The secular business world has largely set the tone for how business is done. As a result, Christian entrepreneurs have been subject to worldly business practices and mindsets that don’t align with God’s word and His truth. It can cause confusion in your walk with the Lord and hinders the ability of your business to be a light to those walking in darkness.
It’s why it’s high time to redefine how we do business in the marketplace. The following are a number of worldly business practices you can break free from as a Christian entrepreneur:
- Self-reliance: Without God, secular business owners use self-reliance to grow their business. It’s at the root of what they practice & teach. As a believer, your flesh loves self-reliance. However, when you rely on yourself, it fuels your pride and creates a heavy burden for you to bear because your failure or success is all on you.
- Looking at others as competition: When you view others this way, you open the door to comparison which never yields positive results. Either you become extremely prideful or you beat yourself down. Neither aligns with God’s heart for you. Also, God has given you a path for success that is as unique to you as your fingerprints. This means you don’t have competition because no one can duplicate exactly how you do business.
- Sneaky messaging/connecting for lead generation: You know it’s sneaky if you only reach out to hopefully make a sale. This practice plays a numbers game as a means to YOUR end. (Yes, even if what you have to offer can help them.) People are savvy to see this tactic a mile away and it’s a turn off. It also doesn’t reflect how Jesus interacted with others.
- Covert email list growth: If someone signs up for your lead magnet or gives you their email for networking/collaborating and you add them to your general email list, this is covert growth. It’s tacky and in certain countries, this practice can get you in legal hot water. You want your email list to consist of people who are excited to hear from you. It improves your open and click rates, and therefore, conversion rates! Always ask if someone wants to be on your general list & entice them with value.
- Manipulative sales tactics: These tactics focus on winning the sale for your bottom line benefit. Instead, try to uncover if you actually are the best solution for the person in front of you. Be clear about who your offer is for and who it isn’t for, keeping in mind their best interests, not yours.
- Puffing up your offers: There are a couple practices secular business advice teaches in this area: The first is over-inflating the value of your offer in the name of showing a super impressive “discount.” (Eg The value of this program is $10,000, but I’m giving it to you for just $997.) Another is making up a value of an items you don’t actually sell individually as part of the offer to try and make someone think they’re getting a great deal. This is deceptive.
- Open 24/7: While you aren’t bound by God’s law to keep the Sabbath, taking a day of rest is an invitation God extends to believers. Prayerfully consider what a day of rest in your business looks like for you. Also consider how modeling this can encourage your believing customers and clients to take that rest too! When you take God up on that invitation for yourself AND your business, watch how He works through it.
How many of these practices have you been taught from the secular business world?
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