Thursday, October 30, 2008

Retain Cash & Capital In Difficult Times

For many it is a difficult time in our U.S. economy. All of the factors point to sluggish sales, a slowdown of growth, high unemployment and stagnant income levels. For many there is great uncertainty and concern about just how fragile our banking system and our economy really is. Most of the so called "experts" did not anticipate the speed nor the devastation of the real estate crisis nor have they had ready answers for this period of economic trouble. All of this doom and gloom is daunting and discouraging, yet it is imperative that we build our businesses, expand our church congregations and carry on with the business of hope, growth, faith and expansion. In this period some churches may be tempted to curtail projects, reduce budgets or put plans on hold. But, one opportunity is to leverage outside capital as a means to spread media and AV technology costs over multiple budget periods. This strategy helps in several ways. It allows the church to retain cash and capital for operations and growth. It takes advantage of low cost capital readily available for technology. And it matches the timing of costs to the timing of revenues (tithing, donations, contributions). Think about optimal solutions and consider cost allocation as a means to continue projects and continue to build on a future once seen and still preserved.