At the end of 2014, I decided that I was going to go in a radically different direction with my business. I knew God wanted so much more for my business. I knew the company had a bigger purpose…and I was on a mission to discover it. I was led to read the book of Nehemiah in the Bible. It led me down the path of Restarting my business from the ground up. I spent all of 2015 rebuilding my company, Creative Complex. Towards the end of 2015, my church started a series on the book of Joshua from the Bible. At service, God spoke to me through the pastor that it was time for me to take what’s been built and go to market with it. It was time to conquer my niche, make a name for my company, expand my market, and step into the promises I KNOW God has for me and my business.  We entrepreneurs can spend a lot of time building our businesses. God has sustained us, but we know we’re meant for so much more. But we are cautious. We’ve been burnt in the past.  We’ve been down this road.  We’ve tried and failed in the past.  The road ahead is difficult, we know it. Maybe you’re a 9-5 employee and you’ve spent a lot of time writing your business plan, coming up with your invention, building your app, but you’re not sure when to pull the trigger to start the business. Maybe you started your business and have been cautiously growing, but you know you haven’t given it your all-out potential. Maybe you’re like me. You’re on version 4.0 of your business. You’ve learned a lot through this 10-year roller coaster ride. You’ve restructured the business, put God first, and now it’s time to grow. This can be a scary point for any entrepreneur. The risk is high. But I’ve discovered the blueprint to grow my business and conquer my market, God’s way. It’s the roadmap to success for any business looking to enter into financial freedom…the land of milk and honey for all entrepreneurs. The book of Joshua 1:1-5 starts out: "After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord , the Lord said to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ assistant, “Moses my servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the people of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you, just as I promised to Moses. From the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites to the Great Sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your territory." The first thing we see is that God will call you when it’s your time. I remember there being times when I was Restarting my business that I wanted to get out and start growing the business, but I didn’t feel it was the right time. I was waiting on God to let me know when. The second thing we see is that God keeps his promises. You may have started and failed a couple of times, but you know that you are supposed to make this work.  You know God has plans for you to prosper.  He’ll keep those plans. Third, we see that God is very specific in his visions for you, and they are BIG. I have a whole document written out of all the places I want my business to go. My visions are huge, but so is this land of Cannan that God is commanding Joshua to enter.  This is a land that covers 210 miles long and 120 miles wide. God has set everything up for a day like today. You’re ready. You’ve spent enough time building up the dream in your mind. If we trust that God has commanded us for a day like today. He’s asking you to rise up and take what is yours. #FindMyCalling #TargetMarketAndNiche

One day, I had a new plan for rebuilding my company. I prayed about it, and now it was time to take action. I gathered up the people closest to me and formed a new team that would help accomplish the vision. What’s my vision? In a sense, it was the same as Nehemiah’s when he had the vision to rebuild the wall - I wanted to see my company rebuilt! Why?  Because God made me passionate about making sure people are living in the identity and purpose they were born for. I had a dream, a vision, a plan, and an unwavering commitment to seeing it through because this plan was coming from God. We’ve been praying and planning and plotting, now it’s time to set this business in motion. Nehemiah had a plan and there was no question that he believed it would succeed. Nehemiah 2:17-18 says "Then I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in: Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned with fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, and we will no longer be in disgrace.” I also told them about the gracious hand of my God on me and what the king had said to me. They replied, “Let us start rebuilding.” So they began this good work." I love his commitment to the cause.  Here we find a man on a mission! Does your business feel like you’re on a mission from God to make it happen, or you’re just on a mission (Miami lingo for things not going as planned)? You need to gather the troops, unfold the plan, and get to work!  If they see that you’ve been called to do this, and if God has placed them there for you, they will give you a vote of confidence. If we’re all press play on the plans God has for us in living the identity and purpose we were born for, we as entrepreneurs will see more joy and happiness from what we do and there is nothing that will stop us. Get going with the plan! All my best, Alex Miranda Get to know me at www.alexmiranda22.com P.S. I did a Business bible study called 40 Days to Restarting Your Business, God's Way. Check it out: 40 DAYS TO RESTARTING YOUR BUSINESS, GOD'S WAY A business Bible study to help you rethink, reinvent, and restart your business, but this time, God's Way! We parallel Nehemiah's rebuilding of the wall to your journey in rebuilding your business. Also, coaches and Christian business leaders, you can use, edit, and repurpose the teachings for your own tribe! Check it out. #WheretoStartFirst #FindMyCalling

