3 Ways Christian Businesses Can Attract More Customers

You may recall a quote in my last post? Where I mentioned that Dunn and Bradstreet attributes the lack ofsales and customers as major reasons that many businesses fail. I've dug up some tips and tools that I've found useful in my business, to help Christian businesses over come these dangerous hurdles by attracting more customers and sales.

Direct marketing

Saves you time and money by getting your message to your target market without using a third party like a newspaper or a commercial.

Marketing Research

Smart Christian business owners strive to learn as much as possible about their customers needs. They make an effort to find out what there wants, needs and what motivates them to buy.

Analytics

Understanding your customers and how they behave to specific offers to buy reduces the guess work of how to fill your Christian business with a pool of buyers.

Take the time experiment with these tools and see which one's are the right fit for your business. Before long your friends and family will be saying the same things about your business skills that Hiram said about Solomon.

6 Deadly Sins Christian Businesses Can Avoid

According to Dunn and Bradstreet most businesses fail because of a lack of customers and sales. I've identified 5 other deadly sins or problems that Christian Businesses must avoid. Because attracting customers and generating the sales that will reach your business goals is an important part of every Christian business.

A Business Lesson From The Bible

We can learn a lot from taking a closer look at how King Solomon, one of the wisest rulers in the world handled the problems he encountered when he attempted to build his palace and the temple in Jerusalem.


I Kings5: 5-6

I intend, therefore, to build a temple for the Name of the LORD my God, as the LORD told my father David, when he said, 'Your son whom I will put on the throne in your place will build the temple for my Name.'

"So give orders that cedars of Lebanon be cut for me. My men will work with yours, and I will pay you for your men whatever wages you set. You know that we have no one so skilled in felling timber as the Sidonians."

Secrets to Success In Business

How To Avoid These 6 Mistakes

Rather than make excuses why he couldn't build a temple or use an inferior material he solicited the help of others, Hiram and the Sidioans for his project. I have learned some valuable lessons about business from reading this biblical account, that I want to share with you, so that you will never have to make excuses about why you are unable to start your own business or why your business is failing. Operating A Successful Business In "How to operate a Successful Christian Business" I mentioned a few key areas that need to be addressed by Christian entrepreneurs, the 6 deadly sins are in these same areas. 6 Deadly Mistakes To Avoid No Sales or Customers No Sales Plan No Marketing plan Failing to seek professional advice Lack of persistence Not knowing your customers By addressing all of the issues covered in this list you'll become a good steward of the Christian business that God has placed in your hands and boost you chance for success.

Get some help before it's too late...It's that simple. There's lots of free help available, too much to cover effectively in one blog post, so come back and I'll tell you where you can get help to overcome these mistakes. You'll be able to find help putting together a good marketing plan, by taking a look some of the free resources that I find useful for my business, . You do want your customers, friends and family to be able say the same things about your skill in business that Hiram said, (1 kings 5:7) when he received Solomon's letter?

Action Steps

Continue to learn as much as you can about running a business, by reading the latest magazines and books about your area of business. There is a list of books for Christian men located near the top of the right sidebar for your convenience. It includes, OUTLIERS, by Malcolm Gladwell, his book uncovers why some people succeed. Is it purely luck, opportunity or is it a talent?

Unique Ideas For Christians Starting A Business

To win the competition for the shrinking number of dollars in the marketplace, Christian businesses are following the directive in Proverbs 22, to be diligent in business.

My research lead me to an article "Top Ten Ways Christian Retailers are Thriving Through Innovation" that discusses several strategies that are unique and innovative and anyone starting a Christan business can use.

Christian Business Excels In Customer Friendly Retail Experience

In spite of the fact that every store in town has a card line, their card department is the store's top sales-per-square-foot performer.

John and Pat Pope, owners of The Cornerstone Christian Books, Gifts & Gallery in Boone, N.C. have created a warm and comfortable atmosphere that flows between departments. Their strategy includes:

Designated reading areas

An in-store café

Theme area

Shop just for kids

Setting-up displays that have dimension, color and texture has enabled them to increase the amount of money they make per square foot without the store looking cluttered.

New Markets For Christian Businesses		Hot Marketing Ideas
To reach more than the just the usual evangelicals who shop in Christian stores, Christian businesses are expanding into horizontal markets by offering a broader range of products and reaching vertical markets through websites. Christian Treasures a Houston, Texas-based retailer of Christian products, decided to carry Communion Missals, Rosaries, Arm Bands, and Veils to attract Catholic customers. The Christian business owner Richard Gillespie, feels his strategy is paying off. Especially after his store experienced a huge increase in sales, of St.Joseph statues.		It seems, some of the homeowners facing foreclosure in his area, were resorting to the tradition of burying the statues, to obtain divine favor to sell their homes and keep them out of foreclosure.

Adopting similar strategies that capitalize on new marketing ideas can be profitable for Christians starting a business, that want customers to spend more time and money in their stores.


Memory Verse:    Pr 22:29


Follow this link to read more about


"Top Ten Ways Christian Retailers are Thriving Through Innovation".

Christian Business Trends For 2009

If you expect to win in this tough economy your radar has to stay tuned to the trends in the marketplace. Every early adopter who values staying out front of the pack, is probably already making plans to capitalize on some or all of these 5 hot Christian business trends for 2009.




Local search

Social networking

Crowd-sourcing

Social entrepreneuring

Green collar jobs


Three of these business opportunities for Christians are internet based, while the other two ventures can be classified as emerging businesses.



Some of your competitors and the residents of your community may feel they are firmly grounded in analogue technology, but the digital world is revolutionizing the way small business transactions are being handled.

It's not just companies/ministries that are embracing social networks, blogs, and other Web 2.0 tools. The number of people using the internet to do research about products or to do transactions online has grown since 2000, and revenues for online sales have increased at a much faster rate.

Let's take a quick look at the areas that are fueling this surge in growth.

Trends For Christian Entrepreneurs		Growth Areas For Non-Profit Christian Businesses
www.imediaconnection.com Local search Free listings are making it easier for customers to find you. Make sure you're listed and that your listing stays updated. This gives your company the benefit of an on-line presence, even if you don't have a website. Crowd Sourcing This hybrid form of outsourcing products and services, can allow you to go from an idea to a finished product faster and easier, by offering the job in a global forum, where you can enter into a contract with the lowest bidder, saving you money and even time. Social Networking This Web 2.0 feature is being used by Christian businesses to attract bigger better audiences for product launches and develop joint ventures and collaborations between organizations and people in unique and profitable ways. A 2000, Pew Internet & American Life Project study reported, 22% of Americans said they had bought a product online, that number grew to a helathy 49% by September 2007. A whopping 60% of Americans said they had used the internet to find more information about a product in 2007 compared with only 35% in 2000.		www.hotjobs.yahoo.com Christian-owned businesses and Christian oriented businesses competing in the non-profit arena can easily focus on either of these two niche areas as part of their ministry/ business. Social Entreprenuring Identifies and targets large scale social problems that need solving. Just as business entrepreneurs create and transform whole industries. Green Collar Jobs Jobs that promote environmental responsibility, "green maintenance supervisor" and "urban arborist" Any position where you can demonstrate an understanding of conservation and renewable resources are part of this cutting edge technology growth area. The growth projections in just the green collar field, is expected to be half-a-million jobs in the next three years, according to the Cleantech Network a venture capital firm for green business, in a study cited in Yahoo Hot Jobs.

Christian entrepreneurs and Christian businessmen that embrace any of these trends will find themselves poised for success.