I have a confession: I first came to a relationship with God because of a girl. I liked her. I wanted to make her happy by going to church with her on Sundays. Listen, God will use whatever he can to bring us into relationship with him. I have another confession: when I read the Bible now, I mostly see messages on how Jesus wants to partner with me on my entrepreneurial journey and how God wants to grow my influence and business. I see it as the ultimate guide to owning a business!  Am I crazy? With this insight and knowledge, I can't help but to want to show other entrepreneurs how God and the Bible are relevant to their business growth and success.  I think that if I can translate that to others, I’ll actually be helping people develop a stronger relationship with God. Like I said at the beginning, God will use whomever and whatever to bring you into relationship with him. We all see the world through our own passions, gifts and talents.  We all fall in love with God and the Bible in different ways. It’s part of the beauty of the omnipresence of God. Some of us find the Bible confusing. Some find it irrelevant to the times we live in.  Others think it’s a bunch of folktales told by some good people, but likely never happened. I believe these thoughts pervade the mind because we haven’t made the Bible relevant to our lives today.  If we can see the Bible as a manual to entrepreneurship, then I think more entrepreneurs would read it.  To this end, God uses ministers to translate the Word into ways we can make it practical in our lives. God inspires people like me to do that translating, and then he wants you to go out and teach other entrepreneurs the same. In Nehemiah 8 we read that the people were hungry for the word, but not everyone understood it.  So watch how a group goes out to bring understanding. Nehemiah 8:5-8 says "Ezra opened the book. All the people could see him because he was standing above them; and as he opened it, the people all stood up. Ezra praised the Lord , the great God; and all the people lifted their hands and responded, “Amen! Amen!” Then they bowed down and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground.  The Levites—Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan and Pelaiah—instructed the people in the Law while the people were standing there. They read from the Book of the Law of God, making it clear and giving the meaning so that the people understood what was being read." Ezra and his band of Levites read from the Book of the Law of God and made it clear, giving meaning, so the people understood. God designed the Bible to be expounded on by ministers so that it's better understood. It would please God if you were able to give your views of Divine truth in your respective marketplace. You might not feel equipped, yet. You might not understand every part of the Bible. However, you also don’t understand every part of business, and yet you’re committed to moving forward, growing, learning, and building, right? The same is true with the greatest business book ever written:  the Bible. The best MBA course you will ever enroll in happens Sundays and in Bible studies at your church. If all of us Godpreneurs can fall in love with the Bible as our business handbook, then we can not only help our businesses succeed, but we can now have a way and reason to go out and ‘spread the gospel’ in ways we entrepreneurs can uniquely understand. 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. #FindMyCalling #TimeManagement

Almost every morning I have a routine. I wake up at sunrise, make a powerful cup of bulletproof coffee (Google that!), sit down in my prayer & meditation chair, open up my bible app (YouVersion), and begin ‘eating’ my daily bread. Incorporating this time with God into my "diet" every morning transformed my business and personal life. Where do you think I get the energy and content to write the hundreds of blog posts on DailyGodpreneur.com? I’ve developed a true HUNGER to want to draw closer to God, which happens to also help me grow and lead a God-first business. God got my attention through the rebuilding of my business. The Spirit of God was moving in me, around me, and through me. I couldn't help but to want more of God. People go to God for a variety of reasons: mine is business.  I feel led and called to do so.  I expect that to change over time, but this is currently the season I’m in. When we see God transforming our lives and businesses, it should motivate us more to draw closer to Him. We see the fruits it produces, and we want more of that sweet stuff. That daily bread is what we need as entrepreneurs to stay on track and continue growing. In Chapter 8 of Nehemiah, the wall has been built and now the city is growing.  The people come to the leaders and literally beg them to teach them from the Word of God.  They had just witnessed Nehemiah and company rebuild the wall, something they only dreamed of. Nehemiah's faith, along with the indisputable evidence that God had his hand all over the rebuilding led the people to want more of God. Nehemiah 8:1-3 NIV "All the people came together as one in the square before the Water Gate. They told Ezra the teacher of the Law to bring out the Book of the Law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded for Israel.  So on the first day of the seventh month Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly, which was made up of men and women and all who were able to understand. He read it aloud from daybreak till noon as he faced the square before the Water Gate in the presence of the men, women and others who could understand. And all the people listened attentively to the Book of the Law." It's clear that the Spirit of God was at work in Jerusalem even before the reading of God’s Word in chapter 8. People do not gather together as one man for the things of God unless the Spirit of God has moved them, and they do not desire God’s Word unless the Spirit of God has moved them. The rebuilding of your business into a God-first business should be evidence to yourself, your team, and anyone involved, that God was with you throughout the process. Your thirst for God should be through the roof! God wants to continue to grow your business.  He wants to speak to you every morning and direct your steps.  He wants you to come to him with problems, conversations of concern, and continued praises as God paves the way before you. We Godpreneurs need our daily bread to lead our teams to new heights. 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. #ArticulatingMyIdeas #WritingGreatCopy

Are there any areas of the business where you can show awesome leadership by giving up your rights?