Have you ever heard someone say “I was born to do this!”? Why is it that some people have a knack for crunching numbers and others have a talent of throwing footballs? Here is the good news: be encouraged that God equips us specifically to do the things He has called us to do! That is the beauty of gifts and talents – they enable us to be the entrepreneurs God intended. Of course, the reverse is also true – when we try to start a business other than what God has enabled us to do, we fall outside His entrepreneurial design for us and we are destined to fall short. As Christian entrepreneurs, we should spend our lives discovering and using our spiritual gifts and business talents. This pursuit is essential if we are to accomplish God’s entrepreneurial purpose for us, because we can’t do anything for Him without the gifts He gave us. With those gifts, however, we can accomplish a lot in our businesses. I, Alex Miranda, have a spiritual gift of prophesy, exhortation and teaching to help entrepreneurs uncover their God-given gifts, cultivate them and help them put them to work, for the glory of the Lord. Actively finding out your gifts and talents will be the single most important thing you’ll do in your entrepreneurial career. Next most important is putting them to use. If you need help finding yours, please take my Entrepreneurial Vision Experience course. #EnhanceFocus #FindingMyPurpose

Leadership abilities are in the eye of the beholder.

From elementary school, I can always remember being in some kind of leadership position. Oftentimes, I think this can lead to leadership fatigue, pride, and a slow-down in our true potential We can find rest from our own feelings of leadership responsibility if we can understand that Jesus came (Acts 2:32‭-‬33 NIV) When Jesus ascended into heaven, it started his leadership role as king over every

The business partnerships I’ve been in are hard. Looking back now, I can see that a lot of the problems stemmed me coming into the venture full of pride of ownership and pride of the gifting and/or financial contribution I was bringing to the table. So when things didn’t go right, my pride would puff up and I would begin to criticize, point fingers, play the blame game, and deflect the conflict back at my partners. Oh, and forget about me ever saying “I’m sorry.” (laughing out loud). Now I’m different. I’m a Godpreneur in various business Partnerships with other Christians and non-Christians. I’ve learned that apology is the cure for pride. Apologizing to our business partners is hard work. Saying I’m sorry and changing our business behaviors is even harder, and what makes it so hard for us is pride. Being in a partnership always to some degree involves each person fighting for control. It’s like being in the longest game of tug of war where the only way to stop struggling is for someone to fall. When our behaviors in the business partnership are driven by pride, we want to win every argument about money, always be right about a client. If we see difficulties in the operations is our partner’s fault, we bring up our partner’s admitted shortcomings of the past, and explain away or deny our own sins and weaknesses that we brought into the partnership. We need to change our mindset entirely on this partnership dilemma. Partnerships can be the very thing that God’s put into our lives to continue to mold and shape us into the likeness of Christ, thus becoming the best Godpreneurs possible. We need other people’s input and critique to know how we sound, how we look, how our actions affect other people in the business. In humility, we need to realize that we aren’t quite as brilliant and tough as we think we are. The Bible says: “Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you” (Romans 12:3). When your business partner has an issue with something you did or didn’t do, develop the habit of stopping for a moment and asking yourself “How did I contribute to this issue?” The golden nuggets you’ll discover will propel you and your business to heights you could have never imagined. Then, just say “I’m sorry, you’re right, I could have done XYZ different, and I’m taking responsibility for that.” Easier said than done, but imagine if we all operated from this mindset of self-reflection and personal responsibility? Wow! Godpreneur Rule: Godpreneurs say I’m sorry and take responsibility to grow in our partnerships. #BusinessBibleStudy #SharpenLeadership #BusinessPartnerships Finding Purpose In Your Business Partnership Instead of reading the blog posts, take the video course!  I personally teach you the method.  You get: Workbook 3-Video Teachings Access to dozens of courses in the Godpreneur Academy! Heard of the Godpreneur Academy? Grow Your Business, God’s Way! Bible-Based Video Courses for Entrepreneurs Putting God First In their Businesses Click here to create a Free Account

