Ben's motto was "swing for the fence." That means that he wanted too much too soon in his business. Three years later, we were buying his assets from the bank at pennies on the dollar. He had created a bad business.
Mediocre leadership teams can run great businesses. But, a bad business will defeat even an excellent leadership team every time.
Ben's business was "bad" because he allowed one major customer to be responsible for all its growth.
A bad business is like lousy soil. No matter what you do, great fruit is not likely.
A bad business sucks up more capital than it produces. What are some attributes of a bad company? Like Ben's, it could be too dependent on one customer. Or its potential profits could be too far out from the initial outlays (the further out the sales, the more risky). It could be that a business gets caught in between competition.
A bad business startup happens when its owners/managers underestimate what it will take to survive until profitability.
There is risk in every business venture. But great entrepreneurs who maximize impact to bless their community and further their divine purpose minimize these risks.
There are three ways for Kingdom entrepreneurs to respond when they find themselves in a bad business:
Accept it
Change it
End it
Accept it
Most entrepreneurs called to make a difference and bless their community fall short of their highest call and merely accept their lousy soil. They eek along, not being a blessing to their team members or to the larger community. They do not know joy in their work, and each day becomes a grind. I say that they are stuck.
Change it
One of the exciting things about business, you must constantly enrich your soil. Changing the soil involves turning it and fertilizing it. There is never a time to "coast”. Your business (soil) is either:
diving
surviving
striving
thriving
It may be that this takes the most extraordinary measures of courage and divine unction. But, with the right moves, change can be initiated, encouraged, and sustained. When this happens, everybody wins!
End it
Ending a bad business also takes courage, especially when the path forward is unclear. It is when no good alternatives show themselves that uncertainty becomes daunting. Pulling the plug can be a divine decision. Sometimes ending one season of life is necessary for the next one to show up.
To help you determine the soil of your business, I have created the Cultivating Impact Business Impact Plan, Seed, Sunshine, Soil, Harvest. It is designed to help you clarify your business concept, market, customers, and competition. FREE DOWNLOAD CLICK HERE
Let me know if my thoughts help.
Harry T. Jones
P.S. Don't forget my free resource, Business Impact Plan, Seed, Sunshine, Soil, Harvest.
*Like all my stories, Ben's story is real; his name and some particulars are changed to protect him.
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