E-book that will help you avoid foolish mistakes

Most people who know me are aware that I've written several books primarily related to bivocational and small church ministry. Most people don't know I've also written an e-book on business. It's titled Mistakes: Avoiding the Wrong Decisions That Will Close Your Small Business.  It's currently only available for NOOK devices.

Over twenty years ago our family took ownership of a successful small business that we operated for fifteen years. The business was very successful for the first few years, but for a number of reasons we were forced to close that business a few years ago. Most of those reasons were due to mistakes I made managing the business. When the economy was strong my mistakes didn't matter as much, but when the economy tanked those mistakes were costly. I learned a lot about leadership and business management from the mistakes I made, and I wrote the book to help others avoid the same mistakes.

There are many similarities in leading a small business and leading a small church. While there are obvious differences, there are transferable principles that apply to both. Some of the mistakes I made leading our business can also cause great damage to a church.

Owning a small business can be a very good situation for a bivocational pastor. When I was a bivocational pastor and worked in a factory I was expected to be at work 40 hours a week on the shift I was assigned to. After retiring from the factory and taking ownership of the business my hours were much more flexible. This made it much easier for me to do funerals and meet other ministry needs.

Our business also gave me opportunities to minister to people who did not attend church. People soon learned I was a minister and it was interesting what people were willing to share with a stranger, especially if they were hurting. This continues to happen for me when people call me needing an auctioneer.

Recently, a woman called saying she needed to sell some items at auction. I went to look at what she had, and in our conversation I explained that I was a minister. It turned out she was going through a lot of personal issues that was causing her emotional and physical problems. There were spiritual issues as well. I was able to minister to her and to recommend a good church in that community that she should visit.

Not long ago I had a discussion with a Christian realtor who told me he has had numerous opportunities to minister to people who contacted him to either sell or buy a house. Like me, he feels this is part of what it means for a Christian to be in business.

Owning your own business is a dream for many people, but it can also be a nightmare. A large percentage of small businesses fold within the first five years of their existence. Most of those failures can be traced back to poor leadership and mistakes that can be avoided. If you currently own a small business or are thinking of starting one, you may want to invest in this e-book. Right now it's for sale for only $4.99. Since many of these principles are transferable into church leadership, you may want to read this book even if you're not involved in your own business.

What can I do if I need to become bivocational?

Every few weeks I receive a phone call from a pastor who is concerned about the finances of his or her church. This concern is often centered on the prospect that he or she will be asked to become bivocational. The pastor usually has some questions about what that looks like. It's not uncommon for the pastor to state that he or she really doesn't know what else they can do. In some cases, ministry is all they've ever done.  After high school they went to college and then on to seminary to prepare for ministry. Other than summer jobs they've never worked in anything but ministry-related work.

Sometimes I am able to help them identify some ministry skills they have that might be transferable to other employment. One pastor told me his major in college was education and his original career choice was to be a teacher until God called him into ministry. I asked him why he couldn't become a teacher if his church did ask him to be bivocational. At the very least, he could probably find steady work as a substitute teacher, and if this was something he enjoyed it could work out very well for him and the church.

Although it doesn't work for everyone, being self-employed can be a great option for a bivocational minister. It certainly allows the minister to have more flexible hours that allows him or her to be more accessible to the church when needed. The articles I post nearly every day on Facebook are usually divided between being ministry related and small business related. The reason I do this is that I am interested in both subjects, and I know many of my readers are owners of small businesses.

Often, a bivocational minister will find that a hobby or interest can become the springboard to a successful small business. For several years I have enjoyed going to auctions and buying antiques and collectibles that I resell on E-bay or in my booths in a local antique mall and in a flea market mall. That interest led me to become a licensed auctioneer, and I now have an auction business in addition to my ministry.  I would caution anyone thinking about turning a hobby or interest into a business to read The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It. This classic will explain some of the challenges that small business owners have to overcome when starting a new business. You may also want to read an e-book I wrote titled Mistakes: Avoiding the Mistakes that Will Close Your Small Business.   That book describes the mistakes I made that forced us to have to close a small business that we owned and the lessons I learned from those mistakes.  After reading these two books if you still feel ready to start a small business you are more likely to be successful.

