Faithventure Forum

My friend Chris Horst is becoming a prolific writer with the publication of his newest book, " Entrepreneurship for Human Flourishing ," co-authored with Peter Greer. This compact book provides an extremely powerful argument that business entrepreneurship enables human flourishing for the poor far better than charity. The book shares a mix of stories from entrepreneurs around the world making the case that business development creates opportunities for better lives. I must admit I am a bit biased because the book focuses a few pages on our newest Belay Enterprises ' project, Purple Door Coffee , lead by Madison Chandler and Mark Smesrud. It's fun to see their hard work and great results for homeless young adults get highlighted. Overall this book is perfect for individuals exploring entrepreneurship as a way to create opportunity for the disadvantaged. Get your own copy of the book here .

I am always impressed by how successful entrepreneurs share the ability to calmly solve big problems. They understand that you don't have to have it all figured out ahead of time but you do have to have confidence in your ability to come up with solutions. That is something our educational system needs to do a better job of developing. We learn at a very young age that mastery of information and detailed preparation is the best route to career success. But this creates a culture that is afraid to take risks unless one has it all figured out in advance. Our society would create a lot more quality jobs if we trained individuals better to use information to confidently solve problems…not to hide from them. If you want to start a new venture, develop your confidence muscles. Learn to trust that every problem creates new opportunities and that you have what it takes to find a solution.

I met with a fellow social enterprise practitioner today for lunch. Our discussion reminded me how easy it is for venture ideas to morph and grow when you inhabit the social enterprise space. The realities of chasing grant funding and the hip social enterprise idea combined with an entrepreneur's inherrent love of ideas can quickly transform a simple idea into a complicated to execute grand vision.  So simplify, simplify, simplify. And I am speaking to myself. Don't let the allure of the exciting take you off course from the basic value proposition you bring to the social enterprise market. And if you are patient in pursuing you niche, you will be pleasantly surprised later with how close you get to your grand vision when you focus on your part.

This post from Norm Brodsky is wise, wise, wise. I have consistently seen this reality in action in the various faith venture projects that Belay Enterprises has been involved with over the years.  There is a great temptation to overestimate the volume of sales and under price the value of the product you are offering.  Resist the urge to see your product or service as a commodity and instead promote its true value. When you become a commodity, you lose. It's very hard to make profits from volume at the start or in the long run. There's a funny thing about entrepreneurs: They're often way too optimistic about sales and way too pessimistic about prices. I've witnessed this phenomenon many times over the years, most recently in two women with whom I've been working. A few months ago, Carey Balogh and Julia Dawson opened a play space for kids near my home in Brooklyn, New York. It's called Frolic, and it offers classes, birthday parties, a bout...

Over the years, I've seen that in the area of start-ups there are three types of people: Those who start things, those who want to do it but fear it, and those for whom starting isn't ever seen as a possibility.  America was founded by people who were willing to take the risk of getting into a boat and creating a new future. Today, we have become a culture largely afraid to risk. We tend to fall into the last 2 categories of people; we either fail to start because of fear, collapsing into a state of paralysis by analysis, or we don't realize starting is something we can all do.  In my experience, risk is not an either/or decision. It's something we all need to face daily in our lives whether starting up a business, interacting with others, or working for someone else. Today's world reward people who are willing to be creative in all areas of their lives and who are not afraid to act. Paradoxically, our culture is permeated by fear at...

One way to inspire creativity in an organization is to declare a new goal. Late last year, we decided to move Belay’s aim from incubating a specific number of businesses in 5 years to creating 750 jobs for individuals rebuilding lives in 5 years . We wanted to drill down to the fundamental value our organization provides the Denver community. On the face of it, the old goal and the new goal accomplish the same ends. But the new focus has resulted in an interesting new idea as it has captured the imagination of key stakeholders. Over the last two weeks, I have had a former board member, Scott Pope, and two individuals from Partners Worldwide independently suggest the same idea. They urged us to encourage Christian business owners to create two or more positions in their existing businesses for ex-offenders. Scott Pope is so excited about the idea that he has volunteered to develop the strategic plan for such an effort. I’m enthusiastic about this approach. It is a way to push ...

If you are an idea person and you are passionate about creating opportunity for ex-offenders, you could win $25,000. Some friends of mine with a passion for employing individuals rebuilding lives from prison in the New York City area are hosting a unique contest with the potential to impact thousands of ex-offenders in the future. And you don't need to write a business plan. All you have to do is fill out an online idea submission form describing your idea, the problem it solves, the customers, and the competition. But you need to hurry. The deadline is February 15, 2010. More details are available at www.ideasforimpact.com .

