As a young entrepreneur, I decided to liquidate my car rental agency. When a used car dealer offered to buy three of my cars, I was so excited. He asked to meet on Saturday afternoon, after the bank was closed. He gave me a convincing story and a special kind of check that he promised the bank would cash on ...
In this series, we’re highlighting the enemies of building trust in your business. The final enemy is lack of transparency. Long ago, I went into a men’s clothing store that had no price tags on any of the clothes. While I was shopping, a man asked the owner of the store, “How much are these pants?” The owner quoted him ...
In this series, we’re highlighting the enemies of building trust in your business. The third enemy is omissions. Many businesses had business interruption insurance prior to Covid. Unfortunately, very few companies collected on their policy due to insurance companies refusing to pay for financial losses related to the virus. Many insurance companies lost goodwill with their customers by not communicating ...
In this series, we’re highlighting the enemies of building trust in your business. The second enemy is lies. We were buying a software product for the ministry. It was very important to us that this new software communicate well with another software that we already used daily. Working hard for his commission, the salesperson assured us that they had just ...
Imagine discovering a video of yourself saying horrible things that could easily destroy your reputation and your business while knowing it’s not you. Unfortunately, artificial intelligence now makes it possible for your enemies or competitors to be able to produce what is called a “deep fake” video. Recently, a TikTok video of Dolly Parton went viral, then was abruptly shut ...
Some borrowers who seemed to have strong ethics when I loaned them money suddenly became unethical when they felt they had no choice but to lie or cheat. One retail business owner talked about how important his word was to him. But when the owner’s business was failing, I caught him in several lies and discovered him selling our collateral ...
In this series, we are looking at five traits common to successful entrepreneurs. Today’s trait is Loving Accountability. Holding ourselves and our partners accountable is essential in launching a startup business. Successful entrepreneurs constantly monitor progress towards the goal, identify shortcomings and demand action to address root causes. Ephesians 4:15 tells us to speak the truth in love. The unconventional ...
If you’re like me, you have likely allowed words to escape your lips that have caused far greater harm to someone else than you considered. A word of gossip, or a critical word, can undermine the credibility or reputation of the one you mentioned. When we learn of something said about us personally, it can cut us to the core, ...
Pastor Joe was surprised when the bank informed him that his bookkeeper was stealing money from the church. The bookkeeper was a recent widow struggling financially. When confronted with her crime, the Church’s bookkeeper was devastated with regret. She quickly agreed to a repayment plan. At great sacrifice, every month she made payments to repay the debt. Eventually the elders ...
Many companies have embraced tying their product to a noble cause by making charitable donations when their sales volume increases. Others have tied worker productivity to their philanthropy as well. Stephan Meier, a professor at Columbia Business School, however, has discovered that corporate philanthropy tied to worker productivity can sometimes backfire. An Economic Journal study discovered that when worker productivity ...
Equipping Others to Do Work Differently
