Christian Consultant Helps Business Owners Build Wealth, Become Givers
by Allie Martin
January 2, 2007
(AgapePress) - - A Christian businessman from Texas is helping people create new business opportunities and then enabling and encouraging the entrepreneurs he assists to share their success with others. In 1996, Gary Findley joined the team of Curves Fitness Centers, which had three locations. When he left in 2005, the business had more than 8,000 locations worldwide. And now the gifted businessman has launched The Findley Group, a franchise consulting firm based in Waco, Texas.
Findley considers his business a ministry. "When we started this company, my wife and I, we really had a couple of goals," he explains. "Those goals are real simple: to create wealth for other people and to give money away." In other words, the businessman says, he wants to help others succeed with their businesses and then teach them how to use their success to help fund other Christian ministries and causes.
God has blessed Findley and his organization in many ways, the entrepreneur notes. "I've been from the bankrupt to the bankroll," he says. "I've been on both ends of the spectrum, learning faithfulness through all that, knowing that God's got another plan."
The Findley group has launched several successful franchises, including Young Chefs Academy, a cooking school for youngsters; Showcolate Products USA, which operates kiosks featuring fresh fruit and chocolate products; and Dogtopia, a "premier" provider of canine daycare and boarding services. And among the many other companies Findley's firm has helped to grow their franchises are V.I.P. Cleaners, Facelogic, Restyle, and Green Life Interiors.
The Christian consultant says the aim of his company is to help business owners that want to franchise in their efforts to "create wealth," and then to "try to encourage them to use the wealth ... to go and do other things for other people and to get involved in ministries -- to use it for the kingdom."
A successful franchise, Findley contends, must first of all feature a unique idea or product and, secondly, must be able to be duplicated. However, as he measures it, ultimate success in any enterprise lies in how much the entrepreneur is able to give away to help others.
Allie Martin, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
