Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Building A Business Using Wisdom From The Bible




There some benefits to Building A Business Using Wisdom From The Bible that you should know about. First I'll tell you the list of promises God has in the Holy Bible that you'll obtain from wisdom, then I'll share some of the benefits that men have accredited to wisdom.

In order to build your business using wisdom, you have to flip the script. Let me explain just what I mean. We all have been used to seeking the knowledge of experts to get help with business decisions. That's a good habit. A better way is to seek the counsel of Christian businessmen who have wisdom and knowledge to guide your business.

Is there a difference between wisdom and knowledge? It sure is. Wisdom comes from God and has proven time and time again to provide the answers to questions that elude some of the most knowledgeable men in the world.

 How Christian Can Apply Biblical Wisdom

 He was often referred to as the Peanut Man, the plant doctor, or the sage of Tuskegee. Dr George Washington Carver said "I have risen regularly at four o'clock and have gone into the woods and talked with God. There he gives me my orders for the day."

Carver publicly discussed using his inspired methods of research and it left him at odds with the members of the scientific community. They valued rational, deductive methodology over intuition and divine revelation as methods of scientific inquiry.

It was the wisdom gained during his morning talks with God that helped Dr. Carver a former slave, contribute to turning the economy of the South around after the Civil War. He created about 100 products from peanuts that were useful for the house and farm, including cosmetics, dyes and gasoline. Dr. Carver is also credited with over 105 food recipes that used peanuts.

How You Can Obtain Wisdom

Wisdom comes from seeking God. It's one of God's many blessings he bestows on us when we seek him with our heart and soul.

It's not a result of seeking to answer the age old the question of, is there a God.

It's a benefit Dr Carver repeatedly acknowledged. As did King Solomon, who is known as one of the wisest men to have ever lived. The Bible records in Chronicles 9:2-3 that the Queen of Sheba put to King Solomon many questions and was delighted to find that he was able to answer them with wisdom.

Benefits Of Applying Wisdom To Your Business

In his book "The Gospel Of Good Success" (Simon and Schuster) Rev. Kirbyjohn Caldwell listed what he called Rules for the Road. They can help every struggling businessman understand how to use Faith and wisdom in their daily business decisions .

7 Rules For Applying Wisdom

1. The Who's in Charge Principle- Remember God is the owner of your business, you're just the manager.
2. The Give and Grow Principle- God expects blessings to flow through you to those around you.
3. Identify The Spiritual Gifts-When you practice stewardship, you do what God is calling you to do and do it to your very best.
4. Increase Your Faith-When you practice your spiritual gifts your Faith will increase.
5. Become Spiritually Sensitive-When you are spiritually sensitive you can hear God in places other than your ears.
6. Be a Blessing- We should want to be a blessing and not just receive a blessing.
7. Remember Your Indebtedness-We are all indebted to God and previous our generations.


Building A Business Using Wisdom From The Bible will allow you to experience untold benefits. Everyday lots of successful Christians apply wisdom in their business decisions in the 21st Century.

When you access and use wisdom to build a company, you can expect God to surround it with pleasantness, peace and prosperity. To activate wisdom in your business you have to start by making Faith one of your greatest allies in all that you do.

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Friday, November 13, 2009

A.I.D.A The 4 Principles Of Effective Advertising

I've put together a video on A.I.D.A the 4 principles of effective advertising. I used some creative signs written by men who are homeless and rely on their signs to communicate a message to passerby. If you watch this short video you'll see that most of them are unwittingly applying some or all of the 4 effective advertising principles to hustle pocket change.


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Tuesday, October 27, 2009

How To Write Effective Advertising




Every Christian business owner should be familiar with how to write effective advertising. A.I.D.A. are  the 4 basic principles at the foundation of crafting advertising copy that grabs the readers attention and attracts customers for your business.

They are effective tools to use in your sales offers, marketing brochures and advertising copy. It's these four characteristics that will enable your advertising to be more than just another ad. When used properly they should inform and motivate your prospects to act.

