Rick Allen

Entrepreneur

30fold Inc, YBOTI Web Design

Spread The Word

I have a burning desire to help people.

One great frustration in the world of entrepreneurship is understanding and working with it's natural cycles. In agriculture, we understand and can easily predict the cycles, and no one drops seed today and expects harvest tomorrow. But we routinely do this as entrepreneurs. Cycles are unpredictable. We have no almanac to tell us the best day to plant, if the season is rainy or dry. But at least if we understand there are cycles there as in planting a crop, we can begin to read the seasons.

The biggest mistake I see entrepreneurs make is to depend on their new venture to feed them as it grows. That's like having a child and expecting it to be the breadwinner day one. We must nurture and feed out new offspring, and grow it into something strong before we begin to lean on it. There are plenty of opportunities that do not require huge start-up capital. But they all have start-up investment of time and effort. If you need an immediate support system, adopt a thirty year old. Warning. The adoption fee will be hefty.

Patience, patience, patience

Rick worked with mechanical systems, machine design, and supervised a plant maintenance crew before following the footsteps of his father and brother as a representative of an automotive diagnostic equipment company where he learned to sell, teach, train, and market. That was all before personal computers and cell phones. Within a short time though, the industry he worked in faded and died. But a rebirth took place. He arrived at his next position on the same day as a new IMB PC. “They didn’t know quite what to do with either of us, so we quickly made fast friends,” Rick recalls. And for the next twenty-five years, computers became his livelihood.

Always an avid student of scripture, Rick was finally able to integrate his love of God’s word as a webmaster, a business consultant, and then, as the owner of an online Christian store. When the service provider of the store went out of business, Rick combined leadership abilities, his computer and internet savvy, and his communication skills to help birth a new company, 30fold. Nurturing store owners, teaching new skills, and helping guide the company technologically, he absorbed everything he could from his business mentor and friend, John Godzich. “John has had a powerful impact on my life,” Rick credits. “His ability to simplify the complexity of human behavior, to help people see themselves in a new light, and then to behave differently and achieve better results is amazing. And his ability to make all of that duplicable, so that success could breed success consistently is truly fascinating.”

Having now followed his mentor into the leadership position of 30fold, Rick is motivated to apply all the principles of success he has learned, and to use those same principles throughout the organization so that each team member can achieve everything that God will bless them to do.

Most recently, Rick made a bold move to take 30fold in a brand new direction. While maintaining his love and zest for the Christian marketplace and online Christian bookstores, he also recognized a great need. His own business, like all businesses, needed good legal guidance and services far beyond the financial reach of most new companies. He found that not only was there a well established company providing legal services affordable to individuals and small businesses like 30fold, they also offered a unique business proposition. Today, under 30fold Benefits Group, Rick and his nation wide team help other small companies - in his words - "get the justice they deserve rather than just what they can afford."