Bold Goals

-

About four years ago, I set a bold goal for Belay Enterprises of creating 100 new faith venture businesses over the next five years through our urban micro-enterprise program. A few months after making that goal, it became apparent that I was out in front of God. There was no way Belay was going to assist in the creation of that many businesses during that time period because we had entered a period of unique challenges which would prevent a focus on expansion. At Belay, there is always a tension between focusing on expansion and focusing on the existing. I found myself regretting that I shared my goal with my friend Eric Swanson because he included it in his book Living a Life on Loan. There was no escaping it.

But now five years later, I realize the goal was an appropriate one. It was just my approach that needed a fix. A goal of creating 100 faith-venture businesses in five year is an excellent example of a James Collins’ type of “Big Hairy Audacious Goal.” It’s an idea that is so “out there” that it forces an organization to focus and innovate in order to achieve. As I now realize, 100 businesses in 5 year is impossible to accomplish as an organization that is centralized in vision. It takes decentralized leadership held together by a big vision to accomplish such a goal. At Belay, I had been guilty of trying to hold on to the model. In the future, we will achieve our mission by giving our model away.


Over the years, I have come to see that there are much more talented entrepreneurs in the Christian community outside of Belay Enterprises. If we can share our faith venture vision for business enterprises that employ individuals and communities rebuilding lives by releasing our model, these talented entrepreneurs can build many more improved faith venture businesses. This will create more opportunities for the disadvantaged communities Belay seeks to serve. I hope that a decentralized movement of faith venture entrepreneurs will achieve the 100 business goal over the next 5 years.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Accidental Janitorial Company: Freedom Cleaning Services

-
Sometimes opportunity finds you. In 2003, Cherry Hills Community Church called Baby Bud's Director Dianne Sager with a question. The recovery organization that had been cleaning their facility had just closed and Cherry Hills needed a new partner. Would Baby Bud's be interested in cleaning the school at Cherry Hills? Normally a retail baby store would think twice about committing to a job completely unrelated to its core business. But Dianne had 20 years of experience managing a janitorial company prior to Baby Buds. She saw this as a new opportunity to employ more single moms. Within a couple of weeks, Baby Bud's added five single moms for a cleaning crew and Freedom Cleaning Services was born. Within a year, the business had grown to employ ten women with several other churches and commercial businesses as clients. One of the challenges to any business start-up is maintaining the focus on your core business when other opportunities arise. Sometimes it's good to pursue
Read more

Opportunity Knocks at Belay's New Beginnings

-
Image
If an ex-offender finds a job upon exiting prison, research shows that his or her chances of going back to jail are significantly reduced saving the $50,000 a year it costs a state to incarcerate an individual. With that in mind, Belay Enterprises' latest start-up New Beginnings Custom Woodworks employs and job-trains ex-offenders like Patrick Stewart in a faith-based cabinet shop venture t hat was recently profiled on 9News and in the Denver Post . "I got out of jail 9 years ago, but was unable to find a job because of my past offense," Patrick says. "It was only when New Beginnings was willing to take a chance on me was I able to get off welfare and start supporting my family."  Before starting at New Beginnings, Patrick had never built anything before. Now he's become an expert in crafting beautiful custom cabinets. "At one point in my life, I was just empty flesh walking around," he told the Denver Post , "Now, I have
Read more

For a long time there has been a hole in international development and business as mission in the area of sales training.

-
I was excited to be introduced to the Whitten & Roy Partnership recently over lunch by one of its consultants. There are so many great organizations implementing ideas in the developing world that are not realizing their full marketing potential because of a lack of training in sales tactics or a sub-par sales plan. I've had many long conversations with a sales professional friend discussing the need for high-quality help in this area. A well thought out sales approach in developing communities can even be a force for bringing about systematic change in disadvantaged communities: This company is redefining sales tactics for the base of the pyramid SAN FRANCISCO — Scott Roy, co-founder of an international sales consultancy, was doing research for a potential client in Cambodia when he heard about a sales tactic he found appalling. A team tasked with selling toilets to families would roll into villages with a set of latrine components. In order to close th
Read more