Business advice Christian entrepreneurs can use to increase sales and profit
As a Christian, you must be mindful of the types of business advice you accept or use to run your business. While there’s nothing wrong with wanting more sales or increasing your business profits, you must take care not to compromise your faith or engage in dubious practices.
There are lots of business advice out there that are compatible with your Christian faith, so no reason to engage in unethical practices. A Christian can be successful using biblical principles, so don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
There are lots of successful Christian businesses, Christian business owners, and Christian business mentors. If you need some encouragement, inspiration or advice, seek them out, study them, and use them as a model for growing your business.
With all that said, let’s look at some Christian business advice you can use to increase sales and profit for your business.
THIS POST MAY CONTAIN AFFILIATE LINKS. OUR FULL DISCLOSURE POLICY CAN BE FOUND HERE
7 Christian Business Advice to Boost Your Sales and Profit
1. NEVER STOP MARKETING
“Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise. Without having any chief, officer, or ruler, she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest.” (Proverbs 6:6-8)
Marketing is one of your most (if not the most) important tasks as a business owner. The problem is marketing is often an afterthought or something many entrepreneurs ignore because it’s hard. Many Christian business owners aren’t comfortable with marketing or selling, so they don’t do enough of it.
Unfortunately, the days of “build it and they will come” are over, so if you want to increase your business sales and profit, you have to be proactive with your marketing. There are lots of marketing strategies you can use for your business, so there’s really no excuse for not marketing your business.
If there’s any piece of advice you should take from this post, it’s to never stop marketing. This is true in lean times or prosperous times because things can turn on a dime.
I have known a few service providers who stopped marketing their business because they were fully booked and didn’t need any more clients at the time. Guess what happened after they completed all their projects? They had no new clients coming through the pipeline and they panicked.
So be like the ant. Always be marketing. Always have potential customers or clients you’re working to convert. Have a marketing budget and a marketing strategy for your business, and don’t take anything for granted.
2. LOVE YOUR CUSTOMERS
Your customers are the backbone of your business. Without them, your business wouldn’t survive, so love them.
Give them excellent customer service. Never take them for granted or think you can easily replace them. Treat them the way you’d like to be treated. Be honest, be fair. Let them know you appreciate them. This is one way you can stand out as a Christian business owner.
If you want loyal and committed customers, you have to be loyal and committed to them. Which means not making drastic changes like price increases that can impact them, or ignoring a particular segment of your customer base in your quest to gain new or more customers.
Loving your customers means being genuinely helpful and committed to improving their lives. When you love your customers, you’re motivated to help them live better lives and solving their problems.
There are lots of ways to love your customers, so find what will appeal to them, and what works for your business.
Related: 7 Ways Being a Christian Business Owner is Different
3. DON’T MISS DEADLINES
While the Bible doesn’t expressly use the term “deadlines,” yet, there are lots of scriptures that talk about the importance of time and being timely. For example, Ephesians 5:16, Ecclesiastes 3:1, and Isaiah 55:6.
I am sure you have being at the receiving end of a missed deadline. Maybe something you ordered for a special occasion, or it could have been clothes for your kids, etc.
Recently, I ordered some stuff from Ikea, and I know how disappointed I felt when they didn’t deliver my items on the day they were supposed to. This experience was made worse because they didn’t even inform me they were not going to deliver on that day.
If you run a business (like a service-based business) where you need to meet certain deadlines or delivery dates, please do everything you can not to miss those deadlines.
When you miss deadlines, your customers will struggle to trust you next time, and you may even lose some clients. People don’t like to be disappointed so try to avoid disappointing your customers.
If a condition of purchase is that you’ll deliver the goods on a certain date, do everything you can to deliver on your promise. And, if for any reason you can’t fulfill an order, make sure you let the customers know well ahead of time, so they can plan or rearrange their schedule if they need to.
If you’re wondering how not missing deadlines can help your sales and profit, think about it. Meeting deadlines means you can increase your turnover, take on more work ergo more sales and profit!
Meeting deadlines also build trust, and when your customers or clients trust you, they will keep doing business with you, and happily refer others to you because they know you can be trusted.
Working to deadlines can also boost your productivity and eliminate procrastination which is always a good thing in my book.
4. GET TO KNOW YOUR BIGGEST COMPETITORS
The Bible is replete with verses and warnings about competition. However, what the Bible frowns upon is unhealthy rivalries, obsession and envy!
Competition can be a good thing when it’s approached with a spirit of humility and love. Unfortunately, many Christians think competition is evil because it’s being distorted by bitter and unhealthy rivalries. We see it in sports, in the workplace, in business, and basically in all walks of life.
But for a Christian business owner, competition can be a good thing if done right. So how does knowing your biggest competitors help you improve your sales and profits?
Here are a few ways:
- Knowing your competitors would allow you to test how your business, products, or services stack up against the competition. Do you do anything better or worse?
