A Twenty Something's Business as Mission Journey :: Case Study #4 - Home Furnishings
Just like those three wise men so long ago, we seek to discern the times and follow His leading for the future! The purpose of this note is to share observations, reflections and lessons learned as we visit and interact with different BAM practitioners. We hope this sharing will spark your imagination, intercession and action to grow in wisdom and understanding and love and good deeds.Sector: Home furnishings
Market: Export B2B market. Source home furnishings to service a niche market in the U.S. Sell only to qualified retailers and wholesalers of home furnishings by the container.
Structure: Wholly foreign owned enterprise with corporate headquarters located in-country. Presently staffed with four expats in two locations and national salesmen/collectors strategically located in remote, unreached parts of the country. All expats are in-country for heart reasons, many of whom have no formal business education or background. National employees are on the payroll and carry out administrative, sales/product collection, warehouse management or participate in small-scale manufacturing processes. Present overall structure includes corporate office that coordinates all activities, three workshops located in different provinces (two which are partnerships with independent ventures) and a large warehouse in a major city. Product is sourced from remote areas by trained nationals who use the product sourcing as their primary contact to unreached communities. Company has one part-time sales person in the U.S, however, sales orders are placed via web, where the entire inventory is available for viewing.
Champion: Cross-cultural worker with love for remote areas for ministry reasons. No formal business education. Received some formal language study in-country. Self-learned salesman and has become an ‘expert’ in this niche home furnishings market through seven years of effort. Initially came to this country more than 15-years ago as an English teacher. Started this home furnishings company after a number of different business failures but perceived potential of sales of artifacts and handicrafts from remote areas. His role is the chief executive officer, sales representative/manager and sole owner.
Business formation: Champion gained in-country business experience as a broker of raw materials, and later a sales agent of jewelry. Passion of the champion is to facilitate in the mobilization of people to remote unreached areas to for ministry. In his testing and trying he discovered a niche market in the home furnishings industry. He used personal credit for the initial start-up capital. The champion then sourced home furnishings, prepared them for export, and personally invested time in developing the sales and marketing relationships in this niche market. Company has now been in existence for 7 years.
Vision: Facilitation of expats to live in-community in various remote and unreached places in this country and others in the 10-40 window to be used to catalyze church planting movements. Business model is the interconnecting of many small workshops in a loose network with the champion providing the marketing/sales connection for the product. In reality it is a trading company. Business provides a legitimate business visa and presence without many work obligations thus freeing up the expat(s) to focus on ministry efforts. Use the workshop also as a venue, in partnership with local like-minded networks, to train like-minded nationals to effectively share the Message. Facilitate mobilizing like-minded nationals and expats to remote areas as part of business expansion.
Story: Started by exporting jewelry through unorthodox means. After several years of sales experience in the U.S. home furnishings industry, the champion saw an opportunity to source home furnishings to service a niche market. Formation catalyzed after season of prayer through a providential meeting with a national pastor with carpentry and business background. Together they pulled together the concept. Using personal credit, he sourced home furnishings from remote areas. Champion created the business, local partner brought the carpentry know-how and connection to a local, like-minded network. Initially established a B2B and B2C hybrid company. Transitioned into solely a B2C company. Currently export 1-2 containers a month.
Lessons learned: Trial and error. Originally, the champion traveled back and forth between the U.S. and this country to manage all company sales. Developed a need for a sales and marketing agent State-side, but quickly realized a need for the company to generate revenue to support a sales and marketing agent’s salary. Difficulty in balancing focus on business activities and heart activities. Intentionally siding on emphasizing ministry activities, decisions are often counterintuitive to sound business strategies. Currently, problems with cash flow are affecting business activities.
Future plans: The champion does not wish to increase the scope of the business because it would take away from ministry emphasis, since an increase in scope and size requires an increase of inputs to operate the business. Wishes to source related products that fit within the vision of facilitating placing workers in remote areas in the 10-40 window. Unsure if the particular niche market they are servicing is sustainable in the long-term. Already considering creating new home furnishing products using the same raw materials. Future vision includes trading beads, jewelry, semi-precious stones, rugs, gifts/handicraft items and raw materials/commodities all to put thousands of 2-10 person low-tech workshops all over the 10-40 window.
Results:
Market: Export B2B market. Source home furnishings to service a niche market in the U.S. Sell only to qualified retailers and wholesalers of home furnishings by the container.
Structure: Wholly foreign owned enterprise with corporate headquarters located in-country. Presently staffed with four expats in two locations and national salesmen/collectors strategically located in remote, unreached parts of the country. All expats are in-country for heart reasons, many of whom have no formal business education or background. National employees are on the payroll and carry out administrative, sales/product collection, warehouse management or participate in small-scale manufacturing processes. Present overall structure includes corporate office that coordinates all activities, three workshops located in different provinces (two which are partnerships with independent ventures) and a large warehouse in a major city. Product is sourced from remote areas by trained nationals who use the product sourcing as their primary contact to unreached communities. Company has one part-time sales person in the U.S, however, sales orders are placed via web, where the entire inventory is available for viewing.
