Internet Resources For Christian Businesses

In Proverbs 15 we are reminded that without effective counsel, our may plans go bust, but you can increase your chance of success, if you'll have a multitude of counselors.


This divine principle holds true for Christian businesses too. If you are Christian just starting your own business or an established company,

you may not have access to expensive consultant, but you can obtain a similar benefit from useful internet resources. The key is to find portals that will give you fresh information on running your company.

Useful Web Sites

I've got several that I consult when I need to get my creative juices flowing. A recently discovered a a couple of websites with resources that are right on time and tips that are right on target.

"Business-Know-How" is one of them. Their easy to understand ideas, advice and resources are geared for success. Many of them can be easily implemented by any Christan businessman.

Tips And Information For Entrepreneurs

Christian entrepreneurs can find thought provoking articles on starting a business, E-commerce, growth and leadership.

Concentrating your sales and marketing efforts on these areas will help you build a better Christian business.

A few of the articles that I'd highly recommend are:

Principles for Inspiring Employees

The Secret to Making More Money with Less Effort

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?

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.

How Christians Can Start And Build A Successful Business

On the road to building a business you don't have to turn down the path that ends with your great idea becoming a job that provides lots of work and very little pay. There are several important principles you can follow if you own, or plan to start a Christian business.


Please allow me the liberty as a writer to summarize how Christians can increase their chance for business success, by pointing-out that there are really only two ways to become successful.

The Two Keys to A Successful Christian Business

The first method is to take a small business guru to lunch and ask him how he became successful and do everything that he did.

The other way is to take a businessman who went bankrupt to lunch ask him what he did and make sure you don't make those same mistakes.

Honestly that's, in essence why thousands value the advice offered by Brian Tracy, Micheal Gerber and other gurus who have helped many businessmen avoid the crash and burn syndrome and other risk associated with operating a small business.

Christian Business Advice

Christian businessmen should actively pursue learning everything they can, from the soup to the nuts, about operating a business.

Gerber says. "Creating a successful business is a learnable, replicable experience that anyone can go through."
Sure, franchises offer a sense of security as a successful business model for tried and tested products, what about the bootstrapping Christian entrepreneur with an idea for a unique product?

How to Build A Better Business

"Seek and ye shall find" is a biblical principle that should be familiar to most Christian businessowners and can applied to guide you to prosper in the marketplace.

When it's interwoven into a business strategy it represent the need to consistently seek answers to business problem and not rely on trial and error as a business strategy.

It's unrealistic to think you can wear every hat as a Christian businessman (marketer, manager, salesmen, parent) and not be lacking in one of the key areas. Getting advice from other professionals will allow you to move faster toward your business goals.

So, to start a successful business or get one back on the right track,

Christians can minimize their mistakes by getting mentored, taught and trained in critical skill areas.

Continuously seek guidance from other professionals before you start and every step of the way.

Then, Christian entrepreneurs won't find themselves working long hard hours toward their American dream only to be faced with having to close-up shop, because they've run out of money, energy or both.

Three Key Characteristics Of Christian Entrepreneurs

Most people aren't born leaders or creative geniuses. But there are three characteristics that I've identified that Christian entrepreneurs need to rise to the highest levels of success in business.

Many of the Christian businessmen that I have heralded on the pages of this blog share some common traits. These characteristics enabled them to transcend that fine line that separates an ordinary business owner from an entrepreneur.

Keys to Entrepreneurial Success

Vision is what you want to achieve. It's important because businessmen are often propelled forward by faith and not by what they see.

It wasn't what he saw, but what he imagined, that inspired a milkshake machine salesman, Ray Kroc to convince the McDonald Brothers to let him open a McDonald's in Illinois.

Entrepreneurs know how to translate their ideas and dreams into a vision to gain the support of others.

In Zachariah 4, an angel showed Zachariah a gold lamp stand with a bowl at the top and seven lights on it, flanked by two olive trees. These physical object bore a spiritual meaning that made them important. The angel explained to him, they represented the fullness of God's power through his Spirit.

Purpose is another key characteristic. Though often confused with vision, purpose is not what, but why you're trying to attain it.

Communication is another essential ingredient in becoming a Christian entrepreneur. You have to be able to articulate your vision in formal and informal methods to others.

When you combine these three characteristics together they give Christian businessmen the ability to stay focused, from the idea stage, on through design, testing and implementation.

They are also part of the unique, esprit de corps that lifts entrepreneurs above the fog of being an typical business owner.

How You Can Apply This Today

Stop waiting for all your ducks to get in a row before you try a new idea.

How Christian Businessmen Handle Tough Problems

God never promised us that Christian life would be a worry-free existence. Every step you take will be challenged by Satan to discourage you from fulfilling your divine purpose in this generation.

So it should come as no surprise that Christian businessmen have to handle tough problems in their businesses. The Bible gives us an example of how to keep our faith, focus and fortitude during challenging situations, in the Old Testament Book of Daniel.

Daniel In The Loins Den

Despite a decree from the Darius, king of Persia, that anyone praying to any God or man besides him, would be thrown to the loins, the Old Testament Prophet Daniel remained loyal to God and prayed three times a day.
When his sentence was carried out, God sent his angel to shut the mouth of the loins and he was lifted out of the loins den without a single wound.

His adversaries alongwith their wives and children were selected to replace Daniel in the den, but before their bodies had reached the floor of the den, they were overpowered by the waiting loins.

Let me remind you of just a few of problems that several successful Christians entrepreneurs went through on the road to building their businesses.

Failure Is Not An Option When You Have Faith

In "Why faith Is Important For Christian Businessmen" I mentioned how Peter Daniels failed in three different businesses, but it was his faith in God that encouraged him to continue on the road to his God chosen purpose.

In his book "Purpose Driven Life" Rick Warren states that the only way you can discover your identity and purpose is through a relationship with Jesus Christ.

Business By The Good Book

I'm sure that "How Christians Use Faith To Build A Stronger Business" captures Dave L. Steward's lowest moment in life, when he watched his car get repossessed from his office window.

He probably questioned why he had chosen to become a business owner instead of seeking a 9-5 job, but his answer was to keep his faith in God. And Steward was able to recover from his temporary setback.

How You Can Apply Your Faith Today

Stay on the path to your purpose in your business and expect God to give you the ability to get over the hurdles on your path, but don't expect them to be removed.