It reminds me of the Bible verse in Habakkuk 2:2 where the Prophet is instructed to write down his vision. Then he's told to make it plain, so that the message could be easily understood and taken it to others.

Writing effective advertising has the same requirements. It too should tell an important message and be written using everyday wording that easy to understand and compels the reader to act upon what they've read.

Attention

Your ads should use attention grabbing headlines, words like "free and how to" work well when you are trying to attract buyers to an ad. This is the first principle and it's where most advertising copy falls short.

Interest

To generate interest every ad needs to have information of value to the reader. If it doesn't address a specific problem or need of the target audience it won't hold their interest.

Desire

To create a desire for a product your ad should list the benefits of using your product rather features or pricing. People would much rather pay a few dollars more for a flu shot than spend less money on medicine that doesn't completely solve their problem.

Action

This has to be the most crucial principle in the ad. You always want to tell your prospects just what action you want them to take. Using words like "click here" and "buy now" are the best way to let potential buyers know just what it is you want them to do after they have finished reading your ad.

I've put together a post on where Christian business owners can find free advertising for small businesses not long ago. It has lots more information that you'll find useful. I just completed a video on writing effective ads, using creative signs written men who are homeless and rely on their signs to communicate a message to passersby. Watch the short video and you'll see that most of them are unwittingly applying some or all of these advertising principles to hustle pocket change.

The key to writing effective advertising is using the 4 principles of I've discussed, and to meet as many of the following criteria as possible.

Use bold offers
Generate interest with a story
Offer information of value
Tell prospect what action you want them to take.


People seek out Prophets for answers, because of their relationship with God and their wisdom at solving problems. Customers will seek out your products, if you craft advertising copy that tells them how your product can solve their problem.

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Monday, October 05, 2009

10 Tips For Christian Businesses To Attract Customers Online

biblical character writing

Attracting customers online is an essential part of owning a successful business. It's one of the skills that every Christian business owners needs. The Holy Bible has a biblical principle in Proverbs that entrepreneurs that want to become successful on the Internet should remember.

Do you see a man diligent and skillful in his business? He will stand before kings; he will not stand before obscure men.
Pr 22:29

You've probably already been offered hundreds of opportunities to join traffic exchange programs and generators that promise to send a flood of customers to your website. But what really works best is to have a variety of sources sending traffic to your blog, store or business website.

Since, most Christian businesses don't have an infinite amount of time or finances to bring customers to their site. I'll cover the simple and easy ways that will give you the best payoff for your efforts.

How To Get Your Content To Work Like A Magnet

If you want to get your share of the free traffic on the web you have to be consistent and realize that it takes time to build an authority site with quality visitors who'll spend money.

Make sure you have the name of the brands and product that your customers are looking for displayed prominently in the titles and body of your articles.

You should develop a a large list of several thousand keywords and phrases associated with your product or service to drive traffic to your website.

Add one or two keywords and phrases at a time to your website, starting with the words with the lest competition and move-up gradually to those that are more competitive.

Learn what's working and what's not by consistently analyzing the metrics for your website using Google Webmaster and Google Analytics.

Make sure you link to your website content and not just the main page from Social Media sites and interlink all of your content on your blog.

Use the Adwords Keyword Tool to research every keyword and focus on the words and phrases that your customers use regularly.

Submit your blog/website to as many directories as possible.

Spread your RSS feed around the web, by adding it on your Social Media profiles.

Post you content using multiple methods, video, articles, podcast etc.

Make sure all of the stationery, brochures and anything you do offline has your website address on it.


Why Free Traffic Is The Best Source

You should attract customers to your site using free traffic as often as you can. The 10 tips I've shared with you are the one's I use as well as most of the businesses on the web. You need to focus your efforts on this source of customers so you can have a steady flow of prospects even when your budget is tight. The ideal scenario is to locate a waterfall of free traffic and position your website under it.

His training in the Mosaic Law and skills as an orator are some of the things that made the Apostle Paul such a brilliant letter writer and effective witness for Christ. Over two thousand years after his death we are still reading his letters. Wouldn't you love your website to have that kind of staying power. Then learn the principles and get the skills you need to create useful and relevant content that will attract a flood of business to your website.

