How to Build a Christian Business

By Michael A.C. Maynard

In an age where information is a commodity and financial freedom a much sought after desire, this book provides both to a subset of society. Targeted at but not exclusively towards the Christian Community it fuses biblical scriptures and principles with the practical requirements needed to build a business. Giving the reader the essential tools to build a God pleasing and sustainable business in a tough economic climate.

The desire for financial freedom is just one of many reasons why people start a business, but at the core of this desire is trust or lack of. We no longer trust the system, our employers or the government to provide for us, or our future, we want control back. In order to gain control we need knowledge, information and guidance. This book provides that much needed help, providing its reader with the correct information to start their journey to personal autonomy. Covering areas such as vision, planning, dominating the market, and using their Faith for progression. It fuses practical advice and tips with biblical revelations accompanied by God's scriptures.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Oct 23, 2012
• ISBN: 9781477276877

Michael A.C. Maynard

Michael Maynard is a practicing Christian for 21 years that has been involved in business for the past 14. Within his business journey he has founded several now established businesses and acted as a consultant and advisory to 1000's of organisations, including Government based institutions managing contract values of up to $1.3bn. He is a Business Honors graduate and professionally qualified as a business mentor. His previous titles include “My Reason Why” published in 2007; His passion is to see God's kingdom impacted through business, acting as the Head and not the Tail.

Book preview

How to Build a

Christian Business

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Michael A. C. Maynard

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AuthorHouse™

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.authorhouse.com

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© 2012 Michael A. C. Maynard. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 10/18/12

ISBN: 978-1-4772-7688-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4772-7686-0 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4772-7687-7 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012919091

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Chapter 1 His example for our business

Chapter 2 Vision- It’s all about what YOU can see!

Chapter 3 Planning

Chapter 4 We need Resources

Chapter 5 Dominating your market

Chapter 6 Part A - Digging the foundation

Chapter 6 Part B -The build

Chapter 7 Our business the product

Chapter 8 Anointed for business

Chapter 9 The attributes of a Christian businessman/woman

Chapter 10 Faith’s place in business?

Chapter 11 Quick business startup – the basics

Declaration Scriptures

Scripture References by Chapter

About the Author

Acknowledgements

I would like to first of all thank God for His grace and immeasurable favor, the one thing I can say about Him is that he is faithful, consistent and always pushing me to do better. Without Him, I wouldn’t be on my current path, and therefore my heart and gratitude is His. I also want to thank the Man of God, Rev Michael Dalton, who brought the word which gave me the kick that I needed to write my second book.

I would like to make special mention to my family, my wife and each of my 3 kids. Their patience allowed me to spend night after night on my laptop writing, and researching. This finished product is just as much theirs as it is mine.

Finally I would like to thank and acknowledge my friends, colleagues and customers, who have all played their part in this book’s production. The many experiences recorded in here have been aided by great working relationships, endless meetings and hours and hours of consultancy. Thank you all for sharpening me to be better and helping me to impact those who I have been called to, within the Kingdom of God.

Introduction

Welcome to this guide to starting a business from a Christian Perspective. This book will teach you practical and spiritual tools in building a sustainable business in the world, one that God can bless. This book targets those who are yet to start in business and those already established. It is important to note that this book cannot be read in isolation of other materials; business is about learning, and to some extent trial and error. It is important to use this guide whilst implementing its content; in other words, don’t read it, put it down and then plan to start your business; start your business whilst reading it, praying for direction along the way.

Allow God to guide your decisions and give you revelation that is specific to your business. I have tried to include the practical aspects of starting and running a business, and good practice guidance based on years of experience (both successes and failures).

Let me address a few myths from the outset. From the mere fact that you are reading this guide, you have already identified that God believes in business. The bible is full of business owners, starting with Abraham, who was involved in a family business, through to Jesus’s disciples who owned fishing businesses. If we study a little deeper, we discover that the Children of Israel, our spiritual heritage, was founded on businessmen. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob all ran businesses, employing family members and men and women servants to herd their cattle or dig their wells. This same business acumen was passed onto Joseph, who used it to save a starving world (including his own people). We often read about these influential characters and can relate to their experiences. We compare them to our own lives and experiences, but often overlook their business capabilities.

If you are in business or looking to get into business, be encouraged that God has been calling businesspeople from the beginning, it’s not strange or ungodly. The bible clearly shows us how God was able to pour out His blessing on these businesses. Abraham was a very wealthy man because of business, as was Isaac, and as was Jacob, who built his uncle Laban’s business before leaving to start his own.

So what is it about business that benefits God’s people so much or any person who starts one?

