Rep Ploshay is an experienced business man who uses the teachings of God as his guide. He sits down with Luke to talk about how he started to incorporate his faith into his business, tithing to the church, and supporting companies that openly participate in a biblical lifestyle.
Key Takeaways:
2:15 – Rep knew at an early age that he wanted to have his own business.
6:05 – Rep and his wife attended church one day and felt inspired to work on the nursing home business full time.
7:50 – There’s always going to be good and bad times, but the bad times aren’t going to be as bad when you have faith in the Lord.
12:40 – It took Rep a little while to tithe 10% to the church, but life has been so much better since he did.
16:45 – Rep believes corporations should remain neutral, but if they’re actively and openly supporting a lifestyle that is not biblical, then he will not purchase from that company.
17:45 – Galatians 2:20 is the verse Rep reads in his time of need and he explains how this verse helps him keep going.
19:25 – Rep talks a little bit about investments.
Tweetables:
“If you don’t like what you’re doing it, then you shouldn’t be doing it.”
Transcript
Luke McClure:
I’m sitting here with business owner Rep Ploshay. At the age of 20 he started his own medical business. 26 years later he still doing what he loves, he’s following God, and still using biblical principles in the work place. Welcome to the show, Rep.
Rep Ploshay:
Thank you.
Luke:
Tell us how you got started in the medical business? Let’s just tell the story of how you got started all the way to the present day, we’re just kind of walk through it, then you can share when and where you started implementing biblical principles
Rep:
Yes, Luke, I’d be glad to. I grew up, my parents had a laboratory, so I saw small business ownership from a young age. When I was in college, I had to support myself, So, I was always trying to think of a way to have my own business, because working for minimum wage wasn’t getting me through college. I had this idea of contracting with a laboratory for blood draws, so collections, and so approached the lab about it and showed them where I could save them some money and a lot of headache with staffing and did that.
That put me through college, had a pretty good income doing it, but my real passion was nursing homes. I wanted to run one. I guaranteed with a degree in business and a degree in gerontology. From there went to work as a nursing home administration and, of course, I wanted to have my own business once again. Working for corporate of America wasn’t as fun as I thought it would be.
So, I had an idea of starting a clinic with the nurse practitioner in the nursing home while I was an administrator. I wrote a business plan. The company I was working for had 45 nursing homes, so I saw some opportunity with expansion. I showed them how it could help the residents/patients, it could help staff with taking care of issues on site, and so they gave me an opportunity.
That was 10 years ago, just over 10 years ago. Now, we’re in 3 states and I’ve actually opened up a medical primary care clinic also, just to kind of diversify, because with the nursing home business, it’s 95% medicare/medicaid. Of course, we know where that could possibly go in the future. So, recently started a third business and it is doing some billing, consulting, and compliance work with nursing homes and on-site clinics in nursing home. That’s kind of where we are today.
Luke:
When did you start using biblical principles in your businesses that you started? When you started you using those, tell us why and what happened when you started using biblical principles and using your faith in with your business.
Rep:
Yes, Luke, there’s no question God was a part of the business we’re in now. Prime Source Nursing Services Incorporated. I tell you, hurricane Katharine hit, you know all about that. It was a very difficult time for all and we were only in business for about 8 months and we were in 4 nursing homes. We were doing pretty good and growing rapidly. We lost 74% of our business in Katharine. One home was washed away totally, our largest home, then our second largest home, the medical director’s practice went under water, literally. He moved into the nursing home to survive, so he replaced our nurse practitioner. We employed nurse practitioners that work in nursing homes.
Well, so at that point we had to make a decision. Either resign from the nursing home or do this full time or let the business go. Of course my wife being conservative, she said, no, we both have good jobs. She’s an RN working at a hospital at a time, now she’s home. I kept on her almost everyday talking to her about it. I said this is an opportunity of a life time, we need to do this. We didn’t quite have all the financing we need, so I approached a couple of investors and she was still not on board.
