Jacobs Ladder Podcast

Running a Business with Grant Smith-CMAW078

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What You'll Hear:
  • Grant spent 20 years as a quantity surveyor including his own consultancy
  • He started his charity Hand in Hand while working part-time as a quantity surveyor
  • 20 years ago he went into business that is completely commercial with no donor funds
  • This is completely sustainable as long as the business is making money
  • The purpose of the business was to create fairer employment and training but a business has to make money or it will go bankrupt
  • One of their workers started their workers 30 minutes early for prayer
  • The quadruple bottom line is economic, spiritual, social and environmental
  • "It takes a certain kind of person to be an entrepreneur...There's nothing certain about business.  Business at different times can work and not work"
  • Break 1
  • "The more people that contribute to the decision making process, the richer the decisions that are made"
  • "I effectively surrounded myself with really strong characters who had something to bring to the table...because I wanted strong decisions" as part of a voluntary management board
  • "I made myself accountable voluntarily to this board"
  • If someone tells you to go meet with a certain person, do it!
  • "I've never made promises about the rate of return that investors can receive...I've never tried to persuade anyone to invest"
  • "If God has called you into the ministry of business...then He's not calling you in isolation"
  • "We've always focused on investors investing in a particular project"
  • Break 2 
  • "One day I was in Mozambique and was asked to source a hovercraft"
  • "The challenge I find in life...as a Christian how do you know what God is saying when things are going wrong?"
  • "Too many people are inclined to give up too soon when faced with challenges"
  • "If you take life too seriously and all you see is the challenges, then you end up being miserable and miss the humorous side"
  • "We pay construction workers according to what they do"
  • "The whole purpose of Jubilee...we can do that here and now...in the way that we structure our businesses"
  • "Fairer means you don't disproportionately reward the risk takers"
  • "We need to look at the person God has made us...it is our fun to explore and find out why I am like I am and how does God want to use me in His Kingdom right here, right now"
  • Email [email protected]
  • To purchase the book, go to https://www.kregel.com
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Jacobs Ladder PodcastBy David Hilgendorf (Christian, Messianic, Jewish)
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