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Saturday, September 19, 2009

How Start-ups Can Attract More Local Customers To Their Websites

Fish looking at hook

If your start up has just launched a website one of your main concerns will be getting your website designed to attract more local customers. It is a lot easier than you might think. It doesn't require being a computer whiz or a computer programmer to make it happen. A focused effort using the right words, will get the right people, coming to your website in no time flat.

Many new website owners aren't aware that the local search arena is a little different than competing in the global search market. There are a lot of success stories detailing how local search can pay off for businesses in some big ways. When you target a mix of local and regional traffic, using the appropriate keywords, and making sure your website is part of your sales funnel you can replicate these successes using any website.

How To Attract Customers Who Are Ready To Buy

In a recent New York Times article on Internet marketing Perrone Maintenance Corp., a carpet-cleaning business in Brooklyn, N.Y., discussed how he started his search for more website traffic by advertising on Craig's List. His ad attracted more paying customers for his business, but it had to be updated every week.

People who are ready to spend money often use classified advertising to find a company and a set of keywords different from people who are just looking for information. When individuals are ready to purchase they often will use buying indicators in their search terms and keyword phrases. These are words like buy, purchase and compare that are added to the general search term such as, " where to purchase laptops".

According to recent research 33% of the Internet audience online are ready to buy and looking for businesses to spend their money with. To get them to your website you need to make sure that your content has buying indicators sprinkled throughout your pages.

Start-ups using these terms and phrases will let the search engine know that your page is a place for people to buy your product and not just a source for information on your market.


How To Get Customers To Return To Website Faster


Today, Mr. Perrone says, he gets about 90% of his business from his website that targets New York area customers. Your content should tell local customers that you are in their immediate area and why they should buy from you rather than all of the other choices in the marketplace.

Valuable content should do more than attract a lot of Internet traffic to your website. You should be able to use it to get customers into your sales funnel and build repeat business.

In order to encourage visitors to return to your website try posting coupons and freebies on your website. A coupon that has a significant savings will motivate them to come to your store sooner. If you give them a coupon after a store purchase for a discount for an online purchase you can get them back to the website faster.

Website Traffic Tools

These are just a handful of the traffic tools that every business start-up's website should contain to attract more local traffic. There are also a variety of free E-books on just about any subject you can imagine, that make good gifts to your customers, if they are related to using and caring for your products.

The fuel that drives the biggest part of all Internet traffic is finding quality relevant information. The goal is to align local customers who plan to spend money with one of your sales messages that will direct them to the product that offers the benefits they desire.

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Thursday, September 10, 2009

Starting A Home-based Business

man smiling

If you're you're unsure whether starting a home-based business is right for you I've got a few things that I'd like to share with you. I was getting all of the sales collateral and other marketing pieces together for the launch of a new business and I thought about all the people who will soon be able to start their own business. They won't have to depend on the income from a job that pays them just enough to keep them coming back each week.

Then I read Doug Thorpe's blog talking about the origin of the word “job”. He summarized that it's closely related to morsel or “piece”. In other words a “job” should only be a “piece” of the work you do. However, for some it has become the biggest piece in the puzzle of life.

Job vs. Joy of Business

If you are currently employed you can still put in a few hours each day, toward building your own business. If thinking about the joy of business is all that you've done, and you’re trying to decide between either starting a business or job hunting, let me share a few facts with you.

Do you like a routine or variety?
Do you enjoy competing or cooperating?


If you have any doubts or you’re struggling with the idea of working for yourself, then the joy of business ownership is not for you and you should be looking for a job. Entrepreneurs must have strong self-confidence and be self motivated.
If you are ready to take your future, your destiny, into your own hands and the idea of working for yourself and creating your own income excites you, then let me give you a few facts before you get started.

Most U.S. business have 20 are fewer employees.
Ideas for potential new businesses are climbing each year.
Courageous entrepreneurs in the U.S. start more than 600,000 businesses each year.

