New Venture Lab: Equipping Christian Entrepreneurs

Question

I was approached by a client and asked to develop a software tool to help meet the needs of a particular customer set for their service business.   I saw the possibility for something much bigger than their intended use for the tool and asked them if they would be willing to explore the possibility of developing a stand-alone venture to create the capability they were seeking.  We've done the initial research on the concept and determined that it is a unique service, but I am not necessarily ready to enter into a joint venture with this company due my concerns about yoking with someone who is not of like mind spiritually or in terms of business values.  What things should I consider in terms of business relationships when it comes to the biblical principle of yoking?

Answer

I wrestle with this issue daily because I am involved in various types of business endeavors -- and in many cases with unbelievers.  I am a strong believer that the Biblical warning about yoking extends beyond just marriage and includes business relationships.  I also think that the closer the business relationship, the more concerns about the yoking.  For example a full partnership where you are actually working closely together in the same office and the business succeeds or fails based upon the partners' relationship is a much more intimate "yoking" than one where you've formed a corporation and are both shareholders with formal employment agreements and you work in separate locations.  But, we don't want to get legalistic about how one type of business entity is better than another.  The key principle is that yoking is about how closely you are tied to working with someone else and the degree to which you are tied to their decisions and the degree to which you fall under their sinful influences.  

The safeguards I use are as follows:

1. I office separately (currently out of my home);
2. I keep my meetings and communication formal (one of my rules is to not "socialize" with unbelieving business associates because that almost always turns into situations with alcohol, fowl language and other unbecoming behavior);
3. I try to steer any small talk from sports, movies or TV to family and use that as an opportunity to witness about my relationship with my wife, our desire for more children, training children, etc.  
   

See another blog on a similar topic here.