New Venture Lab: Equipping Christian Entrepreneurs

I was recently talking to our two interns about their next steps after their internship with New Venture Lab.  They are Godly young men in their early 20’s with some good work experiences and they are eager for the next phase of their lives.  In addition to working closely with me in a high-growth property management company, we cover many topics after hours that range from sales and marketing to finance and accounting and everything in between.  Their curriculum consists of reading, research and case discussions, but much of their learning will not crystallize until they are in the middle of actually running a small business, selling customers and making tough decisions.

 

Therefore, one suggestion I gave them for a next move post-internship was to simply move back home, keep their expenses at near zero and start a company -- any company -- with the express goal of just to learn.  The idea is to start a company that requires little or no investment, such as lawn mowing, janitorial, pool service, etc., and eagerly take on every role and count it all as learning, having no fear of failure.

 

No matter how much they study sales and marketing, nothing compares to actually negotiating with a customer and learning the painful lesson of having priced the service too low.  And no matter how much they study finance and accounting, the lessons really don’t come alive until they are trying to figure out how to book the purchase of their new mower in their QuickBooks software.  Of course they can keep their textbooks handy and call on their fathers and other mentors to advise them with as they wrestle with the day-to-day operations, but much of the learning will be through their own application of their own effort in their own business.

 

The nice thing is that any outcome is positive: whether the business fails or whether the business grows beyond their wildest imaginations, they started the business to learn so there is no opportunity for failure in that – they will definitely learn.

 

Another outcome is that their discernment about evaluating business opportunities will also sharpen as they see first hand the issues of scalability, profitability, cash flow, pricing, competition, margin, etc.

 

Yet another outcome is that they will come to a better understanding of their own strengths and weaknesses and which part of the business operation they are naturally drawn to based upon their God-given gifts and abilities.

 

Then, after a period of learning in this manner, they will be much better equipped to intentionally plan the launch of a much better business opportunity.

 

And what about their initial little business they started just to learn?  They can simply shut it down, they can hand it off to a younger sibling, they can attempt to sell it, or they could potentially keep it and hire someone to run it.

 

That reminds me of when I spoke to a pastor in his late 50’s recently that lived in Washington State.  He had started a pool service company in the Dallas area 30 years earlier when he was a student at Dallas Theological Seminary.  By the time he graduated, he had built it up into a nice little business, so he simply hired a general manager to run the business for him as he moved on to his first church.  For 30 years, he was the absentee owner of that pool company and it provided so well for him and his family that he was freed up to follow God’s leading in various ministries that at times paid very little.  What an inspiring story of how his labors over a period of a few years turned into a lifetime of provision!