Below Momma’s Money Tree has shared an excerpt from our upcoming book, Home Business Basics: Lessons From The Proverbs 31 Woman. For more information or to purchase the book, please visit our Products & Services page.
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(Ancient) Blueprint of a Home Business
I remember once receiving a blender as a gift. There it stood in pristine fresh-from-the-box form. Despite its state-of-the-art touchpad, it was still clearly a blender. Because of this, I knew what it was and what it was for. I understood the concepts of placing my ingredients inside, replacing the lid, pushing a button, and letting the machine do its work.
Despite this fact, I still paused for a moment. Somewhere in the recesses of my mind, I knew that understanding a blender’s function was not the same as knowing how to operate the machine that sparkled before me. I’d regularly been reminded of the fact during my struggles with our blue-ray player, the Wi-Fi router, my parents’ sound system, and so many other devices. On this particular day, I consulted the user’s manual for the blender – just to ensure that I didn’t end up with soup instead of a perfectly blended smoothie… and then, I pushed a button and set the machine to work.
What does my struggle to use an appliance have to do with running a business? Plenty, actually.
Have you ever considered that operating a business can be a little bit like using a new appliance? After all, as entrepreneurs, we all know what a business is supposed to do. You put time, energy, and money into one side to produce a service or product offering. The offering is purchased by a customer on the other side of the system. If your product is properly priced, the money resulting from the sale yields a profit, and the cycle begins again. At least, that is the theory.
Then, there’s the reality. A real-life business can be anything but profitable – especially if you don’t operate it in a way that turns a theoretical business plan into a moneymaking set of actions. If only, there were an instruction manual of some kind.
Fortunately, there is a blueprint of sorts. The description of the Proverbs 31 woman represents about as simple an example of a home-based business as one can find. Also, because the example is so old, it doesn’t incorporate some of the modern factors that confuse the path to entrepreneurship today. So let’s see how the Proverbs 31 mompreneur is described as setting up her venture in order to produce such a generous return!
Breaking Down the Basics
As we’ve discussed previously, a business is usually designed to receive income by providing a good or service to its customers. In order to do that, a business would need something to sell, a target audience of potential customers, a way to market its offering, a means of accepting payment, and a method for delivering the purchased item to its clients. We’ve already established that the Proverbs 31 woman is running a business, so let’s examine how her business is positioned to address these vital requirements of entrepreneurship.
It’s easy to identify what our lady sells. We are almost immediately informed that she secures flax and wool to spin into thread, which is then woven into cloth. This fabric is then used to make clothing for sale (verses 13, 19, 24). At the same time, we are advised that our Proverbs 31 lady has also purchased land and planted a vineyard. Given her other business activities, it is only reasonable to anticipate that she may soon be offering grapes, wine, and other grape products.
Although the author of Proverbs 31 doesn’t explicitly state our businesswoman’s client niche, her overall description alludes to the identity of her target buyers. In verse 18, our entrepreneur is described as being engaged in trading. Later, in verse 24, we are advised that she offers clothes for sale, and she provides sashes to merchants. If we extrapolate from the information given, it appears that our lady is selling clothes locally to the members of her community. At the same time, she offers wholesale garment prices to a group of merchants, who offer the retail sale of her items in areas further abroad. In this way, the Proverbs 31 woman serves two niches, her local customers and retailers selling items as part of her distribution network.
As we read on, we find minimal information on how the Proverbs 31 woman markets her wares. We are not told if she has a booth in town for the display of her clothing. As discussed in chapter 1, her business seems large enough to afford a small shop in town. However, for the sake of our education on home-based business, let’s assume that she does not have an independent storefront. Although it is likely that she would have graduated to a sales site later in her venture, our businesswoman may have been able to start without one.
