A study released by the Office of Advocacy of the SBA affirms what I have been seeing with many young women from Generation Y in our program here at Belmont.  They view entrepreneurship as a career path that gives them more control over their lives and the ability to more effectively balance work and family.

The study, written by Tami Gurley- Calvez, Katherine Harper, and Amelia Biehl, found that self-employed women are able to spend more time with their children and families, compared to their wage-and-salary earning counterparts.  The study finds that self-employed women spend about 3.5 more hours per week in household activities than wage-and-salary earning women do, and six more hours than men do.

“Previous studies have established that women enter self-employment for reasons other than potential earnings and that life-style factors heavily influence their decision,” said Shawne McGibbon, Acting Chief Counsel for Advocacy.  “This study documents that self-employed women’s time-use patterns are in fact different from those of wage-and-salary earning women.  Self-employed women spend less time on work-related activities and more time on household activities and child care.”

My co-author Mike Naughton will be in Nashville today to join me in a public lecture on our new book Bringing Your Business to Life.  Learn how values and faith can offer a path out of the current ethical crisis in business.

 

Please join us for our Lecture, open to the public, today Tuesday January 27th  – Massey Board Room,  4th floor – Massey Business Center (note that the location has been moved) – 4:30pm reception and 5:00pm lecture.

 

If you have not registered, please feel free to drop by anyway.  Lots of room and plenty of good food.

 

 

 

My co-author Mike Naughton will be coming to Nashville later this month.  There are two public events we will be hosting at Belmont University on our book, Bringing Your Business to Life.

 

Please join us for the Lecture, open to the public, on Tuesday January 27th  – Gordon Inman Center,  4th floor – Frist Lecture Hall –  4:30pm reception and 5:00pm address.

Click here to register for the lecture

 

Don’t miss the Workshop on Wednesday January 28th from 7:30am-11:00am.  There is a $50 registration fee.  Click here to download the workshop registration form.

Face it — we entrepreneurs have a high need for control.  And when we feel like we are not in control of our worlds we more often than not fall into the wierd behavior of working more and more hours.  It is not that we get more things done — it just feels like we do.

Many of the legendary 80-90 hour weeks are just our attempt to keep really busy, hoping that if we keep busy enough things will get better.

As you can imagine, there is a lot of nervous busy work going on with entrepreneurs these days.

As always, there is a new buzz word for this pattern of behavior. 

In a new small business survey by Staples they report that 62% of small business owners admit that they are transforming into “mouse potatoes” (i.e., constantly on the computer).  One in five report replacing breakfast with “deskfast” in an attempt to “maximize time.”

Although I worry about the mental health of these entrepreneurs, it does seem to help them feel better about things.  A whopping 84% anticipate being able to weather the current economic storm and plan to be in the same business a year from now.

My only caution is this — Don’t become such a mouse potato that you lose your family and your friends.  Temperance, my good friends, temperance!

I offered the invocation for the hooding ceremony of our graduating MBA students last evening.  Let me offer it to all entrepreneurs as a prayer for the new year:

 

Lord, we thank you for these entrepreneurs and business leaders. 

 

We pray that they understand that their work on earth should never be just a career, but a true vocation that connects their faith to all they do in the work.  We pray that they remember that true integrity is to find God helping us to live as He intended us to live in all that we do:  in our family, in our community, and in our work.

 

We pray that they always remember that real Courage is the courage to the right thing even under the most difficult circumstances.  It is the courage to treat all people justly, even in difficult economic times like these.

 

We pray that they never forget that all they are given in this life comes from God, so they should be prudent stewards of all of His gifts. 

 

We pray that they temper their drive to succeed in their careers – keeping time for their spouses, their children, their families, their friends, their community, and of course, for God.

 

We pray that while they may attain great power in their careers, that they remain humble.  We pray that no matter how successful they become that they always see the face of Jesus in everyone they meet in their work.

 

Finally, we pray that we never lose faith, even in difficult times like these.  Jesus said, “I am leaving you with a gift–peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid.” 

 

We pray that we never forget that God gives us peace, even in the worst of times.

 

All of this we pray in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ.

 

Amen.

The John Templeton Foundation hosts a series of “Big Questions” discussions.  They ask each question to  leading scientists, scholars, and public figures.

The latest question is: “Does the Free Market Erode Moral Character?”

The responses to this question really get to the heart of the current debate about the role that free markets and capitalism played in today’s economic woes.  I would encourage everyone to ponder the responses these folks offer, as we need a more informed debate about what really has been going on and where we go from here.

I will offer my thoughts….

Free markets are morally neutral — neither good nor bad.  What brings morality into free market activities are the actions of people. 

People’s decisions and actions become habits.  First we choose to lie, but eventually if we continue to lie we become a liar.  Virtues are habits, and these habits shape our character over time.

It is time to stop blaming morally neutral systems for what we do and who we become.  Ultimately, we become good or evil through our own actions and decisions that are taken through our own free will. 

It is time to take a long, hard look at our culture; for it is there that we find our shared sense of right and wrong.  We must stop the folly of deferring morality to governmental policy and regulatory control.

(Thanks to my colleague Harry Hollis for passing along the Templeton link).

The Entrepreneurship Research and Education Network of Central European Universities (ERENET) has just published its latest issue of Profile, which examines the role of faith and beliefs in doing business from a wide array of authors from around the world.  Mike Naughton and I wrote a piece for this issue based our work together in our Good Entrepreneur Project. (You can purchase our latest book on this topic, Bringing Your Business to Life, using this link).

If you recognize the quote in the title of this post, then you have probably read The Shack, by William Paul Young.

If you have not read this book I highly recommend it.  It is not a book about entrepreneurship, per se, but it is about life and what is really important in our lives.  So I guess, in a way, it is about how we choose to conduct ourselves as entrepreneurs. 

One of my favorite quotes from this book comes from a conversation between Jesus and the protagonist of the book named Mack.  Jesus says to Mack the following about why we work:

Men, in general, find it very hard to turn from the works of their hands, their own quests for power and security and significance, and return to me.

Thanks to Robin Anderson, Dean of the College of Business at University of Portland, for handing me a copy of The Shack when I was there to give a talk on our new book a couple of weeks ago.  I recommend you order a copy of your own.