One of the biggest challenges to success as a faith venture entrepreneur is finding the right balance between focusing on your core business while enabling an environment the encourages creative freedom in search of the next venture opportunity. By nature, entrepreneurs are super creative people that are prone to problems with focus. I have met very few successful entrepreneurs who didn't fit the criteria of attention deficit disorder. A fast mind that is prone to skip around allows for creativity. But it needs to be controlled and disciplined. And the first step is realizing that Entrepreneurial ADD is real and best handled by focused business planning. Dr. Jeff Cornwall explores tips from Scott Belsky as preventive solutions for EADD in his blog post " An Antidote for Entrepreneurial ADD :" Belsky's approach offers three key steps (more than that would overwhelm anyone with EADD):    1. Hire killjoys .  One of our partners played this role for us.  He tend...

Over the last 11 years at Belay Enterprises , I have had the opportunity to write and review numerous business plans for possible faith venture enterprises. They all seek to create opportunity for individuals or communities rebuilding lives. This morning, I had the chance to review a business plan draft for an exciting faith venture in a different community. I am also facing two looming decisions related to a new Belay business and the expansion of an existing one. In all three cases, I’m reminded of the importance of the following four items to any faith venture business plan: It’s important to answer this question up front: Is it a for-profit or non-profit business? Either structure will work but there are definitely pros and cons to each possibility with resulting ramifications for the business plan. It’s often very complicated and difficult to try a hybrid of the two. Faith venture practitioners tend to be passionate about the mission side of the venture and the resulting busin...

I have a friend who used to broker private business sales. He would help entrepreneurs sell their companies to new owners. Unfortunately for those new buyers, industry statistics showed that less than 50% would succeed in their new business. The entrepreneurial “secret sauce” of the former owner, honed over many years of hard work and learning by trial and error, wouldn’t always replicate in the new owner and the business would find itself failing. This idea of entrepreneurial secret sauce started me thinking about what are the necessary ingredients for someone to succeed in a faith venture start-up that seeks to employ individuals or communities rebuilding lives? Someone asked me today how I determining who to hire to lead one of our urban business as mission projects. Without a doubt, I look for six key ingredients in such a person: A Love of Sales and Marketing If someone is going to succeed in building a new venture, they have to know how to succeed in sales. This is non-negotiab...

Kathleen Murray’s blog “ Out and Employed ” is worth following if you’re interested in ex-offender issues. She recently highlighted some key findings of a 2008 study by the Brookings Institution on ex-offender re-entry issues. In the discussion paper she reviews, Bruce Western, a professor of sociology at Harvard University, argues for the creation of a national prisoner reentry program . While I am unsure about the value of a national government program attempting such an ambitious undertaking, I am convinced that high-quality community-based transitional employment combined with transitional housing is one of the most effective ways to impact poor urban communities. I have four concerns with a national government program: the destruction of natural wages by such large pools of government run labor, the resulting unfair competition with private businesses, the political unpopularity of such a program, and the unwieldiness of administrating large groups of ex-offenders in depersonaliz...

I'm probably the last person to have discovered this excellent video from the 2008 Willow Creek Leadership Summit. What if followers of Christ, answered the call with their unique talents? In keeping with the faith venture theme of this blog, what if Christ-following entrepreneurs used their specialized gifts on behalf of the poor and disadvantaged? Enjoy it here on YouTube.

Seth Godin pointed out the short documentary Lemonade in his blog yesterday. It's an inspiring look at how individuals have rebuilt their lives after unexpectedly losing their jobs. I really enjoyed it because it's a reminder about the power of optimism, ideas, and can-do entrepreneurial spirit. Spend 35 minutes, watch it here and jump-start your creative mind. Imagine the power that can be unleashed on behalf of disadvantaged communities if we can inspire this type of activity by or on behalf of people rebuilding lives from addiction, homelessness or prison. As I've written before, entrepreneurship is one of the best routes to self-sufficiency for ex-offenders . And urban business as mission ventures are also powerful ways to create jobs and training for individuals otherwise shut-out of the employment world because of past mistakes. I pray others will catch this vision for creating opportunity in the name of Christ for individuals society often judges as undeserving of...