The description seems to support that the Proverbs 31 business was capable of being marketed from its owner’s home. Verse 22 states that our mompreneur makes the coverings for her bed. This is in addition to the fact that she’s making clothing and sashes for sale (verse 24). If she makes her own bedsheets and quilts, why wouldn’t our lady have made the scarlet and purple clothing worn by herself and her household in verses 21 and 22? There’s a reasonable chance that she did. If this were the case, she, her family, and servants would all serve as walking advertisements for the quality of her wares. In addition, she would have received additional word-of-mouth marketing from the people wearing her clothing throughout her region.
There is no description of how the Proverbs 31 businesswoman is paid for her products. However, it seems logical that our lady would sell her clothing, accessories, and produce for payment in the currency of her day. She appears to have two paying customer bases consisting of local clothing buyers and traveling merchants. Even though we aren’t told how she is paid, we are informed that her business is profitable enough for her to dress her family in clothing colored with very extravagant dyes (verses 18, 21, 22). Despite enjoying these luxuries, the Proverbs 31 woman is noted to have sufficient remaining income to accumulate savings. She takes a portion of her profits and invests in land for a vineyard (verse 16). This appears to be part of her plan for the next phase of her entrepreneurial venture.
The delivery of our lady’s wares is not stated, but it is implied. Her local customers probably pick up garments at her home – and maybe later her store. Her merchant distributors would be more likely to pick up batches of sashes from her home. They may also have received batches through local deliveries performed by servants or contracted couriers. The distributors would then mark up and sell the items making a profit of their own.
Fingerprints of a Virtuous Businesswoman
As stated earlier, Proverbs 31 does not present a complicated business. Despite this fact, all of the essential elements are there. It just goes to show that a system doesn’t have to be complex to meet the criterion for being a functional business. At the same time, there appear to be a few other elements that cause the Proverbs 31 woman’s businesses to be just as unique as its owner.
First, it appears that our businesswoman selects a venture that suits her skillset. She is a seamstress and quilt-maker who knows how to spin her own thread and weave cloth (verse 13, 19, 22). It only makes sense that we should find her operating a clothing business that centers on these abilities.
While it appears that our lady does very well in her trade, the author of the chapter makes a point of stressing the many ways in which character of the Proverbs 31 woman bleeds into her business practices. She is almost immediately described as being a trustworthy person, who is invested in bringing value to her family, household servants, and community (verses 11, 15, 20, 31). Her commitment to excellence probably shows in her work and the quality of her clothing. The Proverbs 31 businesswoman also demonstrates a generosity of spirit through her philanthropy and willingness to teach what she has learned to others (verses 20 and 26). Finally, it would appear that she only sells items that she and her family would use for themselves. This is exemplified by the fact that our lady and her household are dressed in expensive clothing, which is probably made by her business (verses 21 and 22). In these ways, the character traits of the Proverbs 31 woman become part of the branding of her business. One might argue that this is the case for every business owner.
Our final point of study is that the Proverbs 31 woman’s business is marked by her willingness to cultivate relationships with others. Throughout the passage, it is noted that she collaborates with other business owners. Instead of producing her own flax and wool, she appears to buy it from another vendor (verse 13). She also coordinates with retail clothing sellers to provide batches of garments that they can offer for individual sale. Her business flourishes because it is both supporting and supported by other businesses in her area.
In these ways, we see that the business of the “Wife of Noble Character” bears the fingerprints of its creator. It is organized to function in a practical manner while allowing her to operate in her areas of strength. She uses her abilities to grow a business that offers quality products, education, and philanthropic support to her community, while also helping to provide for her family. At the same time, she designs her business to exist in collaboration with other business owners in her area. With a business system like this, is it really a surprise to find that people simply adore her?
Just as the character traits of the Proverbs 31 woman clearly influence how she structures her business plan, her personal choices also shape how she approaches the daily management of her business systems. Join us in chapter 3, where we’ll study how our lady uses management strategies to intentionally mold her business into balance with her lifestyle and long-term plans!
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Thank you for reading! If you’d like access to this section’s author notes and assignments, click here to purchase ebook access.
Until the next chapter, good luck with the growing!
D’Loreyn