So far so good….
So far so good….
Despite these rather troubling economic times, our business venture is surviving. We have had some scary slow periods, but we are hanging in there, with God’s grace. We have known for some time now that we needed to hire a good Sales Manager, but to be honest the slow economy caused us to be torn about whether it was wise to hire anyone right now. On the one hand, it is one more “mouth to feed”, and unlike some companies, once an employee makes a commitment to us, we do our best to remain committed to them. On the other hand, we can’t just sit back and hope (and pray) new business will continue walking through the door on its own forever. It is actually quite amazing we get as much business as we do given the fact we have virtually zero marketing effort.
Ultimately, we decided to move forward with our efforts to hire a Sales Manager. We have elected to take a leap of faith (again), and see this economy as an opportunity to retool and relaunch. We identified a strong candidate who suggested (on his own) to work on 100% commission, so this eases the risk factor for us. I know this candidate has the right skills and knowledge to do the job effectively. The question is whether they will buy-in to the “Businestry” concept and feel passionate enough about our missions calling to properly represent us with customers. Please pray for our business and this candidate as we both make a difficult decision.
Meanwhile, my PhD studies are going excitingly well. I have already identified a number of parallel avenues which can support my “Business-Ministry” concept. For example, I studied the concept of “Workplace Spirituality”, which recognizes the need of business to appeal to employees’ self fulfillment needs in the workplace. Strangely enough, the concept of Workplace Spirituality purposefully avoids religious connotations. In fact, one article I read about called such a thing “clearly inappropriate”. I also did some reading about “Social Franchises”, which is when a charitable organization owns and operates a franchise in order to raise money. In many ways, this is similar to my concept of a “Businestry”.
Please continue to pray for God’s guidance as I pursue this calling. Thank you all for your support.
