Ministry vs Business

Of course the long term success is what we are all looking for.

This brings up another interesting situation that I came across a couple of years ago.

I ran into a man that was selling some sort of drinkable product. I won't mention the name of the company. But he beleived that this product cured cancer. I mean HE really believed it.

I know that what you believe can be very powerul, so i did not dispute him in his belief.

What's interesting though is that we started to talk about the "numbers and finances" of his business. Things like how much was he making, how much was he spending, and other such things.

Here is what I found out... The man was actually losing money by running his business. Because many of his clients were infirm (sick) he delivered much of the product. He would drive across town to deliver a $10 bottle.

Even though he believed that he was "saving the world" he was actually going broke doing it.

Is this the end of the story for this guy? No, but I think it goes to show that we can mistakenly run our busiensses as a "ministry" rather than a "business"

I believe we need to have systems on the front end "lead generation," that are profitable in the short term, to keep the back end "our primary business" running smoothly and effectively.