How did Jesus build the family business - Reflections 04 - His Leadership Team

THEY WILL KNOW WE ARE CHRISTIANS BY OUR LOVE

DISCLAIMER. I do not profess to speak for God. Everyone's relationship with their God and their godself is personal. You were endowed with your creator with free-will. It is for you to decide the relevance to you of my words.

Biblical Source

These are the twelve he appointed: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter. James son of Zebedee and his brother John (to them he gave the name Boanerges, which means Sons of Thunder. Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot [Mark 3: 16-18]

Observations:

I am fascinated, not only by the who, but also the how. As a successful carpenter Jesus would naturally have interacted with fishermen, since they would have been thriving businessmen in the Galilee of the time. Armed with his vision "Come, follow me,...and I will make you fishers of men." he gets them to leave a presumably thriving business on a bigger mission - to carry a message of Love. How powerful is that?

Business relevance:

As the president has his cabinet, successful people have their mentors, businesses have their Leadership teams. Many business owners I encounter choose to believe that they are their business. In that sense they then do become their business and it can get very lonely. More to the point, how is it supposed to survive and flourish when its creator is not there - for any reason.

Jesus instead built to last. From the beginning he selected and inspired leaders. While I have been unable to identify the professional qualifications of all the members of his team (can anybody help me out?) , one story stands out to me.

'Jesus, while teaching, encountered a tax collector (known as Matthew by some, Levi by others) and asked him to become a disciple. M/L accepted and invited Jesus for a meal with his friends. Since tax collectors were seen as villains in the society Jesus was a part of he was asked why he was having a meal with such disreputable people. I love his reply. "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners" [Mark 2:17].'

This story leads me to believe his team was selected from a variety of professions, a variety of social strata, and, most importantly, in touch with and from the target audience. Not for Jesus was the corner office, the ivory tower, the security cordon. How can anyone connect when they choose to be disconnected?

Oh, and by the way, this trait is a trait shared by the greatest creators of lasting value endeavors. Buddha, Mohammed, Ghandi, Mother Teresa, the Dalhai Lhama. The list goes on. Name your own.

If it was good enough for God, shouldn't it be God enough for us? Pass it on.

God Blessed You - Please Take Action On His Blessings

How do YOU define wealthy

As the founder of M7Enterprises, with a mission "to build health wealth and wealth health in the communities we serve" I have frequently been asked to define wealth. In a recent Master Mind session with Joe Schroeder and my Million Mind March colleagues the following definitions were postulated:

1. You are wealthy when you have a harsh resistance both to laziness and to a lack of momentous increase.

2. You are wealthy when you can become more life, inspire more life, sell more life.

3. You are wealthy when you are in progressive forward motion toward acquiring the luxury of environment.

4. You are wealthy when you have the freedom to express yourself naturally and add lucid and concentrated value to thousands of lives.

5. You are wealthy when you believe that you don't have to get it right, you just have to get it going.

I wanted to share them further since I found them applicable to wealth in all its forms - spiritual, health, financial etc.

Please feel free to contact me with any additional insights.

Is your business cashflow clogged. Thinking of banks, venture capital? ... There is another way!

Historically, when businesses are in need of cash they have turned to traditional funding sources. The most common of which being a bank loan or line of credit. Many otherwise viable companies are, however, turned down by conventional lenders due to their limited credit history, lack of personal or corporate net worth, excessive outstanding debt or their assets being encumbered by liens. This is especially true in their first four years of business, which is, coincidentally, their time of greatest growth.

When these newer businesses must seek other financing, the next most common option is the search for venture capital. This may be as simple as taking on a silent partner, or locating an active partner through so-called ‘Angel Capital’ networks. In this case the owner is selling a piece of their business and their control in exchange for working capital.

Both the use of banks and of venture capitalists create debt and involve a decision process that is based on the companies credit-worthiness and can take anywhere from 60 to 180 days to secure funding, during which the owners’ focus may be taken away from their core business.

The good news is that the above-mentioned funding sources are not the only options. There is another way. Record numbers of fast growing companies are turning to funding sources offering alternative programs to solve critical cash flow problems, problems that can effect or prevent contract execution, business and/or facilities expansion, meeting payroll, taking advantage of cash discounts on purchases and even for acquisitions.

One example of such a program is the selling of a company’s interest in invoices to a private funding source at a discount, which is known as a factoring. Factoring’s roots are in the garment and textile industries, however, since the 1990s there has been a rapid growth in such factoring companies – resulting in increased price competition and making this form of increasing working capital efficiency available to small to medium sized businesses in nearly all industries that may not qualify for traditional loans or grants.

The most important aspect of this method of financing is that the credit criteria are based not on the company’s ability to pay but instead on the credit worthiness of their clients. Through the utilization of this method of financing these businesses can compete for large contracts and business that might otherwise have been beyond their reach.

Consider, for example, the case of a manufacturing company purchasing the raw materials for production on a just-in-time basis. Its sales department is rapidly increasing orders, the manufacturing division is cranking out the product and the freight handler is delivering the orders on time. If the customers, however, are not paying in a timely manner, this will result in a large portion, if not all, of the cash flow being tied up in receivables and therefore limiting growth.

In cases such as this, the businesses are turned down by traditional lenders due to their lack of lienable hard assets and they find themselves searching for the funds needed to continue their growth.

By using the services of a factor they can get what amounts to a continuously expanding line of credit, continue to take on and fill orders, and expand as planned. By combining their bank line of credit with this factoring line of credit, a business can be optimally positioned to take advantage of opportunities that present themselves in their marketplace and therefore accelerate their growth.

If you know a business that is experiencing clogged cash flow call me at 610-781-2392 or email prp@m7enterprises.biz because adding value is what we do.