Church Custodial Management (part 1 of 10)

Posted on November 13, 2015 Written by

Hire well

  • The most important part of managing a custodial staff is to hire well.
  • Hire for attitude, not aptitude. You can train a willing, cooperative person to have better skills, but a person’s attitudes are nearly impossible to change.
  • While custodians are not highly paid, there are numerous benefits the church can provide to them:
    • Clothing: the church can buy uniforms so they don’t have to spend money on work clothes
    • Meals: Wednesday suppers can be provided at no cost to the custodial staff, and often there are enough leftovers from other meals during the week to feed custodians and many other staff members
    • Benevolence: when a custodian has a large medical, housing, or other need, the church can step in and help take care of all or part of that need. It will engender loyalty on the part of the custodian and depending on how it is handled, it might not be taxable to the custodian.

 Lead On!

Steve

Filed Under: buildings, church staff, facilities, leadership Tagged: , , ,

10 Financial Ratios (part 5 of 10)

Posted on November 10, 2015 Written by
  1. Debt to Cash in Bank
    1. Definition: Total amount of debt divided by average 3 month bank balance
    2. Results
      1. Minimum: Not to exceed 4:1 which means you have at least one-fourth of your debt in cash on hand
      2. Optimum: Less than 3:1 which means your cash on hand is one-third or more of your debt; you can pay off one-third or more of your debt immediately.
    3. Consequences: The more cash you have, the better interest rate you can get for your debt. This will be a significant savings over time. It will also help you have more peace of mind.

 

Now What? So What?

  • Compare your church’s financial ratios to the optimum range for each ratio.
  • Develop a 2-3 year plan to bring your ratios in line with best financial practices.

 

Lead On!

Steve

 

Filed Under: accounting, budget, church finances, leadership, strategy Tagged: , , , ,

10 Financial Ratios (part 4 of 10)

Posted on November 3, 2015 Written by

Budget percentages

  1. Definition: determine what percent of your annual budget goes to the three categories of church expenses
    1. Building: utilities, building & grounds maintenance and improvements, building insurance, debt payments, and anything else it takes to operate the physical structure
    2. Staffing: all personnel costs regardless of where the staff is budgeted for (you may have custodians in the building budget but they are a personnel expense)
    3. Programming: all expenses related to why the church exists including worship & music, care & fellowship, discipleship & education, missions & outreach (including funds budgeted for a denominational entity)
  2. Results
    1. Building: should be about 20% (plus or minus 5%)
    2. Staffing: should be about 50% (plus or minus 5%)
    3. Programming: should be about 30% (plus or minus 5%)
  3. Consequences
    1. Building: if this is too low you, may be deferring a lot of maintenance; if it is too high, you have more building than you can support
    2. Staffing: if this is too low, you may not have sufficient staff to do the job; if it is too high, you’re not using enough volunteers
    3. Programming: if this is too low, you are cutting your reason for being; if it is too high, … I’ve never seen it too high but make sure you’re paying your staff appropriately and taking care of the building properly

Now What? So What?

  • Compare your church’s financial ratios to the optimum range for each ratio.
  • Develop a 2-3 year plan to bring your ratios in line with best financial practices.

 

Lead On!

Steve

Filed Under: accounting, budget, leadership Tagged: , , ,

10 Financial Ratios (part 3 of 10)

Posted on October 27, 2015 Written by

 Giving Per Adult Per Week

  1. Definition: Divide weekly budget receipts by total Sunday worship attendance
  2. Results:
    1. Minimum: $30 per person per week for a low-end sustainable ministry
    2. Optimum: $40-$55 per person per week for growing ministry
  3. Consequences:
    1. If the average is $25 or less then the church is in financial peril; the financial heathiest churches are $40+ per week and growing year over year.
    2. Chart this giving on a weekly basis to track trends and get ahead of any downturn.

Now What? So What?

  • Compare your church’s financial ratios to the optimum range for each ratio.
  • Develop a 2-3 year plan to bring your ratios in line with best financial practices.

 

Lead On!

