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Christ Like Businesses

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To Profit or Not To Profit…That Is the Question

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I recently heard an NPR interview (link to article) about the economics of streaming music services like Pandora and Spotify. These services have been screaming from the roof tops that they aren’t making money, so they need to pay lower royalties. The trouble is, they actually pay about the same percent of their income in royalties as Walmart pays for its inventory. In other words, the cost of the music isn’t the problem.

In fact, economist Jeff Eisenach points out:

companies like Pandora and Spotify are making a lot of money — they’re just using it to target new audiences rather than putting it in the bank and calling it a profit

Non-Profit World

K_Lewis-Infographic-web-620x2888Now let’s add in this nice little infographic (link to original) from ChurchMag. This is a summary of a TED talk by Dan Pallotta, and it points out that for-profit companies often have more flexibility to invest in their future, build for growth, and even lose money for longer periods of time than a non-profit. So the non-profit world can suffer from the lemonade stand syndrome. A lemonade stand has almost no overhead, but also has very little reach or earning potential. The requirement for razor-thin overhead can limit the reach, effectiveness, and scale of non-profit services and fundraising.

But let’s be honest: non-profits do have their advantages. They have tax advantages. They have perception advantages (have you ever donated money to a for-profit business because it made you feel good?). The key point, though, is that “overhead” can be both good and bad for a non-profit. If an administrator is getting overpaid to do very little work, it’s bad. If the organization is expanding to serve new people groups in new locations in new ways, that’s good and it’s going to take money. If the organization is serving in a corrupt part of the world, it’s going to take money to hire trustworthy staff to oversee the project.

A Third Way: Profit to Serve

I am a huge fan of Kiva.org (link to website). For the uninitiated, Kiva partners with micro lending organizations around the world to help small businesses, co-ops, and individuals get ahead. People like me lend money online through Kiva and through their partner lenders, and then the loan gets repaid. For example, I recently lent $25 to a man in Lebanon to expand his furniture business. I also lent $25 to a group of women in Peru to help them expand their various businesses. Here’s a link to my Kiva portfolio. Here’s the kicker: because the loans have a very high repayment rate, I have spent $110 to loan out $400. And that’s even with donating 10% to Kiva to help them cover their costs (which is optional).

Kiva isn’t perfect. The micro lenders they partner with charge high interest rates because of the risk. But since it’s a non-profit (Kiva) working with for-profit partners (micro lenders), my donation dollars have stretched almost four times further than a straight-up gift.

There are other ways of using for-profit businesses to do good in the world. Some companies like Tom’s Shoes (link to website) and One Laptop Per Child (link to website) donate one of their products to a place in need for every one they sell in the developed world. LSTN Headphones (link to website) helps restore one person’s hearing for every pair of headphones they sell. Or how about Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles (link to website), which helps current gang members become former gang members? They believe that “Nothing stops a bullet like a job.”

Expand Your Possibilities

If you are thinking about using your workday to serve someone in the name of Christ, expand your possibilities. You can be a non-profit, with all the benefits and obligations that entails. But you can also be a profit-to-serve company, with all the benefits and obligations that entails. Neither approach will work in every circumstance.

If you are already in the non-profit world, can you have the audacity to propose expanding your reach even if it increases overhead? You’ll face an uphill climb, but tell the story and see what happens.

Remember the story of the Israelites after leaving Egypt. They were about to build the Tabernacle to house the Arc of the Covenant, and so they needed skilled tradesmen. They needed people who had been successful in their trade. And so…

He has filled them with skill to do all kinds of work as engravers, designers, embroiderers in blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen, and weavers—all of them skilled workers and designers. (Exodus 35:35 – NIV)

Profit isn’t always evil. God can put profit to use. Overhead isn’t always evil. God can put overhead (especially investment in growth) to use. God has filled you with skill to do all kinds of work. Wield it well.

Discussion Starter

  • If you could solve one problem in the world, what would it be and why?
  • When have you seen profit be used for God’s purposes? Against God’s purposes?
  • When have you seen a non-profit’s overhead expenses be used for God’s purposes? Against God’s purposes?
  • If you were going to start an organization, would it be for-profit, non-profit, or profit-to-serve?

Who Do You Work For?

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In my role as discipleship pastor, I am tasked with overseeing, guiding, and evaluating the performance of other ministry workers. I have also performed this role as a computer programmer overseeing other computer programmers. This gets a little interesting around evaluation time.

I once read a great book titled First Break All The Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently. In this book, the authors claim that employees don’t generally leave companies. They leave managers. Have you ever had a great manager who inspired you and went to bat for you? Have you ever had a terrible manager who disrespected you or undermined you? Where does your current manager fall on the scale?

