Start at the finish

Lately at Fellowship Fridays, we've been sharing our top tips from our various fields. I noticed a theme emerging, and it's one of those seven habits: begin with the end in mind.

Whether planning an event, designing a marketing campaign, or writing a blog post, you must know two things:

• Who are you trying to reach?
• What's the desired result?

Success in business--or in any other endeavor--requires planning. Planning requires a goal.

What are your goals? Bring them to Fellowship Friday--the schedule is here--and let's see if we can help you achieve them.

Using your business to be a blessing

Last week at Fellowship Friday, Mark Brisson of Fun Spot shared with us the concept of the Boaz Blessing.

Boaz was able to bless Ruth by having his harvesters leave a little extra behind for her to glean. This gesture cost Boaz little. He gave up a bit of inventory and spent a minute or two giving instructions to his employees.

But his effort meant a great deal to Ruth. In the same way, we can look for opportunities in our work to be a blessing to someone else.

When the Spirit leads us to give, even a few moments of our time or a bit of lagniappe can provide abundantly for others.


We have two Fellowship Friday meetings each week: one in the morning and another in the afternoon. Locations change, so there's likely to be one in your area soon. On Feb. 3, we'll be at BankFirst in Oviedo at 7:30 a.m. and Jason's Deli in Altamonte Springs at 1:30 p.m. For other Fellowship Friday dates and times, check the website.

We hope to see you there, and while we pray we can be a blessing to you, we pray even more that we can help you be a blessing to others.

Examining our profit motive

We sometimes maintain a medieval, monkish idea that wealth ought not be part of our Christian mindset. That money is worldly and therefore beneath our consideration.

Nonsense.

It is not money, but the love of money that is the root of evil. We must consider money carefully if we are to be good stewards of it.

What we must not do is fool ourselves into thinking money will solve our problems or meet our needs. God solves problems and meets needs. Sometimes he uses money to do so. Other times he does it by providing smarts, stamina, or people to help us.

Here's a popular passage from stewardship season: 1 Timothy 6:17-19.

Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.

We are not asked to forgo wealth. We are not told to avoid profit-making. But we are warned against putting our hope in wealth and profit. We are told to be generous with what has been given us. And to know that what we have is given "for our enjoyment."

As we embark on this new year, we encourage you to enjoy what you have been given, and we pray the chamber can be God's instrument in connecting you to the resources your business needs to succeed. May your new year be happy...and prosperous.

Mark and Brodie's Christmas Message

Have a Blessed and Merry Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous New Year. We look forward to serving you in 2012 as we continue to build business, build community and build the Kingdom!

12 trends to watch in the coming year

Photo by Frank Hermers • sxc.hu

The website trendwatching.com released its free year-end Trend Briefing. The company’s head of research and analysis, Henry Mason, said, “Even with the backdrop of nations defaulting, we see more opportunities than ever for creative brands and entrepreneurs to deliver on changing consumer needs.”

Here’s a summary of the 12 trends. You can find the full report at trendwatching’s website.

1. Red Carpet
Many firms, including Hilton, Starwood and Harrods are providing tailored services for Chinese visitors. Travel from China is up 20 percent from 2010, and The World Tourism Organization estimates the total number of outbound tourists from China will reach 100 million by 2020.

2. DIY Health
Consumers are taking advantage of technology to track and manage their personal health. Apple’s App Store already offers 9,000 health apps.

3. Dealer-Chic
Deals are now about more than saving money: it’s the pursuit, the status, and the perceived smartness. Consumers are looking for more personalization and more loyalty schemes, and are putting more pressure on brands to deliver brilliance.

4. Eco-Cycology
Companies are increasingly taking back their products for recycling, and do so responsibly and innovatively. Nike, for example, recycles rubber from its shoes into artificial track surfaces.

5. Cash-Less
Coins and notes won’t disappear completely, but cashless payment systems have gone mainstream, with MasterCard and Google working on a system of payments, rewards and offers around mobile technologies.