Now that you realize that starting a home-based business puts you in good company and that you're not the only person that feels compelled to own their own business. The next blog post will talk about how get there from where you are today, starting with a personal assessment of some of the skills that you will need to be successful in business.

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Sunday, August 23, 2009

Biblical Principles For Starting A Business

cake top

Using biblical principles when starting a business is not for everyone. It's a must for some people. Especially Christians who want to reinvent themselves, take control of their future and those you've grown tired of exchanging their time for way to little money.

Each year over 1 million new businesses are started in the U.S. I have been self-employed for the past 19-years and helped others get businesses started. I'm in the process of launching another business and if you're thinking about starting your own business I'll gladly share a few tips to help you get on the right foot.

I discovered that owning a business and getting married have a lot in common. For instance about 50% of the business started fail in the first few years. Marriages in The U.S. have about the same rate of survival too. Could it be because people spend months and even years planning for the physical aspects of the wedding, but little or no time mentally preparing for the marriage.

The same thing happens with a lot of new business owners they're willing to spend lots of time, money and effort on the nonessentials, colors for their business, the decor, the furnishing, but little if any on making the needed mental adjustments. If you want to avoid falling into this trap, you need to start by getting yourself prepared mentally, spiritually and physically for business.

Preparations For Starting A Business


The crucial first step is to prepare your mind…heart…spirit for the paradigm shift into the new mindset you need for the journey to become an entrepreneur. If you have been earning an income by working in a job for most of your life you have to accept the fact that you are taking your future into your own hands.

There won't be anyone to tell you how many hours to work and when it's time to start and stop. Nor will there be a paycheck waiting just because you spent 60 hours in the past week trying to make a sale. The whole concept of being paid for each and every hour you work is a key part of the old way of thinking, that you will have to change.

If want to create a business that has a positive cash flow and adds value to your life instead of draining your energy, you need to understand that it all starts with your mind.

Biblical Principles For Business Success


We were wonderfully made and God equipped our brains with the tools that we need, we just need to learn how to access them. James Allen may be credited with writing the timeless classic "As A Man Thinketh", but this a principle that is intrinsic to man. A divine principle, we are directed to follow, taken from Proverbs 23:7 in the Holy Bible.

If you're planning to start your own business you should learn how your state of mind influences your future through these key habits.

Self talk...how what you say to your self, about yourself, influences your feelings, stress, and the outcomes.

Positive affirmations...positive statements that you should repeat with attention, conviction, interest and desire to influence your subconscious mind and trigger it into positive action.

Attractions principles...how to attract the things you want and deserve and not what you don't want.

Now that you are aware that using biblical principles when starting a business can make a huge positive impact on your future, you should be applying them and accessing your mental tools. They are some of the things that successful Christian businessmen use and you need as part of your daily routine, if you want to increase your chances for success.

This is one of the areas that people fail to adequately prepare for in business and later on it comes back to haunt them. If you want to get your mindset in shape for business? Take the time to visit one of the best Internet coaches there is, James Holmes at the Internet Business Blueprint. He has put together vlog and podcast on the attraction principle that will give you a better understanding of how to apply it to tune-up your mindset.

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Monday, August 10, 2009

Starting A Business

man sweating

In a down economic cycle starting your own business might be one of the things you consider doing, especially if you're unemployed for a long period of time and have some management experience. Or maybe, you just have that burning desire to break free of the 9 to 5 routine.

I read an ABC News story on how a woman started a business with virtually no money, and decided to share a few of the nuggets that I gleaned from that report in this blog.

Having a huge nest egg to start a business isn't one of the essentials. Many businesses can be started for less than a 1,000 dollars and some for a few hundred. What is important is that you plan your work and work your plan.

There is a Bible story in Genesis 29-31:55, about a young man who lacked the finances to buy his own herd of animals so he contracted to tend his uncles herds in exchange he would receive any the spotted cows and goats that were born, as his wages. That was his game plan, to get the stock he needed to start his own herd.