Last month, I had the pleasure of presenting with Rudy Carrasco of Partners Worldwide at the Christian Community Development Association conference in Cincinnati. Our workshop was an introductory presentation on Business as Mission (BAM) with a look at both the theory and the practical application of the movement in an urban setting. It’s now been a month later. Here are some thoughts related to the workshop: Urban Ministries are interested in BAM Without a doubt, there is a growing interest in the area of applying business as mission to urban settings. The current recession has emphasized the need and value of employment-based job training programs. It’s not enough to just provide job-training and job placement services. Urban communities and organizations also need sustainable vehicles of employment in order to help individuals with severe barriers to employment, such as felony conviction, homelessness, or addiction, succeed in the workplace. The large number of attendees at our work...

Over the last few years, I have been involved in several discussions about how to encourage people to use their gifts in service for God. Inevitably, the conversations turn to Paul’s writings in 1 Corinthians 12 and Romans 12 about the types and roles of spiritual gifts in the kingdom. More often then not, these discussions take place in the context of how these gifts can be used to build up an individual church. I believe that this inadvertently makes the Gospel too small and overlooks Jesus’ own stated mission of coming to build the kingdom of God. After 10 years in urban business as mission, one area that excites me the most about building faith ventures is the enthusiasm such an approach unleashes in Christ-following business people. It opens a whole new realm of service for particular followers of Christ in the church whose gifts and talents have sometimes felt unneeded by the local church. My recent participation in Partners Worldwide’s annual gathering in early October reiterat...

For the last 10 years, I have been working in the challenging world of business as mission at Belay Enterprises . Someone recently asked me what would make up my list of five important lessons for a faith venture. As a reminder, I define a faith venture as a for-profit or non-profit business that creates employment and opportunity for a disadvantaged population. In no particular order, here’s my list: 1. Let the business lead the ministry - A faith venture has two bottom lines. It seeks business profits in order to support itself and grow. It also hopes to change lives by accomplishing its ministry. The great danger is that sometimes these two goals conflict with each other. In certain cases pursuing the mission will cost the mission and vice versa. I believe that if one is pursuing a Christ-centered business then all of business is ministry. So it then becomes acceptable to let the business lead the ministry because without a focus on the bottom-line this unique ministry opportunity d...

>A couple of years ago, my friend Eric Swanson of Leadership Network suggested the online Business Career Interest Inventory test as a tool to determine an individual’s entrepreneurial aptitude. I am a big believer that entrepreneurial aptitude is necessary for someone to succeed and enjoy the difficult work involved in developing a faith venture business. If you are thinking about starting such a social enterprise, a good starting point might be to invest 30 minutes to find out how you score. It’s free and it provides an analysis of your results.

Over the last few months, there has been a growing movement celebrating entrepreneurship as the engine to restart the economy. At Faithventure Forum, we believe in business creation as the way to create opportunities for individuals and communities rebuilding lives. This You Tube video from Grasshopper.com provides inspiration for both:

In the past, I have explored the differences between organizing a faith venture business as a non-profit or a for-profit entity . Both of these organizational structures have definite advantages and disadvantages. For organizations exploring a non-profit business venture, I am frequently questioned over the issue of unrelated business income tax (UBIT). The UBIT tax applies to income earned in activities not “substantially related” to the charity’s exempt purpose. Thrift store operations are automatically exempt. But other business activities need to be designed to actively incorporate the charity’s mission or else to allow room in the budget for UBIT tax expenses. As is often the case with IRS organizational issues, the definition of “substantially related” has some gray areas that need to be explored. These difficulties arise when organizations see the business as primarily an income generating enterprise to support other charitable activities. But, overall, the UBIT tax is not to be...

Bob and I took a short journey across town to visit a competitor yesterday. This is one way of measuring our performance. This particular store didn’t even exist when Bud’s started so it’s great to now have a competitor by which to compare our organization. Going in the front door, I joked with Bob about how long it would take until we saw one of our customers. We opened the door and we were greeted by one of our customers walking out. We saw another customer sitting on a couch messing with his blackberry. Bob and I sat down on opposite sides next to him. “This is a shakedown,” I said. He looked up shocked like he was a child who had just been caught with his hand in the cookie jar and then laughed. “What are you doing here?” he asked. And then he explained how he was just at our store like he needed to justify what was going on. We are going to invite him to a future focus group to learn more about our business. When this particular store opened, we worried about its impact on our sal...