We went to church one Sunday and they had a guest speaker, I’ll never forget this, real powerful speaker, and he said, “If you were ever thinking about making a change in your life, when you go through something like this, you’ll never have a better opportunity. This is the time to do it.” We walked out of that church and my wife looked at me and said, “I wanna do it. Let’s quit our jobs, I’m with you. I’ll run the office,” She also has a degree in finance, “And you’ll do the outside sales and operations.” That’s what we did. It’s been a tough road at times, but it’s been all worth it.
I left something out there. Shortly after that we went to Cicero, we were both saved, and from that point on we had used..God has been part of our life and our business and our tithing and our giving just in a daily walk. My wife is a little bit better at the day to day stuff than I am. She holds devotionals at work. Our employees know we don’t use foul language.
The employees, the staff, the people, our clients, everyone is treated equally, with respect, whether they are a large client or a small client or just the person who cleans the office. It’s just something we stand for and during those tough times whenever business..Every business is going to have ups and downs and those down turns in business, you know, whenever you have faith in the Lord you don’t worry as much as you do whenever you don’t have faith. There was a time I didn’t have faith and those times are very different than now.
Luke:
So let’s talk some more detail about how you brought your faith into the workplace, into the business. When was the first time you decided you were going to, say, do a devotional at work and incorporate the employees? How did you begin to do this and explain it to them? What kind of role did you play and how important was it? How important you feel it was for your business and where it is now?
Rep:
Well, I have to give the credit to my wife in this area. You know, where we spend our money is very important to me. I believe in supporting Christian organizations American Family Radio we support highly. They kind of keep us up to date on what’s going on in the country and different businesses that are not supporting or against Christ or God or Merry Christmas, but my wife started doing devotionals a long time ago. I mean, at the very beginning, those, it just kind of sets the tone for the day and, I think, overall, it helps people know where we stand.
Our employees know where we stand. Are all of our employees Christian? No. We don’t force them to be involved in devotionals. I can only think of one that chose not to, but more than anything, they do it out of curiosity and more and more they can see they get involved in their own lives. From going to church when they didn’t. It’s just good to see other people start to do more on their own after seeing an example and really the credit goes to my wife, Jenna, in this area.
Luke:
How do you think it’s affecting your business since ya’ll praying in the work place and doing devotional and stuff like that like once or twice a week or however often you do it?
Rep:
Well, that’s difficult to answer, because I can’t compare it to anything else. It’s all we know now.
Luke:
How would you say the mood is at the office and how people treat each other and stuff like that in reference to having this, do you think it helps? Do people get along and stuff like that?
Rep:
Well, absolutely. I think that, you know, forced conflicted, every business is going to have conflict, but over 10 years I can only think of a couple of times that we really hard a real distention in the office and it’s usually 2 or 3 people against another. We addressed those issues, told them how we felt, supported the person that they were attacking, for lack of a better word, and when you explain to them in a biblical sense what you’re doing and why you’re doing it from our side, I think they just understand better.
You know, we really, for the most time, have a good time at work. I believe if you don’t like what you doing then you shouldn’t be doing it. I will say this too, the Lord has put on my heart that we pay people more than what’s required. So, we have a high payroll and Jen and I don’t make as much money as we could, but the Lord requires that of us, so they can have some quality of life too in their income. Speaking of the quality of life, you know, that’s something when it comes to family or anything that if someone requests to time off, if it’s important for them to request it, it’s important enough for me or us to give it to him. So, that’s just another area that the Lord that puts it in the heart to honor.
Luke:
You mentioned it was important to tithed or to be a good steward of the money or the income or whatever God has blessed us with, it just fits in with God requires you to pay your employees well, because you feel He’s blessed you, you should bless others. Paying a wage that you feel is comfortable, that you feel in honorable to God, right?
