Belay Enterprises: Incubating Business as Mission for Individuals Rebuilding Lives

-
Belay Enterprises was started by Mile High Ministries in 1994 by a group of businessmen and urban pastors with a heart towards business as ministry. The faith venture organized itself around the mission of partnering with the local church to create businesses that employ and job train individuals rebuilding lives from addiction, prison and homelessness.

Out of this vision, Belay launched in 1995 its first faith venture Bud’s Warehouse, a home-improvement thrift store selling recycled building materials to support a career and life-skills training program. During the past 16 years, Bud’s Warehouse has been a favorite destination for bargain hunters, receiving frequent media coverage for both its products and its mission. Because of the tremendous community support, Belay Enterprises has been able to incubate several additional Faith Venture projects.

In 2002, Belay expanded on the thrift store concept by opening Baby Bud’s, a maternity, baby and toddler products thrift store that employs disadvantaged single mothers. A few years later, Belay started Freedom Cleaning Services, a commercial cleaning company that also employs single mothers. Baby Bud’s and Freedom Cleaning Services were spun off into their own non-profit organization in 2009.

These projects were followed in late 2003 by the incubation of the Good Neighbor Garage, a job training and car placement program, which has since also incorporated into its own independent organization.

As Belay Enterprises enters its 17th year, it plans to continue using its resources to start new faith ventures. After these programs become self-sustaining, the organization will spin them off into their own entities and then refocus resources on future start-ups.Over the next 5 years, Belay Enterprises is aiming to create 750 employment and job training positions a year.

In 2011, Belay plans to open a cabinet manufacturing and training business for ex-offenders out of its Bud’s Warehouse project. Additionally, the organization is exploring opening a second Bud’s Warehouse location, starting a new mattress recycling business, and incubating a bakery employment and training program.

Finally, Belay wants to develop a Faith Venture Fund over the next few years.The organization plans to recruit experienced business leaders to work alongside Belay to identify, launch and provide mentor support of promising new ventures.

Belay believes in the positive power of faith ventures on behalf of disadvantaged communities. It partners with talented Christ-following entrepreneurs looking for opportunities to use their gifts and talents on behalf of individuals rebuilding lives.

For more information, please contact Belay Enterprises at 303-296-3990 or visit its website at www.belay.org.

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