Doing Business by the Book (Bible)

Doing Business by the Book (Bible)

Christians pray every day for the success of themselves and others. They pray for the safety of their customers or clients as well as their family and friends. When you work your business by the book, you will be successful.

The first thing you need to do when you get up in the morning is to pray. Pray about your business and how you want it to go that day. Pray that you will have a successful day and that you will accomplish everything you set out to do.

Next you need to set your goals and plan for the day. Proverbs 13:16 says “Wise people think before they act” (NLT). This means we need to think and plan before we do anything. When we do this, we will reach our goals and dreams and we will have the success that God says we will have.

Proverbs 21:5 says “Good planning and hard work lead to prosperity, but hasty shortcuts lead to poverty” (NLT). This means you need to plan your work and work your plan. When you take shortcuts and you don’t plan, you will not have prosperity.

When you include God in your goal setting you will have success and it will show. James 4:15-16 says “What you ought to say is “If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.” “Otherwise you are boasting about your own plans, and all such boasting is evil.”” (NLT)

When you seek counsel from God, he will bring you great success. Proverbs 15:22 says “Plans go wrong for lack of advice; many advisers bring success”. (NLT) This basically means you and God plan you will have success. When you try to plan alone you will not have success due to lack of advice.

Sometimes during business, we may feel stress or we may feel that things are not working out. This is the devil trying to attack. He is trying to make us feel like God is not on our side and he is not there to help us work our business. Proverbs 3:5 says “Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding.” (NLT)

As Christian business owners, we need to rely on God to help us grow and be successful. The only way this will happen is to trust in God and let him guide you in the direction you need to go. God will show you what to do and how to do it if you let him. Plan your business around him and do what he tells you. Start each and every day with prayer and you will know what to do next. God will always show you the way when you include him in what you do.

How Christians Do Business

How Christians Do Business

Christians run wonderful and successful businesses and the reason is because they have faith and they trust in God to lead them in the right direction. They also have faith and believe that God will guide people to them and that he will help them work their business in a Christian way.

There are several things you need to do to run a successful Christian business.

1. Prayer

Start your day with prayer. Pray that you will know exactly what to do to reach the goals and dreams you set for that day. Also pray for your customers or clients. Pray that God will lead them in the right direction and that they will reach the levels of success they have set for themselves.

2. Daily devotionals

Daily devotionals are short readings or studies that will help you grow your faith. It’s a great way to start or end your day. You will be in faith and feel great about your day and everything that it brings.

3. Tithe

Tithe with the income from your business and you will be rewarded by God. Not only will you feel the reward because you will be helping your church, but you will also see the rewards through God. He will lead people to your business and he will help you grow your business in ways you never thought possible.

4. Customers or clients

Pray for the success of your customers or clients. You should also pray for the health and safety each day. When they are successful, healthy, and safety they will spend more with you.

5. Organize

Organize your days and weeks so you can be successful. Create a to-do list and make sure you include prayer time and devotional time. When you start your day with prayer time you will feel refreshed and ready to start your day. When you have your devotional time, you will learn more and you will feel much better about running your day because you will be doing it the way God wants you to.

6. Prayer

End your day in prayer. Thank God for those things that happened during your day and thank him for a great day tomorrow. Thank him for all the goals you achieved and for the items you were able to cross off your list.

Starting your day with prayer and a daily devotion will help you start your day on the right foot. When you pray at the end of your day, you will be able to spend the rest of your day praising God for the success you had. When you run your business the way God wants you to do it, you will be successful and you will reach your goals.

How to find other Christians to work with

How to find other Christians to work with

As a business owner, you have the ability to pick and choose who you will work with. That’s one of the benefits of owning it yourself instead of working for someone else.

When you own a Christian business, you may feel it’s hard to find other Christians to work with. You don’t have to worry, because there are quite a few ways to find them. You will need to search for them because they will be a little harder to find, but it is possible.

1. Message boards

Search Google and Yahoo for message boards that are specifically for Christians. When you join these boards, make sure you set up your profile and post an intro so others can get to know you. Also make sure you set up a signature line if it doesn’t say anything about it in the rules.

Make sure you read through the rules so you know what you can and can not do. Most message boards have days or categories where you can post information about your business. Make sure you do this on the appropriate days so you don’t get kick out because you didn’t follow the rules.