I was very selfish in the first 5 years of my partnership. It was truly all about me and how I could benefit from the company. I used my Ivy League status, my interpersonal skills, and my sales ability to bully my way through decisions in the company. I cared about my partners, but to the extent in which it helped me. I loved my bros, but I loved myself more. I remember one of my partners reminding me constantly of my selfishness, but I didn’t see it. I thought I was the nicest guy ever…that’s what my mom told me! Although our partnership is over now, I wonder if things would be different had I known the things I know today. You see, what I’ve learned is that we are naturally selfish. We’re born selfish. It’s our instinct of survival to think of ourselves first. We all enter partnerships with a ‘what’s in it for me’ mentality. If we’re honest with each other, we all suffer from this selfish condition (if you don’t anymore, kudos!).  So how do we identify and remove this selfishness? What I’ve learned now that I wish I knew before is that there are 8 keys to removing selfishness and we can find them in the bible in Philippians 2:1-8. "If you’ve gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care — then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand. Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human !  Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion." The keys are this: Agree with each other Love each other Be deep-spirited friends Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand. Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. This isn’t a call for you to lay down your visions, not lead, let yourself be abused, or not defend what you feel strongly about. The irony is that if you can follow the steps above, you’ll actually become even more powerful and influential in your partnership. You’ll be able to win your partners over to your vision much easier.  They will know your heart and trust you more. If all of us can be Christ in our partnerships, we’re truly living out the gospel in our businesses. #BusinessPartnerships #SharpenLeadership #GainConfidence

In 2008, just 3 years after starting my partnership, I began my spiritual revolution.  I grew up Catholic, and after confirmation I really didn’t have much interest in church. Like most boys growing up in Miami, the girls and nightclubs are more tantalizing to our souls. But in 2008 a friend of mine invited me to a Christian non-denominational church and I was hooked! I started growing in my relationship with God. My heart was changing, my thoughts were changing, and the way I viewed people and my business were changing. I’d like to tell you that my partners were happy for me and everything was peaches and cream, but nothing could be further from the truth. Because I was walking in one direction and the other was walking opposite, making business decisions became challenging. I was serving a new CEO above me that wanted things to be different. To please my partners, I sacrificed my new thoughts in hopes of keeping the peace and moving forward. I convinced myself that when its business, God is out, but for my personal life, I was going to grow with God. Essentially, I was living a double life. Sometimes in partnerships we’re put into situations where one person is a believer and the other isn’t.  Or maybe it’s two Christians, but one isn’t walking as close to God as the other. We begin to experience moral and ethical problems.  Business is like a marriage, and being married to someone that’s reading a different book can be challenging! So where do we go from here? Certainly we don’t just bow out and give up the business, right? We can’t just sacrifice all we’ve done to create the business, correct? God’s ways are different, contrariant in nature. The opposite is true. In fact, God wants you to get deeper into the business partnership, but He wants it done out of sacrifice to Him. Romans 12:2 says "Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will." This verse is TOP 5 verses of the Bible that I hold on to and live by every day.  Wherever we are at in our lives, God wants us to think like him and sacrifice the old ways in which we thought. The relational problems that arise from my business partnerships used to deeply trouble me until I wrapped my head around the concept of sacrificing everything I used to think in order to think like Jesus would. This helped me to see my partners not as ‘opposite’ of me, but as brothers that I love. You can choose to focus on your partners and the problems, or you can choose to focus on sacrificing your thoughts and replacing them with God’s thoughts. Let love shine through from God to your business, your partnership, your clients, your services, and your employees. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13, genuine love is all about giving of oneself. However, the pattern of capitalism in the business world is selfish. If we’re conformed to it, we might try “sacrificing” to gain something, be it happiness, acclaim, self-worth, or in my case keeping peace with my partners. But true sacrifice involves giving up selfish desire for selfless love. Sacrifice in business requires balancing our hopes of success and wealth with the understanding that those hopes are not the focus. True sacrifice involves a greater goal than we gain personally or relationally. As Jesus’ life demonstrates, sacrificing must be about living to serve God, even as we seek to serve our business partners and others for him. #WorkLifeBalance #SharpenLeadership #BusinessPartnership

I used to think it was my lack of leadership skills.

