Recognizing The Privilege of Business Ownership
What Are The Benefits and What You Should Do About It
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As the excitement of business ownership wears off, it’s easy to forget the privileges that come with it.
For those who are already business owners, this post serves as a reminder.
If you’re not already a business owner, let this serve as a ‘pitch’ to start your own business down the road.
Let’s start with one of the biggest to us as Catholics.
Free Speech
As a business owner, you can say what you like. You can be outspoken. If you are an employee, you may be unable to speak up in certain situations without risking your job.
While this is certainly true, I will also say that as a caveat, I believe people have much more leeway than they realize. However, the point stands — if you’re the boss, you can say what you like without being out of a job. If you’re highly inflammatory, you may end up alienating customers. But even then, you can often still find enough customers to run a successful business.
When I say free speech, I’m not even referring to politics and heavy-hitting device issues. I’m talking about things like speaking up about your faith to an employee or customer. You might feel uncomfortable bringing those things up if your employer would be upset.
Also, don’t forget how the Holy Spirit can work through you as someone with the freedom to speak up. Maybe you’re called to say something to an employee or customer. If you are communicating with God frequently, you should recognize those situations, and this station allows you to execute on the impulse.
Now, here is the list of major benefits.
The Privileges
Free Speech
We have already covered this. In short, don’t take it for granted.
Schedule Autonomy
You can plan your day/week around your spiritual life and family life. For most people, as a business owner, you can now make no excuse for getting to daily mass.
Morning prayers with your family can be a priority for you. Even if it means stopping by home in mid-morning to pray and eat with your kids.
In general, you can schedule your life to optimize your spiritual life.
Family First
Son has a baseball game? Wife is not feeling good? No problem, you can take the time off to support them. Of course, building a business where you don’t need to be ‘in it’ all the time is a challenge, but not one that you can’t handle.
Practice Trusting God’s Will
One of the most important things we can learn is how to put our trust in God’s Will. By having a business, and recognizing that there are things more important than making a dollar (like family and our spiritual life) we can take a bit of time off for those things without worrying.
At first, it’s challenging, like a muscle you’ve never exercised. But slowly, over time, you gain strength and it feels like something you’ve done forever.
For me, this is one of the biggest benefits I’ve noticed. Just the ups and downs of doing business made me realize God is taking care of me and I don’t need to worry.
Influence
There are many means of influencing as a business owner and many people that we can influence.
Influence is possible even if you do not have a lot of money to throw around. Just the way you carry yourself influences your employees. In the same way your kids look up to what you do (not what you say), your employees also look at you and learn.
You can influence your community by making the presence of your business a place where people feel at peace. A place that people know is grounded in morals. If you become publicly known as a Catholic, those posters you put up on Feast Days or the Holy Cards you hand out will have an influence on people.
Don’t get me wrong, influence is still present often as an employee, but the nature of running a business draws a few more people to you, or at least their eyes. This gives you greater responsibility, of course, but also the opportunity (assuming you’re living a good life) to influence people in a positive way.
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What’cha Gon Do ‘Bout It?
Now that we recognize this privilege, what will we do about it?
Live to the Fullest: This is a gift. Recognize that gift because you have this responsibility; you must use it. Don’t let it go to waste like the steward who buried his talents.
Evangelize: You don’t have to worry about what others think. If you want to run a bible study in your coffee shop once a week, you can do it. Most people won’t be upset with you. This is a way for you to leave breadcrumbs for others to discover the faith.
Allow a Catholic Environment: As an employer, you can create an environment where employees can live their faith without compromise - eliminating the challenges employees often face.
Mentor Others: As you can see, being a business owner is filled with incredible benefits. Why not encourage and mentor others so they, too, can become business owners? Let’s get more people living their faith without compromise and create workplaces where others can also live out their faith.
Most importantly, pursue Sainthood. If you’re in this situation (owning a biz), do NOT take the benefits for granted — maximize your ability to build your life around a healthy spiritual life so you can get closer to sainthood.
What do you think?
Leave a comment with your take on this or anything we missed.
Discuss With Us!
Let us know what you think of this piece in the comments. We are not perfect, so your feedback and insight help us refine these ideas.
See ya next time! 👋