  “A” – Accountable – All of us are responsible to find someone to be a means for accountability.  Bernardo, Noelle and I are developing a follow-up plan so we can be accountable to each other.

For those that might be in a position to travel abroad to a developing nation, join us on a trip through www.BusinessMissionTrips.org.  In the meantime, let’s encourage each other to reach and help those around us.

 

A man spent nearly 40 years in prison for a murder he did not commit. The truth came out! Ricky Jackson was convicted at age 18, but Jackson, now 58, was exonerated in November after a witness, now in his early 50s, recanted his testimony.  Jackson’s attorneys say their client is believed to have served the longest prison term in the US for someone wrongfully convicted. The truth came out!

Honesty and integrity are fundamental to the growth and prosperity for any business that wants to succeed.  The manufacturing company that I own, produces and sells component parts to some very large and well known international companies.   Accurate documentation in making these parts is critical.  Creating a company culture with integrity includes setting high expectations and willingness to impose discipline if the company integrity is intentionally compromised.  It could be easier to understand the temptation when you realize that selling an order of good parts would generate $20,000 in sales, compared with $80 if sold to the scrap company.   Our customers trust us.  This is not our law!  It is God’s law! “THE TRUTH WILL COME OUT”.

There is no such thing as, “they will never find out” or “no one will ever know“. If you are thinking this way, you are lying to yourself.  “The truth  will come out“.  Maybe not now, maybe not even when you are alive, but at some point it will come out.  Unfortunately, the people normally hurt the most are those closest to you.

Recently as part of a video testimony at my home church,  a young man shared how the church had virtually saved him from destroying himself. As he shared openly (to help others), his dad was described as a strong man with a military type personality.  The dad had strict rules in everything, including the family’s church attendance.  The young man shared that when he was in his early 20’s and had moved out of the house, his mother told him, that for many years his dad had been living a double standard in his loyalty to his marriage.  Is there anything more devastating to a young man to learn that his father was blatantly living a lie?  The truth came out!

Your workers want to know you are truthful with them in big and small things:

Don’t:

1. Ask your secretary to tell the caller you are not in, when you are standing right in front of them.
2. Find a mistake on an invoice in your favor and called it “God’s blessing”.
3. Knowingly send out sub-standard products, even if it is costly to you and your company.

Do:

1. Be quick to correct your mistakes. Admit it when you make a mistake.  No one is expecting perfection, just honesty.
2. Pay taxes properly. I use the saying, “we have the right to arrange our business affairs in the least taxable manner allowed by law”.    It so happens that my daughter is our CPA, who helps me stay out of the gray areas.
3. Pay your vendors in a timely manner.  They are not the bank.  If you need an operating loan go to the bank.
4. Build in safe-guards in your life and workplace, like glass windows (with no shades) in your office.

We need to live like we are in the family of God.   Share your thoughts!   Give your opinion! Encourage someone today in the area of being truthful.

For those that might be interested in sharing some of their  life experiences in a foreign audience, consider being a part of a Business Mission Trip.

Gary Shotton 918.378.4366;  gshotton@gbsf.org

Kim Jong-un (born in 1983)  is the supreme leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) and has dealt out some harsh punishments.   Defense Minister Hyong Yong-choi was the latest casualty of North Korea’s internal war against its top brass. According to South Korean intelligence, Hyong was killed in late April after falling asleep during an event and not carrying out instructions.

Looking from the outside, this seems to be rather extreme punishment for simply falling asleep at an event.  The report does not tell us what the event was, how long the event might have lasted, or whether this man might have been feeling ill causing him to be sleepy.   We would hope the Supreme Leader might have taken some of this into consideration.

Are we as Christian business leaders guilty of even worse?  Have we fallen asleep in our responsibility to represent God in the marketplace.  We need to admit, the only things that last for eternity are those things that we do with God’s leading.

I realize that not everyone reading this blog has the authority or ability to implement change in your place of business.  I think we should make it our daily goal,  “to be an influencer toward Godliness”. Having a machine shop with more than sixty men and one women, we have tried several things to show that we care for our workers and demonstrate the love of God.  With this list, I hope to share some ideas.

1. Bibles for Christmas gifts – A couple years ago, I purchased a Bible for everyone in the company.  It was a nice, leather-bound, easy to read, with their name engraved in gold on the outside cover.  In the process, I realized that for many of these men, this was the first personalized Bible they have owned.
2. Dave Ramsey Financial Freedom Course –   Most people do not run short of money because of the what comes in, but because of how it is spent.   Eighteen of the twenty employees that signed up completed the 10 week course.
3. Marketplace Ministry Inc. –  With a desire to help with deeper, personal issues, we chose this organization to add professional some assistance.  The cost to our company is based on the size of our company. They provide 3 or 4 professional chaplains to visit randomly to build relationships and help as needed.
4. Pray at the start of company meetings – We normally start our company meetings by asking God to bless each person individually along with the combined efforts of the company.
5. Show real concern for employees and family –  Showing concern is not something that can be easily measured but something that is felt.  We try to sincerely listen to suggestions, with respect.  Company management attempts to be fare with performance evaluations, pay rates, and job assignments.
6. Maintain a clean and wholesome work environment – Harsh and vulgar language is challenged.  Disrespect for fellow workers is not allowed. Improper pictures are not on display.

I believe that each of us have some level of freedom and authority to help mold policy at your place of work, I encourage you to determine to make a difference.

Would share some of our experiences on this subject?  What can we do together to stay awake as we get closer to the biggest Event in All Eternity, the return of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

For those that like to travel, consider joining us on a Business Mission Trip when the time if right for you!