Practical Bible Secrets For Your Business Growth

Is it possible to find practical business development tips in the Bible? Does the various teachings of Jesus Christ have anything to do with how a small business operator can take his or her business to the next level?

Have you operated your business for many years now and yet you are still finding it tough getting out of debts? If you want business development secrets that will help you to succeed in business, then you are reading the right article. I will be describing 5 practical bible secrets for your business growth.

Secret 1: Start Small And Grow Big "... and she gave birth to her first born, a son. She wrapped in cloths and placed Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn" (Mark 2:7)

Jesus, the Son of the Living God arrived this world and chose a manger as His birth place! What a way to start for the One who owns the earth and its fullness thereof!

I want you to know that in business, there is a starting point. Never mind when you have a poor or little start. You need to put in effort to grow the business. Jesus started from the manger and rose to become the One whose name is above every other names

(Philippians 2:9).

Your little company today can become a great one tomorrow. Therefore, you should never be scared of starting small. You should also not lose courage when it seems things are not working the way it should.

Practical Tips

Most aspiring entrepreneurs wrongly think starting a business is the ticket to running a successful business. The truth of the matter is that beginning your business on a small scale is the better strategy to achieving enduring success.

PZ Cussons Plc, the giant producer of quality personal care products started off by shipping palm oil, palm kernels, cocoa, seed cottons, ground nuts, as well as animal hides and skins to the United Kingdom. This activity gave them the opportunity to gain the needed experience in doing business profitably in Africa.

Secret 2: Let The World Know About Your Business

"... and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the Child was" Matthew 2:9

The wise men needed to locate Jesus, the Saviour of the world that had just been born into the world but they had no idea of where His place of birth was. God provided Jesus as a solution to the world's problem. The same God came to the rescue of the wise men by making a star to announce the birth of Jesus and also led the wise men to where He was (Matthew 2:10).

When you have provided a solution to a problem, package it and please let the world know about it. This is the only way they can do business with you. I am sure you know that your business improves when lots of people know about and patronise your products and services. How do you make the people to know about you and the problem you have solved? This is through well-targeted marketing activities. Properly done marketing activities will draw people to your location just like the star brought the wisemen to the birth place of Jesus.

Practical Tips

Production is not complete if the product your business is offering does not reach its customers. The brains behind BOC Group Plc understood this and in an effort to ensure efficient and effective distribution of its gas in 1887, they started granting licenses to independent companies throughout Great Britain to produce oxygen under its process.

In the 50s, they also built tonnage plants on or close to customer sites. Customers had an opportunity to know about their products and this did a lot of good to their business.

Secret 3: What Is Your Dominant Business?

"she will give birth to a son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins" (Matthew 1:21)

Jesus came to this world with a 'dominant profession' - to save His people from their sins. He never lost focus of this major assignment. He healed the sick, fed the hungry, quenched the thirst of the thirsty and taught both the old and the young about the kingdom of God. However, His major assignment of saving His people was always His top priority.

Your business should have a dominant assignment right from inception. You need to define it before you start or you redefine it if you have lost focus.

Practical Tips:

Intel Corporation, reputed to be the largest semi conductor manufacturer in the world devoted much attention to their leading product - micro processors. This helped greatly during the depression they faced in the middle 1980s. The main product remained highly profitable and it helped to bring back the company to life in all areas .

Ideas for Doing Business in Thailand

If you are thinking about setting up a business in Thailand, then most probably you have visited the country as a tourist and fallen for the lifestyle, natural beauty and low cost of living. As easy as it may sound to start a business in Thailand, there are several cases of failed business ventures by foreigners in the country. The reason why many people fail is because of lack of business plan and lack of clarity on how to approach those businesses. Another major reason for failing is the lack of understanding of local culture, language and business & legal environment. So it is very important to have clarity of thought and proper planning before you dive into this land of immense opportunities.