Steve

Filed Under: accounting, budget, leadership Tagged: , , ,

10 Financial Ratios (part 2 of 10)

Posted on October 20, 2015 Written by

Donor Giving Curve

  1. Definition: gather 52 weeks’ of donors’ budget gifts and the ages of the donors; add the donors’ gifts into 10-year age brackets; plot the gift totals on a graph.
  2. Results
    1. Your bell curve should peak with the 50-59 age bracket
    2. Optimum: the left shoulder (20s, 30s, & 40s) should be higher than the right shoulder (60s, 70s, & 80s). Younger folk have more debt and less earnings but seniors are trying not to outlive their retirement funds.
  3. Consequences: Look at your graph and move it forward 10-15 years and determine the financial viability of your church.
    1. What will your church’s budget be like in 10-15 years and are you getting ready?
    2. Is your church too dependent on seniors so that when they stop giving your church will have significant financial difficulties?
    3. Is your church developing the younger generations by establishing expectations for them in leadership & volunteer positions and doing continual stewardship education?

Now What? So What?

  • Compare your church’s financial ratios to the optimum range for each ratio.
  • Develop a 2-3 year plan to bring your ratios in line with best financial practices.

Lead On!

Steve

Filed Under: accounting, budget, leadership Tagged: , , ,

10 Financial Ratios (part 1 of 10)

Posted on October 13, 2015 Written by
  1. Debt to Budget Ratio
    1. Definition: Total Debt divided by Total Annual Budget
    2. Results
      1. Maximum: Less than 200%
      2. Optimum: Less than 100%
    3. Consequences: The higher the ratio the less financial margin you have. Churches must have margin to hedge against financial downturns and opportunities. This is just like your home mortgage – the more you owe and pay the bank each month, the less you have to do other things.

Now What? So What?

  • Compare your church’s financial ratios to the optimum range for each ratio.
  • Develop a 2-3 year plan to bring your ratios in line with best financial practices.

 Lead On!

Steve

Filed Under: budget, leadership Tagged: , , ,

Strangling Termites

Posted on October 6, 2015 Written by

An Alabama termite inspector told me that Alabama has three termite colonies per acre. And that a termite can travel up to a quarter mile to find moist wood – it’s only necessary source of food, water and wood. And termites are devastating – a colony can eat over 10 pounds of wood in a year. The cost of replacing that wood can be huge.

We no longer use the chemical DDT to kill termites; instead, one solution is a chemical which inhibits termites from molting. A termite will molt several times in its life as it grows, much like a crab. If a termite can’t molt, it will grow within the existing shell but then it will strangle itself because of the small shell.

I’ve seen churches like that. They have outgrown their current shell but they are unwilling to change/molt. They feel that what worked decades ago should continue to work. Or that the buildings don’t need any updating because they look just fine. Or members don’t realize that church staff today must do things very differently than in prior years. These churches are strangling themselves within their own structures. While the world around them changes, they don’t.

Just like termites adapt to meet their future needs (as part of their life cycle), churches must be willing to explore changes they may need to make and then intentionally decide how they’ll adapt. The saying “change or die” applies quite aptly to termites. It also applies to a lot of churches. Too many are willing to die. There is no need for that – churches don’t need to embrace all changes, but they must be strategic about what they will do to help them survive.

 

Lead On!

Steve

Filed Under: future, strategy Tagged: ,

How to Use Paper Towels

Posted on September 29, 2015 Written by

I really like the Purell hand sanitizers because they dispense “juice” without touching anything. By not touching anything you minimize the spread of germs. But Purell is expensive so it is typically used in critical areas (think, babies) while bathrooms use paper towels.

The US uses a huge amount of paper towels each year. The good news is that we’re washing our hands, a lot. The bad news is that we’re using a lot of paper which ends up in a landfill. Here are three steps to minimize the number of paper towels you use each time you wash your hands AND which help keep the bathroom clean.

  1. Flick your hands 10-12 times in the sink
    1. This gets rid of extra water on your hands. It takes 5-8 seconds to do this and ensures that you’re not dripping water on the counter and floor when you reach for a paper towel.
  2. Get one (1) ONE paper towel
    1. Just one. That’s all you need. Whether it is from a motion sensor machine or a manual dispenser, all you need is one. Use that one paper towel well and it will get the remaining moisture on your hands.
  3. Use the paper towel to clean up the extra water that previous people left around the sink
    1. After you’ve dried your hands with the paper towel, use it to wipe up the water on the counter around the sink. Using the towel helps keep the bathroom clean and uses up the rest of the towel.

Doing these three steps will reduce the number of paper towels you use and keep the bathroom cleaner. That helps everyone!

 

Lead On!

Steve

Filed Under: budget, buildings, facilities Tagged: , ,
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