Grow Your Business Faithfully: Tips for Christian Entrepreneurs to Keep God at the Center of Their Business
I remember it vividly, as if it happened yesterday.
I would come home from my corporate job to my newly married husband, in our beautiful new apartment. I was working in marketing for a recruiting company, surrounded by a small group of friends at work who made the long days bearable. They brought laughter to my day and made Fridays enjoyable. However, over time, I realized that I wasn't truly happy.
My heart and mind were always somewhere else when I sat at my desk. It felt like I was chasing an impossible dream, something that would never actually happen. As a result, I never seriously considered taking my business full-time.
After one of those long and particularly rough days, hours spent trying to please my boss in hopes of a raise that would never come until I was already on my way out the door (leaving for a new company that I would only stay at for just under a year before quitting corporate life for good), I remember coming home to my husband and crying in a puddle of tears. I was in the midst of burnout.
Fresh off the exhaustion of wedding planning (I did a lot of custom designs for my own wedding to incorporate my artwork into our special day), and with the fatigue finally catching up to me, I was working tirelessly at my corporate job and exhausting myself every night working on my business whenever I had the chance.
It felt like my business had slipped away almost overnight.
I was taking forever to complete tasks for clients, and I felt like I couldn't function. I had lost the joy of creating, and of the few clients I had remaining, I felt like they were slipping away with each passing moment due to my inability to show up for them in the several months since my husband and I got married. I had just gone through a period of burnout, and as I started to emerge from that fog, I realized that things were not going as I had hoped with Simply Sophie Designs.
I had grown my Instagram account to around 70K followers, but I felt like I had nothing to show for it. I was trapped in the comparison game, constantly feeling like an imposter for having grown a larger following but not having the income to “back it up”, not anywhere near ready to quit my job and follow my dreams like I saw so many around me doing.
That night, I returned home feeling incredibly defeated. I cried to my husband and poured out my heart to the Lord. I prayed as much as I could before bed, sharing my heart with the Lord, telling him exactly how I felt.
In this moment, I finally felt fully surrendered to the Lord, handing over all my hopes, dreams and my career to Him. This is something I wasn’t sure I had full done yet in the past. Surrendering all my dreams to the Lord is still something I’m continuing to strive for daily.
After a long night of prayer, I knew I was going to get up the next day, and make it happen. I can’t control what happens in my business or what opportunities do or don’t come my way, but I knew I could control how hard I was going to work, and how I would steward the opportunities that the Lord brought to me.
Within that next week, I had a visible shift in my business. I typically have a planner in my bag everywhere I go. For several weeks/months, the agenda that I kept for my business was rather bare. Apart from speaking on a panel, during which I felt like a total fraud compared to the other panelists who were much more successful, my agenda was relatively empty because I wasn't actively working on my business. This lack of activity came after putting in two years of hard work, but suddenly it felt like everything had come to a halt due to burnout, causing me to lose my motivation.
I felt like everything was falling apart.
When I woke up the next day I was determined to get down to business. I emailed back any inquiries I had left unanswered regardless of how long it had been, apologized for my delay, and expressed an interest in working together. At this point I was looking to take on any client work I could possibly get, regardless of the price or the project (so long as it aligned with my morals).
Within a week my business completely changed.
And I could see evidence of this in my planner. The weekly spread for the week before was bare, and all the sudden the next week was FILLED to the brim with notes, to do’s, action items and follow ups. It has served as a visual representation of the power of prayer in my business ever since. I saw in that moment that I HAD to invite Jesus into this space of my life. I still have this planner, and will always hold onto it.
As a Christian, I am aware that the Lord is all-encompassing and should be present in all areas of my life. I should actively invite Him into every corner of my heart and every aspect of my life. However, to be honest, I hadn't made a conscious effort to do this in my business until now.
During that week, I acquired two new clients who were willing to pay me more than I had ever earned since starting my business in college. I also upselled one of my existing clients to hire me for additional art and illustration work. Everything seemed to fall into place, and it felt like the Lord had answered many of my prayers overnight.
From that point on, I realized the importance of seizing every opportunity that came my way and working as hard as my body and mind would allow. However, at that time, I still did not anticipate going full-time with my business for another 5 years or until I had children and needed to work less. But God had other plans.
The journey after this wasn't easy. I worked late nights and spent free weekends dedicated to my business. I utilized lunch breaks for client meetings and creating social media illustrations. I did whatever I could to propel my business forward. I even remember booking a conference room at work on multiple occasions for client meetings related to my own business. I realize it may not have been the best choice, but I convinced myself I was doing what I had to do to grow my business.
This grueling schedule of working day and night went on for almost two years before I was ready to leave corporate. I took a job at a new company, I slowly but surely built up a steady income for my business that stayed consistent throughout the rest of my time in corporate before finally quitting my job.
It’s been over a year now since I finally took the leap in November of 2022 to go all in on my business. The decision I made was a tearful, difficult decision, but when the choice was finally made, I felt more peace about it than I could ever imagine.
