Build a business that leaves room for life


​Hey Reader,​

1. A quick word from Zach

It’s easy to tell yourself you’ll build margin later. But if you don’t intentionally build a business with room for family, church, sickness, emergencies, and the unexpected, you may wake up one day inside a profitable cage of your own making.

2. Something worth listening to

This week, check out the EntreLeadership episode, “The Real Reason You’ll Never Grow Your Business.” It’s a fitting companion to this topic because it gets right to the heart of building margin, handing off responsibility, and creating a business that can keep moving when life pulls you somewhere else.

3. Something worth thinking about

Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit'— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.'

~ James 4:13-15

4. Something worth trying

Take 10 quiet minutes this week and answer these questions honestly:

  • What kind of life do I actually want my business to support - not someday, but in this season?
  • If life happened this week in a big way, how much could my business keep moving without my constant presence?
  • What is one change I could make now to build more margin, flexibility, or shared responsibility into the business?

That's a wrap. Have a great week.

P.S. If today's issue of Dear Sam blessed you or challenged you, would you forward it along to a brother who might need to hear it as well?

To thriving,

Zach Wise

Find me on LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube,
or
Book a free chat

What is "Dear Sam", anyway? This column started with a real person — a friend and client named Sam. I write each issue with him in mind, and with you in mind, too.

Prefer to not get "Dear Sam" emails? No problem! Just click here to unsubscribe.


Your email preferences
Change the emails you get from me
or
Unsubscribe from all emails

2108 North Street, Suite N., Sacramento, CA 95816

Small Business Surthrival

If you're hungry to increase your small business revenues and your profits, this is for you. If you're ready to take your business from surviving to thriving, this is for you. Every Wednesday I send business coaching tips to help you grow yourself, your team, and your profits. Join me!

Read more from Small Business Surthrival

Hi Reader, 1. A quick word from Zach This week, I’m wrestling with a question a lot of Christian men in business quietly carry: should you try to grow your business as much as you can, or keep it intentionally small? I don’t think the deepest issue is growth or restraint by itself, but the motive underneath either choice. 2. Something worth reading Read Proverbs 14:23, Proverbs 16:8, Matthew 25:14-30, 1 Timothy 6:6-19, and Matthew 6:19-34 in that order. Together, these passages surface the...

Hi Reader, 1. A quick word from Zach Lately I’ve been wrestling with that knife-edge tension between my work and God’s work – how hard I should push, and while balancing the ever-present need to trust the harvest to Him. Isaiah 30:23 has been re-anchoring my heart in that tension. 2. Something worth reading Og Mandino’s The Greatest Salesman in the World, especially the tenth scroll, “Pray to God for Guidance,” is a short, story-driven meditation on taking daily action while consciously...

Hey Reader, 1. A quick word from Zach Lately Proverbs 28:19 has been pressing on me. My calendar says I am busy, but if you watched how I actually spend my hours, you would not always see me working the land that is most likely to produce the bread I am praying for. This week I want to invite you to take that same hard look at how you are spending your time. 2. Something worth thinking about “ Whoever works his land will have plenty of bread, but he who follows worthless pursuits will have...