Should You Involve Your Family in the Business?

by Dave Kahle

When I was doing the research for The Good Book on Business, I discovered how important businesses are in the Bible. Appearing throughout the Bible, God used them for a number of His purposes.  Things like providing economic security to the servants and employees and serving as a venue for God to interact with mankind are just a couple of a long list.

          One of the most effective uses of business has to do with developing the character of Godly leaders.  Moses, Saul, David, Abraham, Paul and even Jesus were raised in active involvement in their family businesses. In that, they learned lessons and acquired knowledge and skills that would serve them, and the Kingdom, throughout their lives.

          Family businesses, called “households” were the venue in which children learned important skills, gained knowledge, and developed attitudes. That hasn’t changed. 

          Businesses in the Bible employed family. And, with a little bit of creativity, yours can too. Now, before you tune out and note that those practices were in an agrarian society and don’t apply to us, let’s think a little more deeply about it.

          First, a little background.  I was a professional salesperson for the first half of my career, and then developed a practice/business helping B2B sales organizations sell better. I found places in both my career as a salesperson, as well as the owner of a small business, to actively engage my kids.

Sales Leaders – Work Smarter, Not Harder

Let us show you how:

Sales Leaders Excellence & Influence Course

• Four-month immersion into the best practices for sales leaders
• Live coaching, live training, meetings with other sales leaders
• Concepts and skills that will serve you well for the rest of your career.
• With our team of experts on your side, you’ll become a hero in your organization.

Invest in yourself. Elevate your team. Ignite your success.

Learn More Here

          In my time as a salesperson, the company provided weekly computerized reports on what was purchased in my territory.  However, I wanted to see patterns over time. The reports provided accurate information on each week’s sales, but not information on patterns. So, I paid my teenagers to physically cut the reports apart, and then staple multiple weeks for an account on a piece of used paper.  That way, I could look at an account and see the pattern of purchases over time.

          As well as earning money, they learned some important things about business, sales and the value of information.

          My territory consisted of nine days in metropolitan Detroit, and then one day   every other week along the Detroit river and to some small accounts in the ‘thumb” of Michigan.  During the summer, I would take one kid with me each of those more leisurely and laid-back trips to these rural accounts.   They would go into the account with me, meet my contacts and have lunch with me along the road.

          Later, in my days running my sales training/consulting business, I found lots of ways to employ the family.  My wife is a gourmet cook, and I paid her to create varieties of Christmas cookies.  We’d package them, wrap them in colored cellophane, and present them as gifts to the purchasing departments in my accounts.

          She always attended entertaining events with me.

          When it came time to compile photocopied lette... CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Churchianity or Christianity?