Building a Business that Glorifies God

This past week, I read through chapters on the concepts of ideation, branding and value creation in “Expert Ownership: Launching Faith-Filled Entrepreneurs into Greater Freedom and Success.”
 
Ideation
Most entrepreneurs don’t struggle with coming up with ideas for their business – after all, entrepreneurs are the type of people who generate many ideas and are able to execute those ideas to create value in a marketplace. The problem is, once you start executing an idea, you start working so hard that you forget to dream, or don’t afford yourself a lot of time to dream. And that dreaming time is when most of the best ideas are formed. That dreaming time often produces the thoughts about what could be, or about new and creative ways to solve a problem. The authors highlight the importance of always allowing yourself time to dream about your business – you need this time to get inspired about opportunities ahead of you so you can go accomplish new and bigger things for your customers. Remember, though, when you are dreaming, you should be dreaming of ways to fulfill the desires of your customers, not your own. Dream of accomplishing something special – just ensure it makes the dreams of your customers come true too.
 
Branding
A brand is what people think or feel about your business when its name is mentioned. When created successfully, your brand will motivate your clients and get them to move toward your desire action. The authors broke up the creation of a brand into three segments: the meaning, the mark, and the message.
 

• The meaning refers to your company identity: this is who you are as a business or what you represent; it’s the why someone should buy from you.

• The mark is your identifier: your name, your logo, the pictures or colors that are associated with your brand. When considering your mark, keep in mind that it should be simple, memorable, unique, and represent quality.

• The message refers to the words, the phrases or the slogan that are associated with your brand that tell people who you are, what you do, how you are different, and why you matter. This is your opportunity to share your value proposition – answer the question, “why should someone buy from me?”

Develop your value ladder. Consider first, what can you give away for free? Then, what can you make a little money on? And then, what can you make a lot of money on? Ultimately, you want to get into a membership-style value proposition where you can make predictable recurring revenue over time. The final piece is just writing out your plan, of course. Put a business plan together that will allow you to deliver on your value proposition.

These steps are not anything new or unique when it comes to building a business. But taking these steps in this particular order, and thinking through them in this way, is the differentiator of this book among others in its genre. These authors uniquely approach these exercises with the mindset that the business they are building is God’s business. At each step, they ask themselves, “how can we build something that glorifies Him while we are building it?”

In every step of your business-building, think through how you can glorify God, put Him first, bring the lost back to Him, and deliver on all of the things we are called to do. Bring these thoughts into the forefront of your business planning. The authors of this book propose building a two-page business plan – rather than a one-page plan like I am accustomed to building – where the second page is literally an intentionally blank page where you write down the ideas God brings to you during your prayer time. I know this is something I will implement in my own businesses, and I am motivated by the opportunities this second page will bring into my life.