Champion: Cross-cultural worker with love for remote areas for ministry reasons. No formal business education. Received some formal language study in-country. Self-learned salesman and has become an ‘expert’ in this niche home furnishings market through seven years of effort. Initially came to this country more than 15-years ago as an English teacher. Started this home furnishings company after a number of different business failures but perceived potential of sales of artifacts and handicrafts from remote areas. His role is the chief executive officer, sales representative/manager and sole owner.
Business formation: Champion gained in-country business experience as a broker of raw materials, and later a sales agent of jewelry. Passion of the champion is to facilitate in the mobilization of people to remote unreached areas to for ministry. In his testing and trying he discovered a niche market in the home furnishings industry. He used personal credit for the initial start-up capital. The champion then sourced home furnishings, prepared them for export, and personally invested time in developing the sales and marketing relationships in this niche market. Company has now been in existence for 7 years.
Vision: Facilitation of expats to live in-community in various remote and unreached places in this country and others in the 10-40 window to be used to catalyze church planting movements. Business model is the interconnecting of many small workshops in a loose network with the champion providing the marketing/sales connection for the product. In reality it is a trading company. Business provides a legitimate business visa and presence without many work obligations thus freeing up the expat(s) to focus on ministry efforts. Use the workshop also as a venue, in partnership with local like-minded networks, to train like-minded nationals to effectively share the Message. Facilitate mobilizing like-minded nationals and expats to remote areas as part of business expansion.
Story: Started by exporting jewelry through unorthodox means. After several years of sales experience in the U.S. home furnishings industry, the champion saw an opportunity to source home furnishings to service a niche market. Formation catalyzed after season of prayer through a providential meeting with a national pastor with carpentry and business background. Together they pulled together the concept. Using personal credit, he sourced home furnishings from remote areas. Champion created the business, local partner brought the carpentry know-how and connection to a local, like-minded network. Initially established a B2B and B2C hybrid company. Transitioned into solely a B2C company. Currently export 1-2 containers a month.
Lessons learned: Trial and error. Originally, the champion traveled back and forth between the U.S. and this country to manage all company sales. Developed a need for a sales and marketing agent State-side, but quickly realized a need for the company to generate revenue to support a sales and marketing agent’s salary. Difficulty in balancing focus on business activities and heart activities. Intentionally siding on emphasizing ministry activities, decisions are often counterintuitive to sound business strategies. Currently, problems with cash flow are affecting business activities.
Future plans: The champion does not wish to increase the scope of the business because it would take away from ministry emphasis, since an increase in scope and size requires an increase of inputs to operate the business. Wishes to source related products that fit within the vision of facilitating placing workers in remote areas in the 10-40 window. Unsure if the particular niche market they are servicing is sustainable in the long-term. Already considering creating new home furnishing products using the same raw materials. Future vision includes trading beads, jewelry, semi-precious stones, rugs, gifts/handicraft items and raw materials/commodities all to put thousands of 2-10 person low-tech workshops all over the 10-40 window.
Results:
- Accomplishing his goal of facilitation
- Providing visas for two other families and one single (expat)
- Workshop has facilitated cross-cultural training school for local workers
- Has trained and placed three local families in remote areas as sales/product collectors
- Market connections has led to partnerships with two other workshops (independent) who produce product while also running training schools
Seems to have a sustainable volume of business with a product ‘release-valve’ (source which he can access at will to generate more product) so that each workshop area and salesman does not have significant market/production pressure
Observations:
- Champion seems to have hit on the key issue for sustaining small businesses in remote areas – market. The concept of him taking ownership and making sure there is a market for the product allows the small business idea to be feasible.
- Champion has set up essentially a non-profit for-profit business. The driving force is not profit but ministry. His stated goal is break-even or just a little profit. He consistently is asking people (both expat and national) ‘is this (meaning business activity) taking too much time?’
- Champion seems to view the business primarily as a placement vehicle instead of a means for ministry (tentmaking). While the workshops have simultaneous ministry impact (training schools) they use the business more as a cover than as an integral part of the ministry. As noted above, all workers are encouraged to minimize their business-related responsibilities and activities. Even in his vision for creating opportunities for other remote areas, the emphasis is small businesses that facilitate an expat visa, but are small enough to not require a lot of the expat’s time to manage.
- Champion feels that in-country expat staff should not be supported by the business, only the local staff should be paid by the business revenue. However, on the US side, he realizes you must pay a competitive salary.
- Champion is a strong advocate for not getting into manufacturing and/or creating your own product (market push). Rather to find existing crafts that only require minor adjustments (quality, style) to become marketable and work with existing small workshops so that employment, cash flow, inventory, etc are not your worry.
- When asked about his vision and values, the champion could not clearly articulate it. When asking the other expat workers their visions for the future, they shared a wide range of ministry visions – all unrelated to the present core business.
- Since the profit motive is discouraged, there is no driving motive to produce. However, the company is able to source home furnishings from sources (release valve) to meet demand or make-up for lower outputs.
Labels: A Twenty Something's Business as Mission Journey, Case Studies