The young herdsman developed a plan to feed the animals a special diet which he hoped would cause them to produce more spotted offspring than usual.

In today's competitive marketplace a businessman can greatly increase his or her chance for success by having a written plan. I've identified some simple steps for planning a business. If your back is up against the wall and you need to create an income, here a some useful tips to get you started on the right track.


Tips for Starting a Business


A written plan for a start-up doesn't have to be extensive and formal like a corporate business plan. You can start out with a simple one page business plan. It should link together your planning, marketing, strategy and execution.

It's mostly an outline, to clearly show 4 key things, the mission , the company's objectives, the strategies and the actionable steps.

The mission should answer, Why does your business exist?

Objectives, indicate what you should measure.

Strategies, show things that need to be done to accomplish your business objectives.

Actionable steps, are specific things that you need to execute to make your business successful.

How To Increase Your Chances For Success

By addressing these things in advance you increase your chances for a successful business. In addition getting those profitable ideas out of your head and on to paper is a an explosive step towards getting started.

The character in our example from the bible didn't have the benefit of using a written plan, but his plan was still successful and before long he had more animals than his boss. The take-away from the story is that resourceful entrepreneurs can be successful.

Here is a link to the ABC News story I referenced at the beginning of this blog post on "how you can start a business for $100.00 or less."

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Thursday, July 30, 2009

10 Keys To A Successful Christian Home-based Online Business

hands reaching out of computer

Many Christian home-based businesses are finding success selling products and services online. Internet marketing is based on some pretty simple stuff. The formulas are already known you just need to know what they are and how to use them to benefit your Christian internet business.

1. Know why you’re in business.
2. Focus on one source for information and ideas.
3. Always act fast.
4. Take consistent action steps.
5. Decide what your priorities are and be willing to make sacrifices.
6. Get help from others, someone who is doing are done what you want to do.
7. Learn as much as you can about online marketing.
8. Get some training on traffic generation techniques
9. Build a list of prospects as you go along.
10. Build a community of loyal followers.

To build a successful Christian online business you don’t have to be a computer whiz, a world class marketer, or even have a college degree. What it does require is a commitment to focus on increasing your personal knowledge and obtaining the best business intelligence possible. You will have to acquire many of these skills yourself. Some of them you can draw on the knowledge of other professionals who are already adept in these areas for your business, company or organization

Personal Knowledge

To develop the personal knowledge needed to run an online business, you have to look inward and answer a few key questions.

1. Why you are in business.

To make money is not enough of an incentive to keep anyone in business for long. Because at times you could probably make more money working for someone else than you’ll make in your own business. You should have a desire to fulfill a need in the marketplace and help others enjoy there lives. This requires a deeper fulfillment and will take goals that require long range planning and objectives.

2. Act Fast

You have to turn on a dime when you compete in a technology driven marketplace. If you spend to much time thinking and mulling over important decisions in your business you can miss a lot of opportunities and lose money in the process. Neither of these are desirable outcomes in any successful business.

3. Become knowledgeable about attracting web traffic.

Forty-eight percent of marketers said that search engine optimization (SEO) was the best method for generating conversions online. This is an area that you need a basic understanding of how it works, but you don’t really have to get bogged down in traffic generation you can always hire others to perform this service for you.

4. Decide what your priorities are.

You’re the only one who can determine what things are important to your business and need to be done now or what things you can put off until later. You have to decide from the outset of your internet business how you will make strategic decisions on who, what when where and how things get prioritized in your business.

Business Intelligence

5. Learn some basic marketing principles.

Sure, if you know the ins and outs of direct marketing, copywriting and promotions you can put together some well organized campaigns. But marketing research, analytics and sales are equally important to your business. If you need to, get help in some of these areas. You still need to be able to have some understanding of the role marketing plays in a company.

6. Build a list of prospects.

Most of your best efforts will come from selling and reselling to people you have done business with before. Some people call it a database, customer list or leads. A big part of internet marketing is building relationships with people on your list, people who you communicate with regularly.

