Graceful Investments: Merging Faith and Entrepreneurship
SharePinEmailJennifer Dawson Running your own business as a single mom is no piece of cake. But God has blessed you with the talent, skill, and determination to succeed. Putting God at the center of your business can help you stay on track and ensure he is constantly leading you. Praying often, partnering with like-minded businesses, and incorporating God…
Jennifer Dawson
Running your own business as a single mom is no piece of cake. But God has blessed you with the talent, skill, and determination to succeed. Putting God at the center of your business can help you stay on track and ensure he is constantly leading you.
Praying often, partnering with like-minded businesses, and incorporating God into your business mission statement are simple ways to keep God as the driving force behind all you do — relying on His love and grace to get you through challenging times.
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Merging Your Faith and Entrepreneurship
Pray often
If you’re like most other single mom entrepreneurs, you’re no stranger to stress. Prayer is a stress-busting solution that can get you through inevitable uncertainty as a small business owner. Think of regular prayer as having God on speed dial.
It helps you connect with Him so His wisdom can lead you forward daily. When crafting an effective prayer, ensure your words are clear and concise yet brimming with unwavering faith and a desire to serve your customers.
Keep unholy motives like selfishness, greed, jealousy, and ungratefulness out of your prayer (and all aspects of life), as these aren’t aligned with God’s teachings.
Christian Web Host provides an excellent example of a prayer you can use for business success: “Dear Lord, I ask for your graceful guidance as I build and grow this business. I put my trust in your hands that you will bless my business, my suppliers, my customers, and my employees. I pray that you protect this enterprise and the investments I’ve put into it. I ask that you lead me, guide me, and advise me. May my journey be generous, fruitful, and successful today and always. I pray to you with all that I am and all that I hold. Amen.“
Partner with like-minded businesses
Whether you’re looking to access new customers, reach new markets, or boost brand awareness, business partnerships pave the way to tremendous success. Yet, although forming a new relationship is exciting, it’s essential to do your due diligence on potential partners and take your time with significant decisions.
Above all, partner with a business that shares your values. Ensuring you and your partner share your short-term and long-term goals and values can help avoid clashes and disagreements, which can be detrimental to your business.
In this way, a business relationship isn’t much different from a marriage. You and your chosen partner must share the same values and maintain open lines of communication even when times get tough for the best chances of success.
Tapping into the wisdom of the Holy Spirit through prayer can help you make the right decision when choosing a business partner. The Spirit may give you the green light, warn you not to go any further, or, in some cases, tell you to be patient as the answer slowly becomes apparent.
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You can also turn to the Bible for God’s wisdom. In 2 Corinthians 6:14, Christians are warned against partnering with non-believers. Paul says: “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?”
The meaning of this allegory may take time to be apparent to modern readers. In Biblical times, a yoke of oxen was used to pull a large plow or heavy load. If the strength of both animals weren’t equally matched — meaning if one was weaker than the other — they would fail to complete their task.
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Christians can learn from this allegory today. If you team up with a business that doesn’t share your faith, you’ll find it harder to lift the weight of your shared burden, lessening your chances of reaching your business goals.
Incorporate God into your business mission statement.
Incorporating God’s word into your business mission statement is another easy way to involve God in your business. Your mission statement explains what your business does and the motivation behind it — the impact you hope to make in God’s kingdom.
A God-infused mission statement should, above all, be customer-centric. Loving your customers is loving your neighbors, one of God’s most outstanding commands. However, a customer-centric mission statement doesn’t necessarily have to be explicitly Christian to be effective. In this case, customers may not recognize the Godly foundations your business is built upon.
However, they may still be attracted to your business due to your commitment to customer satisfaction.
God gave you the vision for your business, and only by putting Him first will you be able to build a purposeful and lucrative venture. By incorporating God into your business mission, partnering with like-minded businesses, and praying often, you can merge faith and entrepreneurship and divinely grow your business.
Author Bio: Jennifer Dawson