The Visionary Missionary Blog for The World Race Gabe Sanchez Meet my great friend Gabe Sanchez! I have the privilege to know Gabe as a brother in Christ, a friend, and a supporter of his mission field work. God has given him the spiritual gift of Vision, and his vision is HUGE! ENTREPRENEURS:  God has given you the ability to profit so you can be a blessing to the world.  It’s our duty, obligation and responsibility to have the best businesses possible so that we can continue to support the great commission.  If you need a pump up message on this concept, watch Peter J. Daniels. Gabe, I look forward to God using my tribe of entrepreneurs to support your vision! #SharpenLeadership

Is your vision to do good? When your customer gives a testimonial, will they satisfy your vision’s hunger? My vision is for my clients to discover what they were born to do, bring it to life, and tell the whole world! When they testify that I’ve helped clarify their calling in business, the vision is satisfied and my appetite is full. But if my vision is set on making money, possessing more territory or gaining more clients, we’ll always just want more and we won’t be satisfied. Money and territory goals are great, but they are goals and should not be mixed with the vision. Ask yourself: How can I make this world a better place? What will my product or service do for the GOOD of my clients. Start there when setting your entrepreneurial vision. An appetite for good brings much satisfaction! #BusinessBibleStudy #EnhanceFocus

One thing I’ve learned in the years of being an entrepreneur: I’m a horrible boss. No, really! I’m a great leader, I can instill Vision and confidence and trust like no other. I’m amazing with brainstorming, problem solving, branding and marketing. But when it comes to managing people, I stink. BUT WAIT…that’s just fine! For years I always thought that being an entrepreneur meant being the boss, and nothing could be further from the truth. Technically, the role of an entrepreneur can be ANYTHING. Here’s what the role of the entrepreneur is, and the same applies to everyone in your organization: everyone should be doing what that are COMPETENT at. If you love to bake, and you start a bakery, you will quickly realize that baking takes a back seat when you have to pay the bills, hire the employees and market your services and products. All of the sudden, the whole reason you started a business (to bake delicious delicacies) is now 4th on the list of priorities, and you find yourself stressed and about to give up. So here’s the solution: 1) make a list of what you love to do, and what you hate to do 2) as fast as possible, partner with or hire someone to do the things you hate doing As a baker, you should be coming up with new recipes, training other bakers, doing quality control, and always be in the kitchen while occasionally coming out to greet the customers only to take a quick survey of how they like the pastries you made. You’re the superstar!! We all need to stop living in levels of incompetence and start living lives of meaning. #SharpenLeadership

I like updating my own website. I enjoy composing my weekly emails that go out from Creative Complex and sending them out. I love project managing. I’m also good at following up on my sales calls, collecting credit cards and booking appointments. Can you believe that even though I had an assistant, a project manager, a web developer, and an account executive, I still performed all of their jobs?!?! What a mistake on so many levels.  But the biggest mistake in doing this was that I was robbing others from growing…from flying from their nest and soaring with me. We can do that sometimes as entrepreneurs. We think that we’re the only ones that can do it the best.  We get impatient. We step in to help at the first sign of something not going they way we would do it. Deuteronomy 32:11 says, "Like an eagle that rouses her chicks and hovers over her young, so he spread his wings to take them up and carried them safely on his pinions." Godpreneurs realize that there are times you step into problems, but its momentary.  In the end, the goal is to let that person learn how to soar like you so you can let God take you to places you’ve never imagined. As for me…I USED to like doing all of those tasks I mentioned at the beginning.  But…I don’t do them anymore. Even though I’m great at these things, I have people on my team that are flying because I let them go. Godpreneur Rule #42: Let go of the tasks so your team can face and solve problems on their own and learn to soar with you. #WorkLifeBalance #SharpenLeadership