I didn’t feel the fear anymore.
I wasn’t worried, I was just ready. This feeling of peace could only come from the Lord.
Just before quitting, I remember on another tear-filled night, after my mental health had been suffering for months because of how much I was working, I cried to my husband, “I’m just so upset because I know I could be doing my business full time, but I’m not.”
The only thing that was holding me back from quitting was because I felt awful that I had only been with the company I was currently with for about 10 months. It went against everything I had been taught in college to jump ship in corporate from a job that soon.
But I was getting migraines almost every week and operating on limited sleep. My heart was heavy every day I had to participate in a meeting or show up work in the office. It felt difficult to put on a happy face. I didn’t want to talk. I didn’t want to do anything. I felt like the light within me was slowly going out and only a small ember was left.
I just didn’t want to keep working so hard for somebody else’s company or somebody else’s dream anymore. I just wanted to work hard for mine.
And I don’t think that’s selfish.
Before I went full time with my business, I boldly asked the Lord if he would lead me to two more clients before the end of the year, for some reason it felt like what I needed to have the final confidence to make that bold choice to leave my job. I prayed boldly, but knew that no matter what happened, the Lord was still good, he was still faithful and his promises still true.
Upon digging through MailChimp (what I was previously using for email marketing before switching to Flodesk, I came across a message from somebody that had reached out to me in 2020, but the message was left without a response, because I had never seen it come through. On a whim, I decide to reach back out to her, hoping that there might still be a chance that we could work together, but knowing that the odds were slim.
To my surprise, my message back to her ended up being perfect timing. We quickly began working together and thus began one of the most fun, intense illustration projects I’ve ever done in my business. You can check out the final result in my portfolio HERE to see the work in print!
That was one new client down. Could there be another?
Around the same time, I was approached by an author to create some illustration work for his new book. It was completely random how this person found me on Instagram. But was it really random? Or was it God’s divine intervention in my life?
Just what I had prayed for, two new clients. It was all the validation I needed.
Sometimes we pray for things, and he answers our prayers, but just not in the way we expected. Sometimes we go years, decades with prayers seemingly being unanswered. It doesn’t always look like this picture perfect story of praying and within the next day something changes, but in this case, it felt almost instantaneous. I was shocked, amazed and in awe of what the Lord was doing in my life and my business.
Fast forward to now, I’ve been full time with my business for over a year, and I’m getting ready to celebrate 5 years of being in business in January. The Lord has been so good to me throughout this entire journey. I’ve had so many unique encounters with God through my business and through inviting him into this area of my life, and through it all, the ups and the downs, one thing i am constantly reminded of is written on a sticky note that displays proudly on my wall right above my desk.
It reads, “all I have needed, thy hand hath provided”. A lyric from a song I take great comfort in “Great is thy faithfulness”.
In my five years of creative entrepreneurship, I’ve learned a lot about building a business on a foundation of faith. I’ve learned a lot about being a spirit-led business owner, and while I don’t do any of these things perfectly, I do know that my success does not come solely from me, but rather from what the Lord has graciously equipped me to do as I pursue the calling he has so clearly put on my heart.
Here are a few things I’ve learned over the years about being a spirit-led business owner that I’d like to share with you.
If you’re a christian business owner, wondering where God might lead with your small business (or you business idea), I hope these tips can be helpful as you navigate the unpredictable waters of entrepreneurship with a faithful, constant savior by your side.
HOW TO BE SPIRIT-LED IN YOUR BUSINESS
Be open handed
One thing that has given me peace in my business (because let’s face it, being an entrepreneur and having your business be plan A, B, C, D etc can come with a lot of pressure) is knowing that this isn’t in my hands.
I’m not the one in control here.
And while being out of control might feel stressful, it’s actually so freeing, relieving and soothing when you the one who IS in control.
When you trust Jesus fully, when you know him, and you know that he has a plan for you and you fully believe this, you don’t want to be the one in control anymore.
I recognize in my business that I’m immensely blessed, but it could also all be taken away tomorrow. And God would still be good, still be faithful, and my husband and I would still be blessed. I strive to remind myself of this because I never want to take a good thing God has blessed me with, close my fist, and pretend I’m the one in control here. There’s nothing I can hide from God, keep from God or take from God’s control, and I wouldn’t want to anyways. I want to be open handed in my business.
Pray through every decision you make
Every time I have to make a decision in my business, like how to handle a difficult client situation, whether or not to bring on new work, whether or not to let go of a client, whether or not to hire somebody to my team, all the decisions that have to be made as a business owner (trust me, there’s lots of them), I try to pray through them all.
I trust, that when the intentions of my heart are truly just to do what God would have me do, and to choose what God would have me choose, I know I can’t go wrong.
This doesn’t mean I do everything right, I make mistakes, I learn from them (sometimes), but when I do stop to pray through a decision, and be led by the Holy Spirit in my decision making, I know I have a Helper that will help me do what’s most honoring to God or part of his plan.