2. Social Media

Social media sites like Twitter.com and Facebook.com are great places to find Christian people. You can do searches using keywords that fit your business to find others. These places are perfect to meet others and find people to do business with. Network on these sites and build relationships so you can build trust with them. When you do this, they will feel comfortable purchasing from you.

3. Groups

Search for Christian groups on Yahoo and MSN. There are literally thousands of groups on Yahoo if you search using only the keyword Christian. You can take it even further when you use other keywords that are more fitting for your business and the types of people you are looking for.

4. Offline

You can find Christians offline in churches or other functions that are designed for Christians. You may be able to find networking functions to go to or you can set up your own Christian groups and invite people to them.

5. Websites

Find Christian websites and look at the ads and other information they provide. You may be able to find other sites that are for Christians looking for business partners or customers. You may also find other sites that you haven’t been to that offer the support you are looking for through the Christian people.

Finding other Christians to work your business with is easier to do when you follow these steps. Look for them wherever you go and when you find them, bookmark that site so you can go back again.

How to Share your Business with Others

How to Share your Business with Others

To grow your business, you need to share it with others. Not every person you show it to will be interested in it, but they may know someone that might be interested.

There are so many ways to share your business with others. Some of it depends on the money you want to spend, some will depend on the time you want to invest, and some will depend on the business you own. Here are some tips that will help you share with others.

• Business cards

Business cards are a great way to show others what you do. The best way to do your cards is to use them as an ad. VistaPrint.com offers free business cards that are nice and you can choose what you want and the words you put on it. Make sure you include your contact information so people will know how to find you.

You can hand your cards out to people when you are standing in line at the grocery store. You can include them with your monthly bills or you can leave them on the table in the waiting room. Business cards are the perfect size to leave just about anywhere.

• Postcards

Postcards are a great way to share your business with others. You can mail them to your target market, you can include them in mom packs or orders that are shipped out, or you can hand them out to people when you are at the library with the kids. You can put more information on a postcard than you can a business card, so these come in handy when you have a special or need to give more information to attract someone to your site.

• Samples

Giving samples away are perfect because people love to get something for free. A lot of businesses have trial sizes you can give out or you can create your own. Lotion, candles, makeup, and perfume make great samples. You can take a regular sized bottle of lotion or perfume and put them in a small bottle and get quite a few samples out of it. With the candles you can cut it into slivers or shred it so you can put them in a small bag. You will give them to people so they can smell the sent of the candle. Make sure you put the name of what you are giving them and a way to contact you to purchase their own.

These three suggestions will work great for almost any business you could run. Basically you need to find ways to share with others and be creative when you do it. Look at what others are doing and see if you can do it as well.

The main thing is to share your business with others. No matter what you use to do it, when you share you will grow. So be creative and enjoy sharing your business with others.

Businesses that are Perfect for Christians

Businesses that are Perfect for Christians

There are so many businesses that Christians can do. Some may include products that are specifically designed for Christians while others may be designed with everyone in mind.

For some, understanding the difference may be difficult at best. Let me explain a few things here. If you love to help others and you are good at administrative work, you could run a Virtual Assistant business and look for Christian business owners to help. If you like to read books, you could come up with a Christian book business where you only promote Christian books and books written by Christians. You could also be in direct sales and market cleaning products or makeup. Just because they are not specifically designed for Christians only doesn’t mean you can run the business and target only Christian people.

Running a business as a Christian gives you the title of owning a Christian business. When you look for businesses to consider, you can look at just about anything you want. Consider your hobbies and what you like to do. Also consider products that you purchase on a regular basis as well. When you enjoy what you are doing, you will feel more comfortable marketing it.

There are literally thousands of businesses that you can own. Here are just a few ideas to get you started on your research.

1. Affiliate marketing

2. Coaching

3. Virtual Assistant

4. Public speaking

5. Books

6. Makeup

7. Cleaning products

8. Marketing for others

9. Ghostwriting

10. Candles

Each of these businesses is not specifically geared to the Christian, but you can make them that way if you choose. When you put yourself around Christian people, you will market to them and that means you will only deal with Christian people in your business. As a business owner, you have the right to pick and choose who you deal with. You can ask people to tell you if they are Christians and say no to them if they are not. You can include a blurb in your ad that says Christian people only or you can find a way to target Christian people only.