6. Bottom of the Urban Pyramid
The majority of consumerism is urban, yet in much of the world city life is chaotic, cramped and none too pleasant. Low-income urbanites look for innovation tailored to their unique circumstances, from health issues to lack of space to the need for durability. Opportunities for brands catering to such needs are unprecedented.

7. Idle Sourcing
Making it simple for consumers to contribute will be more popular than ever in 2012. Smarter mobile device sensors will let consumers broadcast information about where and what they are doing, to help improve products and services. For example, Boston now has an app that uses smartphones’ accelerometers and GPS to detect potholes.

8. Flawsome
Consumers think brands that behave more humanly, including exposing their flaws, are awesome. Brands that are honest about their flaws, that show some empathy, generosity, and humor will win over consumers. Domino’s, for example, mounted a news scroll in Times Square showing both compliments and complaints from its customers.

9. Screen Culture
The proliferation of touchscreen devices is bringing about a culture that is not only more pervasive, but more personal and immersive than ever. Companies taking advantage of this trend range from those who make screen-friendly winter gloves to a restaurant chain that installed teleconferencing capabilities.

10. Recommerce
It’s never been easier for savvy consumers to resell or trade in past purchases, unlocking the value in their current possessions. Car dealers aren’t the only ones who can take an old product and offer credit toward a new one.

12. Point & Know
Consumers are used to being able to find out just about anything that’s online or text-based, but 2012 will see instant visual information gratification brought into the real and visual world with objects and even people. Some of these technologies, like face recognition software, are already in the market.

11. Emerging Maturialism
Yes, we’re out of order here, because this one … at the risk of editorializing, it’s hard to address to Christian businesspeople. The folks at trendwatching tell us that, “While cultural differences continue to shape consumer desires, middle-class and/or younger consumers in almost every market embrace brands that push boundaries.” If you read the trendwatching report, you’ll find some of those boundaries might have been better left alone. This idea will be harder for Christian businesses to adopt. But we’d love to hear your ideas about it.

View all 12 full trend descriptions, including examples of brands from around the world already implementing them, at www.trendwatching.com/briefing.

Have a blessed Thanksgiving

A business lesson from Steve Jobs

By Kristen Stieffel

The last lesson Steve Jobs had to teach us wasn’t about technology, or industrial design, or following your heart and intuition. His final lesson was about plain boring old succession planning.

Steve Jobs. Photo by Matthew Yohe

Many businesses fail after the death of their founders simply because not enough thought was given to that big, ugly “what if?” Steve and his colleagues at least had the advantage of not being taken by surprise.

At my company, we were not so lucky.

As hard as it must have been for Tim Cook to write that Oct. 5 memo, how much harder was it for Whit Shaw, now the head of American City Business Journals, to write a similar memo one Monday morning two years ago, informing his employees of the weekend death of founder and chairman Ray Shaw.

His father.

Ray died suddenly, unexpectedly, almost stupidly — of complications from a bee sting.

We all felt great sadness at Ray’s loss, even though most of us had never met him. And uncertainty about the future goes without saying. But there was no fear, despite the abruptness of the change, because we trusted in the succession plan. We trusted Whit and the other leaders to be wise. And they have been.

Apple shareholders must now trust that Tim Cook and Jonathan Ive and the company's other leaders will be wise.

As a business leader, do you know whether, if anything were to happen to you, the leaders you leave behind would lead wisely?

It is vital for any businessperson with more than a few employees to have a succession plan. If you’re a one-person operation -- a freelancer or consultant -- then you are the business. But if the business can and should survive you, plan for that. It won’t happen by accident.

Steve’s succession plan was in place because he’d been dealing with cancers since 2004. But even though Ray’s death was an unpredictable fluke, the company leadership was nevertheless able to move forward because a plan was already in place.

Trust in the Lord and lean not on your own understanding, yes. But also use the brains He gave you. To be good stewards of our businesses, we must consider those big, ugly “what ifs.”

Because someday, whether through retirement or illness or death, you will no longer be there to lead your company. You, or someone else, will write a memo to inform your employees.

What will happen after that?