As shepherds over the flock God has placed in our care, we need to realize that sometimes employees may experience a death in the family, medical emergencies or transportation challenges. These are times when an intentional and proactive approach may be a blessing to your staff. For example, one bank I worked for established a company benevolence fund. Both the […]

Many Christians have heard about the generosity of Hobby Lobby, but there’s another company in Oklahoma City that many locals point to when discussing generosity. The company’s name is Jasco. When I trolled Jasco’s website, I was impressed by not only their extreme generosity, but also by their strategy. Jasco remarkably gives away 50% of their profits to charitable causes, […]

Many business owners believe that the privately-held stock they own in their company has little value until they sell the business. Mark discovered otherwise. Mark leveraged his stock long before selling his business. Mark had his business appraised, then donated 20% of his company stock to a donor advised fund. (That’s basically a checking account specifically for giving.) This gave […]

Over the years, I’ve seen many unique strategies implemented by savvy business leaders to leverage their generosity. The first strategy is donating appreciated assets like publicly traded stock to charity. Mike had been giving cash gifts to our ministry when he discovered a better way. He owned some stocks that had appreciated greatly that he considered selling. Instead, Mike donated […]

Martin Luther was quoted as saying, “There are three conversions: the conversion of the heart, mind and purse.” Many business leaders have heard sermons about being generous givers. But the numbers of those who have moved that concept from their minds to their wallets are few. Recently, a friend told me that his business had been on the verge of […]

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 […]

Recently, millions of people have unexpectedly resigned from their jobs. This has led to what many have called the “Great Resignation.” This Great Resignation has caused a shift in the marketplace and has left a Great Disruption. It has disrupted businesses, loaded additional work on already overworked employees and has disrupted friendships. As employers, we need to pause and consider […]

Quarterback Patrick Mahomes started this season proclaiming that the Kansas City Chiefs would be completely undefeated. It didn’t take long before that dream was shattered. As defeat after defeat happened, Mahomes seemed to struggle on and off the field. His confidence seemed shaken as well. Fortunately, Mahomes regained his confidence against the Las Vegas Raiders, miraculously moving from last place […]

Thanksgiving has been celebrated for hundreds of years, but Black Friday didn’t become a common label for what used to be the busiest shopping day of the year until 1981. Cyber Monday was proclaimed by the National Retail Federation in 2005 but has since become the biggest buying day of the year. Giving Tuesday, however, was not developed until 2012. […]

In 2020, Cyber Monday sales were $10.8 billion. Yet, most of these sales went to the large online retailers like Amazon, Walmart and Best Buy. Many small businesses do little to compete with these mammoth retailers, feeling somewhat hopeless. Yet, I believe that small businesses can get a slice of the largest sales day of the year if they seek […]