Once you have made up your mind to start a business in Thailand, you need to narrow down to bright business ideas in Thailand. As a fast growth economy, Thailand has many opportunities to offer. As Thai economy is heavily dependent on tourism, it is not surprising that this industry offers lots of business opportunities to foreigners to do business in Thailand. Following are some business ideas that you can explore if you are serious about starting a business in Thailand:

Bar Business:

This has to be one of the first business ideas that come to your mind when you visit Thailand. There is so much business done by bars in Thailand every night that you are bound to be attracted towards the idea of owning one. While there is lot of money generated by these businesses, it would be naïve to think that it would be easy to run. If you are a not from US, then you need to first find a Thai business partner to start a business in Thailand (you can only own up to 49%). Also, you need to get lots of regulatory licenses and clearances done before opening a bar. You also need to do legal work done with respect to registering the business and leasing out the space. There is a lot of competition in this space and unless and until your location and theme is not attractive, your odds of being successful are lower.

Restaurant Business:

Restaurant business is a promising business opportunity in Thailand if tapped properly. Being a tourist destination, there is huge turnover in restaurant industry. While most requirements for restaurant business are similar to the bar business, the number of licenses required may be a bit less than opening a bar. You would need to obtain food license to serve food, alcohol license for serving alcohol and you also need clearance to play music in your restaurant. To be successful, you need to think about a good theme for the restaurant and find a suitable place to open the same. Remember, location matters a lot. Don't forget to get clean legal and leasing work done to be safe, otherwise you could be easily be fooled.

Diving School/ Dive Center:

Opening a Dive Center is also an attractive opportunity in Thailand. However, the business is very competitive these days and you only have a six month season to make most of your money. Prices for an office near beach are sky high and you need to start in a big way differentiate yourself from others. Easiest way to go about would be to acquire an existing Dive center and then scale it up.

Resort, Hotel or Guesthouse:

These are capital intensive businesses, but if you have loads of money to invest, you can explore this business idea as well. In an already established tourist place, finding a good place would be a challenge. But you could still be successful if you have proper tie-ups with travel agents and market your business properly online.

Why Most Business Planning Fails, and What to Do About It!

When I hear entrepreneurs discuss the difficulties of small business, I hear a lot of different reasons. The economy is bad. People want too much for free. I didn't have enough money. I had too much competition. All of these may be true. However, not creating and sticking to a plan for making your business happen is the primary reason why so many businesses cease to exist several years after opening.

Starting a business takes a great deal of energy. Your job as a business owner is to harness that energy to turn your dream into a lifestyle design. Without focus and a clear direction to march, your efforts will be disorganized at best and useless at worst. Creating a strategic plan for your business is like carrying an atlas or using your GPS on a long trip. You may not know exactly how to get there, but you have a good idea and can make adjustments for detours and rest stops along the way.

So why are so many people afraid of planning their businesses?

We hear many stories about venture capital funding and twenty-something billionaires that we may think the only path to success is creating a long, complicated business plan with many charts and graphs. I have good news for you - the majority of businesses don't need this type of business plan. A great business plan helps you run your business and identify opportunities and challenges in time for you to make adjustments before it's too late. If you must review a 50-page business plan on a regular basis, you will not follow it.

The five questions great business planning answers

If you want to transform a dream into a business, your business plan must answer six questions. These questions are linked together. If any part of the plan does not align with the other questions, then you must adjust the course of your business or consider revising that section.

Why do I want this business to work? - Your core purpose will drive every other part of your business. Simon Sinek calls this "Starting With Why". If you are unclear on why you have started your business, you will have a hard time succeeding.

Where do I want this business to go? - Your vision is the picture of your business at some point in the future. How many employees will you have? In what markets will you lead? Will you sell services or products? The vision is where you can dream big and draw the picture of future success.

What do I want to achieve? - Great business planning includes setting specific, measurable, and time-based objectives. If you don't set objectives, you won't know if you should continue on the same path or change course. How do you know if you have set the right objective? You must be able to create a chart with your results compared to your objective. If your objective is to make $5,000 per month in revenue, you can show that in a chart. You cannot show "sell more to existing customers" in a chart, so it's not an objective.

How will I achieve my objectives? - Your strategies are the high-level areas of focus you will execute to achieve your objectives. "Sell more to existing customers" is a strategy, because that is how a business can achieve $5,000 of revenue per month. Objectives are WHAT you want to accomplish, strategies are HOW you will achieve your objectives.