When you own and operate a business, you choose how to run it and who you will deal with. You can deal with any type of person or you can limit yourself to those that are Christians. It makes it easier on you when you know who you are dealing with and what type of people they are. The great thing about owning a business is you set the rules and guidelines.

You are the one that makes all the decisions. When you choose to deal with Christians only and you include God in all the decisions, he will help you grow your business. God will also help you find Christians that want to work with you or buy what you offer. He will lead them to your site and show them why they need to buy from you rather than someone else.

How can you find Christian affiliate programs to work with?

How can you find Christian affiliate programs to work with?

Affiliate programs are great because you don’t have to do anything but share the information with others. Now you may think there aren’t any Christian affiliate programs that you can join, but I’m here to tell you there is. You might be surprised at the number of Christian programs out there.

There are several ways you can find these wonderful affiliate programs.

1. Clickbank

Clickbank is a website that handles thousands of affiliate programs. You can find all sorts of programs when you search by keyword or business name. When you use Christian keywords you will be able to find programs that will fit your needs. When you find one that sounds good, check out the website to make sure it’s what you are looking for. You may also find products that are not Christian based, but the owner is Christian and that’s perfectly fine.

Clickbank will provide everything you need to get started with your affiliate program. So all you will have to do is find ways to market it using the affiliate link they provide. Your payments will also come from Clickbank.

2. Commission Junction

Commission Junction is another site that is real similar to Clickbank. You can sign up for all sorts of programs through their site. Searches are the same and so is the payment. Some of the bigger companies use Commission Junction to handle their affiliate program so don’t be surprised if you are redirected to the Commission Junction site to join. If you are already an affiliate for Commission Junction you can log in through your information and find them in the list and add them to your account. You may have to go through the approval process with that particular company if they have it set up that way.

3. Other programs

Some companies offer an affiliate program that they manage in house. They may use programs like E-Junkie or WAHMCart for their program. The best way to find these are to search Google or Yahoo using keywords that fit what you are looking for and then look through the homepage to see if they offer an affiliate program. You can search for specific types of businesses or certain types of products and then see if they offer an affiliate program. You should also look at the sites you visit often as well. They may also offer a program that you can join.

Joining Christian affiliate programs are a great way to earn extra money while sharing products that you feel comfortable marketing. When Christian people are your target market, you will feel better about marketing Christian products to them. Using these suggestions will help you find them easier and this will help you spend less time looking and more time earning money.

Promoting Christian Affiliate programs

Promoting Christian Affiliate programs

Once you find a Christian affiliate program you are ready to start marketing it. Sharing the program and what it offers is the only way you will make money from it. If you don’t share, people won’t know about it and they won’t buy. There are several ways you can promote the program you are apart of.

1. Blog

If you have a blog, place a button on the side bar and link it to your affiliate link. Most programs offer buttons and banners to use in promotions. You can also use the ads, blog posts, or articles the program owner will supply in blog posts. You can also create your own to place on your blog. Decide what will work for you and run with it. Whatever method you use, make sure you add your affiliate link to it so you are the one getting credit for it.

2. Website

If you have your own website, you can add buttons, banners, text links, or website links to your site. If you have a links page, you can include your affiliate link on that page. If you have button or banner ads on your site, you can include your button and link there as well.

3. Solo ads

Solo ads are great for affiliate programs. You can create an ad or use a blog post as an ad and pay to have an advertising site submit your ad as a solo ad to their lists. There are numerous advertising companies that you can go through. Ask around or do a search to see what you can find. Make sure to ask if their lists are target specific so you can make sure the right people will receive your ad.

4. Button or banner ads

Some websites offer button or banner spots for a small fee. Look for a website that offers this type of advertising that is geared to your target market and place your ad. Some websites offer different prices for different pages while others only have a few pages or maybe even one page. Review their advertising options before you make a decision.

5. Social Media

If you are apart of Twitter.com or Facebook.com you can occasionally promote your affiliate programs on those sites. Remember not to do it too often or you will lose your followers or friends. Some programs offer a Twitter ad that will fit into the 140 character requirement and that same ad can be used on Facebook as well.

Promoting your Christian affiliate programs is the only way you will generate income with them. When you use the suggestions in this article, you will be able to promote them with ease. Don’t be afraid to share them with others. Let God lead you in the direction you should go and what to say.