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God has a plan for you!
The first stage of the Kingdom Business Life Cycle is discovery. This is the stage when you are either not sure if business is for you or you may have a business idea but have not launched it yet. The discovery stage is when you have not yet made a commitment to pursue business; you may still be considering your options.
Whatever you do, know that God has a plan for you! Do not feel the pressure to go one way or the other but rather, focus on allowing God to show you what he wants you to do. Business is not the ideal calling but rather, the ideal calling is whatever God has called you to realize.
The seven steps to success in the discovery stage:
1. Enhance your intimacy with God - The discovery stage is a great time to grow in intimacy with God. You do not have a business to distract you and you are currently enjoying a great margin of time so take full advantage of it and grow with the Lord. If you are called to business, you will need spiritual reserves.
2. Discover your identity and destiny - Take the time to discover what God created you to do. Who are you in Christ? What is your purpose? Enroll in a course like Identity and Destiny to develop your purpose mosaic so that you can know your calling and pursue it. Remember, you must let your calling lead you to your career and not the other way around.
3. If business is your calling, document your business idea - Make sure you have a clear business idea. Assess the needs in your community, country, or world! Find out based on your gifts and skills, what business idea can you develop that aligns with your calling.
4. Get some experience and enroll in a business course so that you can be as prepared as possible - This is a great time for learning. A course like Biblical Entrepreneurship can help you minimize potential mistakes and pitfalls. Take as many courses as possible as it will enable you to learn the biblical principles and best practices to increase your chances of business success. Get some experience! Having experience in the type of business you want to launch allows you to learn from the mistakes of others and demonstrate faithfulness in the affairs of others which builds your character. Remember, work experience is essential even if it is not in the same type of business.
5. Save and minimize your debt - You do not know how long it will take for your business to become profitable so save as much as you can. You can never have too much money going into business. Minimize as much debt as possible as well as that reduces your liability and enhances your personal balance sheet. Even though God’s best for business financing is self-financing, you may need to borrow money down the line.
6. Begin a passive income strategy - Use some of your savings to develop passive income. This ensures that you have another income to fall back on should the business is unable to pay you right away. Business is a risk and the more you minimize your risk, the more chances you have to succeed. Passive income also increases your runway so that you can preserve longer until you realize success.
7. Write a business plan and launch your business - Though many entrepreneurs have succeeded without a business plan, it is not advisable especially with today’s changing environment. There are many factors to consider today in launching a business. A business plan helps you put your thoughts on paper, narrows your options, and helps you document various scenarios before acting on them. It is not the plan that makes you succeed but the planning process. You may use less than 10% of the plan but that 10% can lead to 100% of your success. Remember, the plan is not for you anyway but for all those who God has called to join you in the business.
Also, do not quit your job yet! The time will come.
Many entrepreneurs in their zeal to get into business leave their job too prematurely and find themselves running out of money before their new business is able to cover their salary. You can never quit your job too late but you can quit it too early. Wait as long as possible.
A sign to know when you are ready to quit your job is when you are making more in the business than in your job or when the demands of the job make it difficult to carry out the growing responsibilities of the business and the only way to do it well is to have more time.
When that time comes, as much as it depends on you, make sure you transition with honor so that you do not burn bridges; you never know who you will need in the future. Remember, no matter how well you plan this transition, it is never smooth and you may have to take a leap of faith before the business can fully afford you.
My prayer for you today is that God will give you the grace to recognize and discover if business is your calling and if it is, how to prepare to launch it successfully.
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