So, I guess you’re making a decisions based on what you feel God would look down and see, and it would approve of these decisions, correct? So, tell us how tithe…I know with me, when we decided to tithe, we’d do a certain amount, whatever amount we felt we could do or the 10% we were trying to work up towards that. It’s important, but a lot of people struggle in that area. Was there a time where you decided now in your life you’re going to start tithing and doing it the way God wanted you to do it, was it hard to make that decision to be a good steward and start tithing with God and start making these decisions to making sure you’re paying employees a wage God would feel that honored him?
Rep:
Well, this is a tough one because what my thanks on heaven, not on earth. Also being honest, whenever we were saved, became saved, this was the very beginning of starting our business, we were owning tithing 4% of our income. We didn’t even know exactly what we were tithing. Once we were saved, the Lord almost immediately gave us understanding in this area. It took us probably 2 or 3 years to get to 10%,
So, at that point we’ve always given 10% personally, then we started giving in our business. I don’t know our percent exactly, but it’s probably 15-18% is what we give, because we have certain organizations we give in the business, whether we make a profit or not. I know this, the more we give, the more we receive. The old saying is you can not give the Lord, it’s true in our business, I can say that. I don’t even question what we give every month. I just sign the checks. We are disciplined in that area and we’ve been blessed for it.
Luke:
You mentioned supporting Christian organizations, local organization, was there a time where you had to make a decisions to stop using a certain organization because it wasn’t inline with your moral values and start using other organizations or Christian organizations that was more inline with your morals and values?
Rep:
Yes, this is fairly new that we’ve really giving some more discipline. We’re starting to support organization and be more conscious of that. American Family Radio, who I mentioned, they are really do a good job at keeping up with businesses that are against Christ and those businesses that won’t allow their employees to say Merry Christmas, they’re on the naughty list or organizations we feel should stay neutral in the cultural war, but if you are supporting a certain lifestyle that is not biblical, then we’re not going to purchase from that organization.
I’m not going to name any names, but there’s quite a few out there that are activists in a lifestyle that is not biblical in our opinion. I just hope, my wish is, companies stay neutral American Family Radio says this and I agree with that. I know we have to remember that we’re all sinners and we have to hate the sin and love the sinners. I have been through some tough things in my life as most people have, just know that Christ will get us through, so we want to support organizations that will help their people too.
Luke:
Do you have any favorite scriptures verses that you fall back on that you can use as a foundation for your faith and to implement biblical principles in your business?
Rep:
I do, Galatians 2:20. I should know this by heart by now, but I’m going to read it. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Luke:
So, how would you feel that scripture verse, what kind of role does it play in your life and your business?
Rep:
Well, I just have to remember every day throughout the day, I think of everything that I do, you know, the saying, “What would Jesus do?” It’s so true and accurate. If I’m not trying to do what Jesus would do, then I would need to reassess my thinking. I want Christ to live in me and if Christ is living in me, then I’m naturally going to make the right decisions.
Luke:
What about investing? Do you invest in companies that that are inline with your moral and values..were there ever any companies that weren’t and you stopped investing with them and you went with other investments with other companies? What kind of investments do you do and how do you bring your faith into that area?
Rep:
Well, this is the next step in our faith, because right now we are invested in mutual funds and we’ve been looking to this and we realize that our 401k money personally and throughout our company is not being invested where it should be, so we’re in the process of making that change right now. We’re actually looking through Dan Celia, Financial Issues, he’s on American Family Radio, so that’s the next step in our faith.
Luke:
Tell us a bit about Dan Celia, I mean you heard him on American Family Radio, what kind of roll did he play in your life?
Rep:
Well, he just sort of daily basis gives some good sound advice on where to put your money, different types of companies, and where it’s safe, and the other thing he tells us is there are companies out there that are not biblical responsible and he points those companies out and we need that.
Luke:
It sounds like Dan is a pretty awesome guy, I can’t wait to check him out. So he’s really focused on biblical responsible investing and I guess you use him to kind of lead you or guide you you and your family and your business as well. Rep, thank you for being here, I really appreciate it. I really enjoyed your stories and I know it’s going to bless many people.
Rep:
Thank you, Luke, so much.