While transitioning from being a fully-funded pastor to a bivocational one is never an easy transition it will give you opportunities to meet new people and minister to them in ways that serving in a church will not. For instance, a lady called me one evening saying she had to hand over the keys to a house she had sold in a few days and could not move everything into her much smaller apartment. She didn't know what to do and was advised to call me. I was able to take her extra items and sell them at auction. Not only did she not have to worry about what to do with her extra furniture, she also received a nice check to help with her moving expenses. During the course of our conversation I had the opportunity to let her know I was a minister. The very next week I was asked to be the auctioneer at our local United Way annual meeting to kick off this year's fundraising effort. My introduction to a large group of people I had never met included my previous pastoral ministry and my current role in judicatory ministry. What a great opportunity to connect with some of our community leaders!

If you believe your church may ask you to become bivocational, don't panic. Take some time to look at your skills and gifts and see which ones might transfer into a secular position. You may want to seek some guidance from someone who has already made this transition or you may want a coach to help guide you through this transition. Don't look at it as a negative but see it as a new opportunity to connect with and minister to people who may have never come into your church.

My first book on small business

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I am excited to announce that I have just published my first small business related book that you can purchase here.  As some of you may know, for 15 years I managed a small family owned business.  A couple of years ago we closed the business due to poor sales.  As I have reflected on the reasons for that failure I was able to identify a number of poor management and leadership decisions of mine that contributed to that failure.  That is why I titled the book Mistakes: Avoiding the Wrong Decisions that Will Close Your Small Business.  The book not only details the mistakes I made to help small business owners avoid them, but it also gives a number of recommendations for how to do better in each of those areas.  I want my readers to be able to compare my practices as a business owner to those of people who have been successful in small businesses so they can enjoy the success and avoid the pain I have felt after closing our business.

You may be wondering why I released it as an e-book and not have it published as my ministry books have been.  Actually, there are several reasons.  One is that I could control the cost of the book this way and keep the price lower than if a publisher released a print version.  Any time a small business owner can save a few bucks it's a good day!  A second reason is that I could get it into the hands of the readers quicker.  My experience with print publishing is that there is at least a year's lead time by the time the writer sends a proposal letter to the publisher, the publisher agrees to publish the book, and the book actually hits the book shelves.  With our current economic times small business owners need help now.  They don't need to wait to get the information they'll find in this book a year from now.  A third reason is that a growing number of people download e-books today rather than going to bookstores.  I read at least 5-6 books on my NOOK for every physical book I read, and many others would say the same thing.

Probably the most important reason is that I wanted to have control of the material.  Out of all the books I've published, only one has the title I gave it.  Book publishers always maintain the right to title a book, and I haven't always been happy with the titles my publisher has selected.  (That is the only thing I've not been happy with, and I intend to continue to use my publisher for future ministry related books.)  I really didn't think most book publishers would want to release a book entitled Mistakes.  You don't find many books that dwell on the mistakes people make, especially books on leadership and business.  The shelves are full of books that promise amazing success and tell stories of how leaders defied the odds and built huge companies out of small ones.  I've got many of those kinds of books in my library.  What you don't find are books that honestly tell of the mistakes leaders and business owners make and how those mistakes impacted them and their businesses.  Believe me, I'm quite honest about my mistakes (and they are many!).  I take full responsibility for how our business ended.  I don't blame the economy, politics, our employees, our customers, our suppliers, or anyone else.  It's all on me, baby, and I just didn't think that was a message that would resonate with book publishers.  And, it's the message I wanted to send.

As the leader of your organization or business, the buck truly does stop with you.  You will make some great decisions and you will make some poor ones, but you own the end result of every decision you make.  My hope for this book is that as you read some of the poor ones I made you will avoid those and make better ones.  Throughout the book I point out what some of those better decisions would have been if I had only made them at the time.  At the end of the book I list a number of books that I believe every small business owner should read, and I believe you will find that list to be a valuable resource.  This book is over 200 pages of helpful information for anyone who currently owns a small business or is thinking about starting one.

As of today the book is only available for NOOK reading devices.  I plan to have it available on Kindle soon, but due to my schedule it will probably be a couple of weeks.  Again, if you are interested in ordering the book or want to read more about it, just go here.

Please let me ask one favor.  One huge disadvantage of self-publishing an e-book is the author is primarily responsible for marketing.  If you have friends who own small businesses I would appreciate it if you would foward this post to them so they would learn of this resource.  Thank you.