It doesn’t matter what decision you’re making in life or in business, no matter how big or how small, there’s nothing you can’t bring to the Lord in prayer. Pray without ceasing!
Pray bold prayers
Around the time I knew I wasn’t going to be able to hold on at my corporate job for much longer, I started praying really, really bold prayers. Does this mean God is an ATM machine that you can visit with whenever you need something? No, absolutely not. But when you have a relationship with the Lord, you know that you can present your requests to the Lord, and leave the rest in his hands.
Of course it’s honoring to God to pray for his will to be done in your life, and not your own, this is the foundation of any prayer I pray for new work in my business. As exciting as an opportunity might be, I don’t actually want it unless God wants it for me. But this doesn’t mean I don’t pray big, bold prayers, and let my requests be known to the Lord.
When I feel like I need something in my business, I ask for it.
But I know that regardless of what the answer is, “all I have needed thy hand hath provided.”
Seek Him first, over everything in your business.
Ah yet another thing I don’t do perfectly, but boy am I working on it!
I started purchasing bible studies from a company called Well Watered Women this year and it kind of changed my life because of the effect it had on my walk with the Lord.
It got me into the habit and routine of daily time with the Lord in the morning before I do anything else. Of course there are times where maybe I miss a day or I don’t get to this until the evening, but for the most part, nothing else in my day can really begin until this part is done.
I don’t look at time with the Lord as optional anymore. Kind of like brushing your teeth. You just have to do it.
I remember one day thinking about what I wanted to tackle first for the day, I felt like I had a mountainous to do list, and I just wanted to go straight up stairs to my office to start ticking things off the list.
My eyes wandered to my book shelf, my soft pink bible with silver lined pages practically staring me down from the bottom shelf.
I didn’t hear God audibly say this to me, but a thought popped into my mind that just said “spend time with me.” I listened.
I write this almost with tears in my eyes thinking about all the times the Lord has wanted me to spend time with him, and yet I’ve put other things above him.
Again, I have to stress that I’m not perfect at this, but getting into this daily habit of regular time with the Lord has brought me so close to him and I’m experiencing him in a new way, reading the bible and understanding it in a new way, and for that, I’m so grateful.
Every day, I’m learning and working to get better at putting him first, and I’m grateful for the gift of grace when I fall short in this.
Pray for the desires of your heart to match the will He has for your life.
When you’re a business owner and you see opportunity in everything, it’s easy to get caught up with shiny object syndrome. You want to do ALL THE THINGS, leave no stone unturned. I think part of what’s brought me success is that when I get an idea, I practically act on it right then and there, I get it done as soon as possible.
When I have a goal, I don’t stop until I’ve reached it. But with this heavy pursuit and go getter attitude, it can be tempting to go after things blindly just because it seems like a good idea, or because it feels right for a moment, or maybe just because it’s an exciting offer.
On the other hand, an opportunity might come my way and I’m paralyzed with fear, unsure of what to do because I don’t want to commit to something and make a decision I will later regret.
In these moments, I’ve found one of the most powerful prayers I can pray is for the Lord to make the desires of my heart match what he has for me in his plan for my life. I simply don’t want to have a desire for anything that’s outside of what he has for me. And truthfully, much of what we desire, what we think will be best for us, is nothing compared to the full story the Lord is writing for you. We just have to have the FAITH to follow his lead.
“Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.”
When I read this verse from Psalm 37, I don’t think this means that God will just give us whatever we want. To me, it means that if we find our joy in the Lord, the desires of our heart will become God-honoring and we’ll have true satisfaction in him that we can only get from Jesus.
True satisfaction won’t come from your business (as much as we might love what we do) and if we’re constantly chasing fulfillment form our work, we’ll never be satisfied.
In the Lord, we have everything, regardless of what might be happening in life or in our businesses.
I pray today that no matter what stage of life you might find yourself in or no matter where you might be in your business, that you would find comfort in this and know that God is weaving together a beautiful story for you, even if it looks different right now than what you would expect. I also pray that this gives you peace knowing that you can TRUST God with your biggest dreams and that he will equip you to what he’s called you to do.
Lastly, if you’ve ever felt fear in your business, your future or you career, here are a list of scriptures to commit to memory, have at your desk or read every day:
Scriptures for the fearful business owner that wishes to be spirit-led:
“For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.” 2 Timothy 1:7
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” John 14:27
“The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” Psalm 27:1
“Cast your burden upon the LORD and He will sustain you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken.” Psalm 55:22
“He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the LORD, ‘My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.’” Psalm 91:1-2
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:6-7
An Exercise to Try When Things Feel Impossible
The Bible tells us that all things are possible with God. Do you believe that today? If you’re feeling down, discouraged and struggling to see how the Lord will make a way in your life, I have a challenge for you today. This month in church, our pastor shared with us an exercise about Mapping God’s Faithfulness. Write down moments of how God has been faithful to you in the last year, the last 5 years, make a list and watch before your eyes all the promises God has kept to you, how his goodness has never failed you. I promise you this will change your perspective and give you the encouragement you need today!
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