I’m in the business of consulting.  I make anywhere from $199 – $499 an hour for my time. Proverbs 11:25 says A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed. Although I volunteer at church and go on medical mission trips, which are both refreshing others, I also feel compelled at times to refresh others by offering my consulting for free. As Godpreneurs we serve a boss that will send us paying clients, but will also send us non-paying clients…or can’t pay as much as I charge (discount clients). Be sensitive to the spirit.  I’m not saying to just give away your services to anyone and everyone from the church.  The spirit will lead you.  It will ‘feel’ right to do this. We must have faith that God will refresh us…because His word says it. #SharpenLeadership

We all have a “dream client” that we wish every client was like. It’s not that this client paid you the most, it’s that they were impacted and changed the most by the product or service we created. How can we bring more of these good-feeling situations into our businesses? We must decide on a niche. The best branding projects I’ve been involved in were the ones where I helped an entrepreneur discover what they were born to do, bring it to life, and help them tell the world about it. I’ve guided thousands of entrepreneurs on the journey of launching a business, but the best ones are when the entrepreneur feels a “calling” to create the product or service they envisioned. So how do I attract more and more “dream clients” to allow me into their business plans? All of us entrepreneurs are built by the same creator of the universe. And by design, God created us to come back and connect with Him regularly. This action of coming to God often is integral to the development of our entrepreneurial journey. I personally believe this “daily huddle” with God is where we business owners uncover and discover our niche. The desire for quality time with God, our CEO, is how we were built so we could receive His loving care and divine direction for our entrepreneurial calling. God built us GODPRENEURS to be restored by Him so He could reveal His ideas more to us. The bible says “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Getaway with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” (Matthew 11:28‭-‬30 MSG) Rest is what prepares the mind for the revelation. You’ll be able to decide on a niche more clearly when you are living freely and lightly. When you discover how to connect with God regularly, you live in a condition of abundance. You’ll be getting filled up, so you can turn around and fill others up. You’ll see that the people that start buying your products and services will all contribute to confirming your joy and happiness in a very specific niche. And when you’re feeling more of your joy, more often throughout the day, you’re able to have a better quality of life at the office, at home, and in your community. You’re able to give because you first received it. You’re able to love and serve on those who you were meant to do business with. You’re able to do what you were born to do. I have my personal brand, Daily Godpreneur, and I constantly come back to God and allow Him to guide my writings and teachings. In turn, I believe He brings me the people I’m supposed to do business with! He also inspires my marketing and advertising so I can attract even more followers. If we neglect the daily task of coming to our CEO (God) for our discovery prayer time, we’re missing out on His revelation. If we fail to learn how to meet with God in prayer and meditation, we operate in a condition of depletion and start to depend on our own energy source. And as a form of survival, we’ll try to take from everyone, rather than overflow onto a specific group of people – the ones God called us to serve. What’s Next? Make a list of everything you LOVE doing and are UNIQUELY gifted at doing. Avoid things you’re good at or obligations just because you wear that hat in the business. Keep it to your UNIQUE ABILITIES. List things that you would do even if you weren’t paid to do it. What moves your heart, calms your heart, or makes it beat faster because you’re excited to do that service or provide that product? What services do you provide that restores you, excites you, or connects you to God? What do you do at work that, after finishing, you think you yourself “Wow, that was a spiritual experience!” Once you have your list, narrow it down to the ONE PROBLEM you would do for the rest of your life. That’s your niche. #BuildMyPersonalBrand Deciding On A Niche In 4 Steps to Deciding on a Niche for your Business, join Alex Miranda as he guides you to launch a brand with intention and purpose and decide on a niche already. Heard of the Godpreneur Academy? Grow Your Business, God’s Way! Bible-Based Video Courses for Entrepreneurs Putting God First In their Businesses Click here to create a Free Account