When we face the King of Kings we want to acknowledge we maximized our lives, talents and gifts for His glory. We don’t want to lay at his feet ribbons, from grade school successes, but Olympic medals. As we pursue doing business with God, picture business from an Olympic perspective – how you can scale the business to reproduce it in others who can use the foundation you’ve laid to make an impact in places beyond your own reach.
Ten Reasons Why Big Can Be Better
- The Glory of God. The bigger the light, the taller the lampstand, the more likely it is people are going to see it. A large company has more opportunities to be “seen” and thus more opportunities to model and share the Good News.
- A larger firm can say “full-service” and really mean it. While it’s common for small businesses to claim they are full-service, to be honest it’s difficult for firms with less than 25-30 employees. The ability to advertise and then deliver on it has a significant impact the businesses’ positioning because it allows clients to use you for a full integration of services needed.
- Impact on lives. The more employees the more opportunities to model, share, and disciple people – to pass on the DNA of the Gospel. In addition, your human resources are greatly increased enabling you to do more impactful services within the community.
- Bigger firms can afford to have employees wear fewer hats, which means that individuals can focus their efforts and develop greater expertise at their job. In football terms, this means that the employee moves from being a utility player who has multiple jobs to the status of a starter – a positon player, such as a running back or linebacker.
- Being larger means clients are more likely to believe that you can be trusted with larger projects, and you’ll likely be doing those projects in the context of a deeper relationship. This brings respectability within the community as well as with clients. In turn this will yield a better understanding of what the client really needs and how to deliver what s/he wants.
- Bigger companies appeal to some employees, interns and apprentices too, because there’s a career ladder with more rungs on it. This keeps them motivated and engaged over a longer period of time, which means that you can attract and keep great employees and benefit from their expertise.
- Validity. A larger firm is more likely to be hailed as a valuable asset to the community by government leaders. This often leads to favor with the government and works against fundamentalists who may wish to shut you down.
- Being larger affords economies of scale in training employees and giving benefits like health insurance. This is a blessing to your staff. Instead of both the actual and the opportunity costs, bigger businesses can spend less money and expose more workers the same training or benefits for less cost.
- Owning a larger firm will make it easier for you to get away for extended periods of time. Since the increased volume of work that accompanies a larger firm requires some level of institutionalization, you can spread the work around. It’s not that big of an adjustment to fill in the gaps when the owner leaves.
- Running a larger firm means that you can safely step away from doing the daily work of the business to building and leading the enterprise. This gives you time to ensure the DNA of the business is impacting lives both inside the business and out.
Perhaps you have additional reasons for scaling a B4T business. Tell me your ideas in the comments below.
PATRICK LAI and his family have worked in SE Asia for over 37 years. His experience in doing business with Jesus has brought him to understand the meaning of work and worship in the marketplace. He started 14 businesses in four countries, six of which are still operating. Patrick and his wife, May, mentor and coach businesspeople working where there are few or no Christians. Check out Patrick’s latest book, Workship, now available in paperback and e-book.