Millions around the world have started businesses for various reasons, but a few common reasons are:

1.   The desire to be one’s own boss - owning a business gives the business owner the autonomy to dictate his/her future, to make decisions without the constraints of a manager or company. As a business owner, the buck stops with you, whether you recruit others into your business to manage certain areas or not, the ultimate responsibility is yours; no one else is to blame for your lack of business growth. Jacob was responsible for his household, the actions of his staff and his sons; when he was blessed, they were blessed.

2.   To be better off financially – owning a business can be financially rewarding if the business is successful. The world’s richest recorded people have all made their wealth through business. The bible’s richest person was King Solomon, who made his wealth through applying God, given wisdom to manage his business (His Kingdom). Proverbs and Ecclesiastes are still read by many prominent businesspeople today for the wisdom they record.

3.   Passion - many businesses are started because of people’s passion or talent in a particular area - e.g. builders and mechanics: what may have started as a hobby turns into a business because of a natural gift. Proverbs 18 v 16 tells us a Man’s gift will make room for him.

One of the biggest mistakes we make as Christians is failing to apply our gifts (spiritually or physically) into our business. Let me explain: many Christians can easily identify their spiritual gifts - e.g. prophecy, teacher, evangelist, etc. - we often find it easy to use these gifts in a church service or setting, yet outside of the church they lay dormant. These gifts have been given to us to use inside church/ministry as well as outside. For example:

•   If your gift is evangelism, and you find it easy to stop people in the street and talk about Jesus or you are the first to give out a tract or share your testimony, that gift is perfect in the sales environment. Your evangelism gift will give you the boldness to cold call, or sell face to face.

•   If your gift is prophecy, you have the ability through your declaration to speak good things over your business. Proverbs 18 v21 tells us the power of life and death is in the tongue. Prophecy is also the ability to foretell, which is an extremely powerful gift to have when developing products (for future use) or for developing strategies. Through your gift, you can direct where a company should go, applying your faith and believing God.

We must be diligent to identify our gifts and use them for our example within the business arena; the principle of your gift being applied is the same in the church as it is in business. As long as God is glorified, let us use our gifts to propel us into the greatness that God has called us into.

As already mentioned, many of those who have done great exploits in the bible were businesspeople; that is not to say anything is wrong with working for someone (after all as businesspeople we need to hire staff to work in our business), however I believe that God calls businesspeople because we have the opportunity to make a difference. We have the opportunity to shape society, to lead technology, to create wealth for ourselves and those who work for us. We are being called into position so that God can manifest through us into the world in a powerful way -we become conduits of His creative power. Once in position, He can give us ideas for new products and inventions, He can use us to create jobs and decrease unemployment in the world. It is a position of the highest calling, one of servitude. We are called to dominate but not be domineering, to serve society and our customers, to rule as the Head with fairness and understanding.

I hope you find this book enlightening and educational; it is full of revelations given by God for you, mixed with experiences from myself and many other business colleagues. To start us off, I want to take a look at the business that Christ ran whilst on this earth - it’s a business that is still running and growing today.

Chapter 1

His example for our business

Handy Tip: Whilst reading this book, apply the tools and techniques to your business as you go along.

The bible is full of biblical business examples, if we look close enough

Starting a business is easy. Millions of people all around the world start businesses every year; in the UK alone, 50% of those businesses fail within the first two years (2009) and many of the businesses that do survive often struggle to reach a turnover of £50,000 within that period. In the US, the failure rate of small businesses has risen by 40% between the years of 2007-2011, although growth is still taking place.

Being a Christian business does not exempt us from falling into those statistics; like every other business owner we should study the reasons why those businesses failed and aim to avoid the same pitfall. Where we do have an advantage are the kingdom principles that God has given us to use, spiritual laws that supersede the laws of man and this earth. This means as a Christian business owner we must work twice as hard as a business owner in the world. Why? Because we need to research and understand current business trends and industry patterns in order to operate within them. But once we have this understanding, it is for us to use our kingdom principles to not only succeed, but to also positively affect the industries that we are in.

For example, the bible teaches us the power that exists in our tongue/speech; we are commanded to prophesy the word of the Lord over our circumstances. Ezekiel 37 (valley of the dry bones) is a perfect example where prophecy can bring a change to even the worst situation. Romans 4 v17 also confirms the power of speech in action, when Abraham Calls those things are not as if they were. These are spiritual principles that we can use to change our natural business circumstances. Could you imagine if the word in Ezekiel was ‘businesses’ instead of ‘bones’? Ezekiel would have been speaking to dead businesses, commanding them to live and trade again, or commanding customers to come back and good staff to support the business. Using the Abraham example (in a business context), could you imagine him declaring that there will be large bird-like vessels to carry people through the sky? Or declaring that one day Christians will run the country? We have the ability