- When you know your competition, it can inspire you to improve your products or services. When you improve your offerings, chances are you’ll attract more and better customers, thus increasing your sales and profits.
- Another benefit of knowing the competition is that it forces you to keep learning and to not be complacent. One of the reasons Christian business owners fail is because they stopped learning. They developed or created something and thought it was the best thing out there, so they stopped learning or trying to improve it.
Knowing your competition will keep you on your toes and ensure you continue to strive for excellence in your business. At the end of the day, this will translate into more sales for your business.
This Christian business advice is one that should be taught more to Christian entrepreneurs because many of them think competition or wanting to be better is sinful or wrong.
5. BE GOOD WITH MONEY
According to Forbes, money is mentioned 800 times in the Bible. Some other articles claim money is mentioned more times or less. The number of times it’s mentioned is irrelevant. What I know is that money is a very important topic, no wonder the Bible talks about it a lot!
When people think of making more money or increasing their business profit, they tend to focus on making more sales and increasing how much they bring into the business. However, this is only one aspect of it. There are some other things that are involved in making more sales and increasing your profits.
And it all starts with knowing how to manage your finances especially business finances.
As a business owner, being good with money means you know how to make a profit, price your products effectively, and source materials cheaply or in a cost-effective way.
When you are good with money, you understand how debt can impact your business (like reducing your profits and making it harder to invest in your business). Another benefit of being financially savvy is that you’ll know how to reduce your expenses, so you can sell your products at a fair price, and increase your profits.
As you can see, good financial management is non-negotiable if you really want your business to prosper.
Related: How to Prosper in Business as a Christian (5 Assets You Need to Build a Prosperous Business)
6. DON’T BE A CHEAP OR LOW-END BUSINESS OWNER
Now don’t get me wrong. There’s a market for low-end or cheap products because not everyone can afford to buy expensive stuff. Thank God for that! In every industry, there are businesses that serve customers at the low end of the price range, and others that serve customers at the high end.
So what am I talking about here?
I’m talking about charging what you’re worth. Many Christian business owners don’t charge what they are worth for one reason or the other, though, in my experience, it’s mostly fear. Fear no one will buy their products if they charge more. Fear of losing their existing customers or that their product isn’t good enough.
These are all legitimate fears and I am not going to tell you otherwise. But, remember, God hasn’t given you a spirit of fear but of sound mind, and the laborer is worthy of his wages. So if you’re barely breaking even in your business, then your pricing might be the cause.
Far too many entrepreneurs think the only way they can survive is to compete at the bottom, so they remain stuck as cheap or low-end business owners when they could be so much more. Now, if you have chosen to serve that particular market, then that’s fine. However, you still need to know how to price for profit.
For those of you who aren’t charging what you are worth, or those who want to serve high-end customers, don’t be afraid to offer a premium or expensive product as long as it solves a problem, and there’s a real need for it. And don’t forget to price accordingly!
Changing or increasing your prices (when it makes sense), can boost your profit even if it reduces the number of sales you make. So think about it. Is this a viable strategy for your business?
7. DIVERSIFY YOUR INCOME STREAMS
“Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days. Give a portion to seven, or even to eight, for you know not what disaster may happen on earth.” (Eccles. 11:1-2)
One of the most straight-forward ways to bring in more sales and profit for your business is to diversify or increase your product offerings. Now, this doesn’t always make sense, and it isn’t always a good idea, but it’s something to consider if it makes sense for your business, and you can pull it off.
So how do you diversify your business income streams?
There are lots of ways to do it. For example, you can test new products, branch out into other markets or industries especially if they complement your business. For instance, if you sell candles, you can consider selling candle holders too.
You can also find different ways to repackage or repurpose your existing products to bring in more sales. For instance, you can break larger products or services into smaller bits, or you can bundle some of your products, and sell them at a higher price.
The possibilities are endless. It all depends on how creative you want to be and your willingness to change and explore new avenues.
Diversifying your income streams can greatly increase your sales and business profit, so it’s something you may want to consider if you’re struggling with slow growth.
Some Last Words on 7 Christian Business Advice to Boost Your Sales and Profit
As previously stated, there’s a lot of business advice out there, but as a Christian, you must be discerning and use wisdom before implementing any business advice. There are lots of biblical business principles that you can use to grow your business, so there’s no need to engage in practices that displeases God.
If you’re struggling with making more sales or profit in your business, hopefully, you can use some of the advice in this post to turn things around.
Which Christian business advice do you think is the most relevant to you right now? Here they are again:
7 Christian Business Advice to Boost Your Sales and Profit
- Never stop marketing
- Love your customers
- Don’t miss deadlines
- Get to know your biggest competitors
- Be good with money
- Don’t be a cheap or low-end business owner
- Diversify your income streams
Related Christian business advice posts
Top 9 Tips for Christian Entrepreneurs (To Improve and Grow Your Business)
How to Be Successful in Business As a Christian
7 Essential Christian Business Tips for Beginner Entrepreneurs