And so, when it comes time for evaluations, the biggest question of all is this: “who do you work for?” Who determines whether or not you did a good job? Who determines what your goals are over the next year? Who determines whether you get a raise or a thank you note?

The Bigger Answer

But the answer to this question is often bigger than it seems. For instance, who wins when work and family demand the same segment of time from you? What wins when you have doubts about what your company is doing? Is there a bigger answer to the question?

This reminds me of the scene from the movie Miracle that depicts the 1980 US men’s hockey team’s unlikely march to the gold medal. The coach, Herb Brooks, wants the players to get a new boss. He doesn’t want them to play for their school. He doesn’t want them to play for him. He wants them to play for The United States of America.

Herb Brooks knows that, unless they see the bigger picture, his team is toast.

So, getting beyond your direct manager, who do you work for? At the end of your day, at the end of your week, at the end of your year, at the end of your life…who will be on the other end of your evaluation meeting?

Working For God

Here are four scriptures that outline what it means to work for God:

Colossians 3:23 – Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. (NLT)

Ephesians 6:7 – Work with enthusiasm, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. (NLT)

Ecclesiastes 9:10 – Whatever you do, do well. For when you go to the grave, there will be no work or planning or knowledge or wisdom. (NLT)

Matthew 6:24 – No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. (NIV)

Basically, this is asking you to see God as your manager…as your boss. We will work differently for a manager we like or respect than for a manager we dislike or disrespect. In the same way, can you work differently for God since he has shown you what pleases him in the Bible?

How can you honor God with your work? What would it look like to have good marks on your annual evaluation meeting with God? What kinds of things would God place on your annual objectives?

Discussion Starter

  • How might God evaluate your work?
  • How might you honor God in your work?
  • What would God like to see from your work over the next year?
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Maximize God’s Profit

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A while back I read an article (link to article) about a Christian using his business to live out Biblical justice. He intentionally employs refugees at his Richmond Chick-fil-A.

“I remember [hearing from] a pastor whose congregation was made almost entirely of refugees from various African nations. I was humbled that the stranger and alien talked about in Deuteronomy were literally in my neighborhood and I didn’t know.” – Eric DeVriendt

My philosophy of Christian business is based around a simple phrase: “Maximize God’s profit without minimizing yours.” I believe DeVriendt is living into this philosophy. Let’s break it down.

Maximize God’s Profit…

Jesus tells a parable in Luke 12 that ends with this:

“But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.” – Luke 12:20-21

The key phrase for me is right at the end: “rich toward God.” Whose profit will you try to maximize? God’s or yours?

I’m going to guess that refugees aren’t in the business plan packet from Chick-fil-A’s corporate headquarters. It’s not easy work to identify, hire, train, and supervise refugees – even though many of them are educated and motivated. There are still major cultural differences and sometimes language barriers to work through. That’s time that could be spent growing the business in other ways. There might be some side benefits for the business, but DeVriendt’s primary motivation is to use his employment power to help people that the Bible says need helping.

When you’re willing to maximize God’s profit with your business, you’re willing to use your capacity to do God’s work. Notice that he didn’t change his core business – he just hired and invested in people who otherwise are forgotten.

…Without Minimizing Yours

Out of 67 employees, 13 are refugees. That’s a large number, but it’s not an unmanageable number. He didn’t hire 67 refugees.

Christian businesses are still businesses. If the Chick-fil-A doesn’t make a profit, those 13 refugees won’t be employed. Notice in the passage from Luke that Jesus talks about those who “store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.” He could have ended the sentence after “themselves.” I think Jesus is showing that it’s OK to profit in your business as long as you are maximizing God’s profit first.

Malachi 3:10 puts it like this:

Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in my house, and thus put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts; see if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you an overflowing blessing.

In other words, if you are willing to let God use your business to bless others, he won’t forget about you.

Now a word of caution here. I’m not saying that hiring refugees will prevent this Chick-fil-A from closing down. What I am saying is that God notices faithfulness. We can’t guarantee how he will notice this particular faithfulness, but he does notice.

Summary

  • Christian businesses can maximize God’s profit by using their opportunities to further God’s purposes
    • Ex: employment, employee relationships, stewardship of the planet, products that truly help people
  • Christian businesses should still generate profit, because otherwise they wouldn’t be able to make the world a better place
    • Ex: hiring some refugees instead of only refugees

So remember: “Maximize God’s profit without minimizing yours.”

Discussion Starters

  • What opportunities do you have to maximize God’s profit?
  • When have you seen someone else maximize God’s profit?