Who will accomplish the strategies, and by when will these steps be done? - The last question helps you identify the projects and action steps to execute. These are the marching orders for your team and you. A project is any activity that takes at least two steps to complete. Action steps are grouped under projects and are the specific to-do items to accomplish. I create my projects and action steps, and then I prioritize the projects on which I will work each day. I have never done well with a traditional to-do list, but I do have a specific action plan for each day.

Strategic planning is the common trait among nearly all successful businesses. A great planning process is something you use to steer your business on the correct course. A business plan collects dust after creation, and this is why people think negatively of them. Strategic planning provides you with the clarity of direction.

How will you focus your planning to make your business happen?

Dallon Christensen is the founder and president of Whiteboard Business Partners, a business coaching and training company in Bettendorf, Iowa. Dallon works with entrepreneurs and small businesses to help them become more profitable, productive, and prepared to grow their businesses. Dallon is a nationally-recognized keynote speaker and trainer focusing on business planning, productivity, information technology, and multiple streams of income.

How to Build a Sustainable, Durable, Scalable and More Profitable Business

Businesses are born and businesses die every day. Unfortunately, the death rate is increasing and now exceeds the birth rate. This has obviously been caused by the change in the economy. Unfortunately, with small businesses being so vital to the economy, it is also a cause for the continued recession! It's a vicious cycle, but one that can be stopped...

In The E-Myth Revisited (Michael Gerber) published in 1995, Michael Gerber reported that 80% of businesses fail in the first 5 years of trading, and that 80% of those that survive the first five years don't make it past their 10th birthday. Meaning only 4% of new businesses will celebrate their 10th anniversary.

The Office of National Statistics in the UK publish statistics on the "births and deaths" of UK businesses every year. The key statistics from this report are:

The number of business closing their doors rose by 20,000 (7.4 per cent) to 297,000 for the year between 2009 and 2010

The number of businesses started remained broadly flat with a small decrease of 1,000 (0.4 per cent)

For the second consecutive year businesses that stopped trading outnumbered those that started resulting in a 1.8% drop in the number of active businesses

The data also provides information on the survival rates of businesses.

From this we can see that around 40% of all businesses started in 2005 were still trading in 2010. Somewhat higher than the 20% suggested in the E-Myth.

While there is no data for 10 year survival, modelling the data you can predict that 17% of businesses started in 2005 should see their 10th birthday.

However, the numbers also suggest a decline in survival rates since 2008 as you might expect given the economic conditions. As a result, the average life expectancy for a new business has dropped from 5 years for businesses opened in 2005 to a predicted 4 years for businesses started in 2010.

This is considerably better than the 3 years suggested by the survival rates quoted in the E-Myth. This may mean that things overall are better than they were in 1995. Or it may mean that businesses are more durable in the UK than they have ever been in the US. Or both...

Regardless, if the aim of business is to generate long-term profitable enterprise for individuals and their employees, then the absolute numbers don't matter too much. Most business owners don't start a business expecting it to be there for only four to five years on average.

What to do about it?

While the economy is accelerating the closure of businesses, one of the main underlying causes for the majority of business failures is that most business owners never manage to build a fully systematised business.

Research shows that while the majority of business owners know they need to systematise their business, almost 99% of business owners have been unable to do so. It isn't their fault. No one has ever shown them how to do it.

The business remains for the most part in the head of the owner and so the business cannot function without them. Over time this grinds the owner down until they've had enough and close their doors, never realising the dreams they had when they opened for business in the first place. Even worse, without business systems in place, it cannot adapt in a declining economy.

Writing systems isn't difficult and yet most businesses don't achieve it. There are many reasons. It doesn't seem like profitable work so isn't a priority... It isn't very exciting/interesting work... It isn't something the owner is good at... there are too many distractions from customers, employees, suppliers, etc.

And yet when it is achieved it can and does result in sustainable, durable, scalable and more profitable businesses. So it must be worthwhile putting time aside to start.