7. Build a loyal following.

Once you have a list, your objective is to convert everyone on that list into loyal followers, regular customers and evangelist for your organization. They will not only become your best customers, but some of them will act like an unpaid a sales team, telling others about your business and be valuable tools in helping your company to grow.

8. Get help from someone who is doing are have done what you want to do.

You can get help from paid consultants, mentors or friends who are willing to guide you and your business from the beginning stages to a level where it’s a viable competitor in your market. You can meet many of them online through forums and social networking. Make sure that these people are trustworthy and rewarded well for their services.

9. Focus on one source of business information.

Many beginning Christian entrepreneurs, business owners and home-based business persons try to digest too much information from too many sources. Before you know it you’re confused from conflicting information, and paying to belong to a bunch of memberships sites with similar products that only causes you to lose valuable time, money and resources because you’re stuck in a vicious cycle of reading and filing data.
Your best bet is to avoid white papers, reports and other information when they are full of hype and short on actual facts. You only need one credible source at a time that you rely on for your information needs.

10. Take consistent action steps.

It’s easy to get overwhelmed when trying to learn something new. Suddenly you find yourself just sitting idly unsure of what to do next. You have to define some strategic steps and commit to taking action everyday in your business. Sure, some days you may accomplish more than on other days, but every day you should have some actionable steps that you are working to complete.

Businesses that operate on the internet fail in the first year, if they don’t accomplish the 10 things on this list, according to Internet Mastery. Now that you are aware of them, it’s up to you to make good use of this list and increase the chances for online success for your Christian home-based businesses.

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Wednesday, July 15, 2009

The 3 Greatest Unique Selling Propositions

hands

When most Christian businesses create a unique selling proposition they seem to use a bunch of crafty words, a slogan, that miss the mark and doesn't pack the same kind of punch as a magnetic marketing message, like a great USP.

I've found three that I think should be in the USP hall of fame if there is such a place. They were chosen because they embrace the basic principle at the foundation of creating compelling marketing messages. A benefit potent enough to move the masses to use your product

John 3:16 "For God So Loved the world he gave his only begotten son so that whosoever believe in him shall not parish but have everlasting life."

This biblical Scripture has become a USP of sorts, for Christians in the past several decades. It targets a specific audience with a powerful message to embrace salvation. It offers a strong benefit, a solution to one of man's problems and states it in a way that is both compelling and easy to remember.

The Greatest Unique Selling Propositions Of All Time


USP - "The nighttime, coughing, achy, sniffling, stuffy head, fever, so you can rest medicine."

USP- "Wonder Bread builds strong bodies 8 ways

USP- "You get fresh, hot pizza delivered to your door in 30 minutes or less -- or it's free."


Even without the names of the companies you should easily recognize the products and most of you have probably purchased them because of the benefits and features stated in the compelling messages.

How Magnetic Marketing Works


Most and all good USP's are designed to appeal to a narrow segment of a vast market. The gulf between the upscale clients and the bargain seekers is huge and few products can satisfy both groups. The creators of these USP's clearly identify their niche and boldly state how they differ from their competitors.

In other words, their stated mission is to strive to meet their respective market’s expectations, to provide a healthier bread, faster pizza delivery and relief from the common cold. Did they do anything different to their products, not hardly.

What they've done is, identify a problem in the marketplace and draw in customers who want a product that will solve their problem. It's pretty simple yet, difficult to do if you don't do some research to get a grip on what your target market needs and expects from your product.

Creating Your Own USP

Your organization won't be able to offer the kind of benefits believers get from having a relationship with Jesus, the son of God. But creating a magnetic marketing message is essential for every Christian business

If you want your company's marketing message to rise above the mosaic of competitive noise you need to evaluate your USP. Make sure that first and foremost that your company is able to deliver on what it promises.

Christian businesses should try to avoid using jargon, instead use everyday language, if they want their message to be easily understood and able to be retained. Finally take your great USP and integrate it into your marketing material. Your letterhead, business cards flyers and everywhere your company name appears it should be there too, compelling, attracting and drawing customers like a picnic draws an army of ants.

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