The biggest hurdles I've had to overcome as a Christian entrepreneur are distractions. For example, I'll start to put together a new Business Bible Study, and I'll be halfway through completion, and something comes up in one of my companies and I'll pause the project for an extended period of time to go tend to that issue. By the time I come back around to finishing what I've started, the chess game has changed and now I find myself unmotivated to continue. My mind wants to do so many things.  I want to start other book reports, more devotionals, open new channels of revenue in my business, form new partnerships, increase my marketing efforts, hire more staff, and the list continues! We entrepreneurs have so many opportunities.  What we have to watch out for is which opportunities are from God, and which are the enemies tactics to distract us from the task at hand. How can we smell when something is from the enemy trying to derail us from the project God has called us to complete? In the Bible, Nehemiah was near the completion of the wall when the enemy comes in to try and distract him, take him off course, and possibly derail the entire project. Nehemiah 6:1-4 says When word came to Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab and the rest of our enemies that I had rebuilt the wall and not a gap was left in it—though up to that time I had not set the doors in the gates— Sanballat and Geshem sent me this message: “Come, let us meet together in one of the villages on the plain of Ono.” But they were scheming to harm me; so I sent messengers to them with this reply: “I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and go down to you?” Four times they sent me the same message, and each time I gave them the same answer. Nehemiah displays the ultimate show of discernment. He has the ability to judge matters according to God’s view of them, and not according to their outward appearance. Picture Nehemiah going to the Word of God and equipping himself with discernment. Perhaps he read Proverbs 27:6: "Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful." That passage alone would remind him to not look to outward appearances, but to judge soberly. You've likely been the victim of deception by outward appearances of opportunities. This lack of discernment produced some kind of suffering. You've listened to others who give a good appearance, but don’t walk in the nature of Jesus. You've likely accepted things blindly because it looked good or sounded good, without carefully judging it against the whole counsel of God’s Word. We've all done this. So the question becomes... How can we develop entrepreneurial discernment? First, if you want to see things as God sees them. This means you need to get to know His Word. A "Daily Godpreneur" isn't just a cute name for a blog...it's a calling for entrepreneurs to get to know God's Word so that we can stand up against the deception of the enemy that wants to take us from our purpose and calling. Second, discernment comes through spiritual maturity; Hebrews 5:12-14 says that discernment is something spiritual babies don’t have (a baby will stick anything in his mouth). Third, discernment can be given as a gift from the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:10). Seek Him for it. Without discernment in business, we can think a dangerous opportunity from an enemy is really a blessing from God. We can think a good idea is a God idea. We can think our own noble desires to serve are God’s promises for success. We can think God is saying “now” or “later” when He is really saying “later” or “now.” We can think another entrepreneur is a great guy or a spiritual leader when they are really doing damage to God’s people. Look around.  Where is the enemy trying to attack you?  Is it the lure of a giant contract?  Is it a new business opportunity your brother in law is presenting? The enemy will often hit you when you're down - you've lost a key player on your team or sales drying up and the bank account is slim. This is when you are most vulnerable to the deception. We all need to watch out for the tactics distracting us from God’s original calling for us to lead God-first businesses. We need to keep our eyes on the next step. We need to focus on the ONE THING we need to do today to keep building our wall. 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. #BusinessBibleStudy #EnhanceFocus #SharpenLeadership

I was once involved in a startup where, once the first money started coming into the business, my partner began buying expensive furniture and artwork for himself. This would have been fine if he was using his own profits, but he was taking from the company money to furnish himself with perks. When I started to see my partner doing this, I became very concerned. It got to the point where I decided I didn't want to be in a partnership with him anymore. If this is the way he was going to be spending the company's money, I didn't want to be any part of the building of this company. Then, disaster struck. My partner figured we would keep making these amazing profits that we were experiencing, but one day, the business ran into big supply chain problems and the money stopped coming in. He was left with over $100,000 in debt to repay because he had personally borrowed over what he was supposed to take. We entrepreneurs are sometimes in positions where we are ‘entitled’ to do things because of our position that can end up playing a burden on our own employees, vendors, and contractors.  We give ourselves perks, take off more days, take longer breaks, more vacations, etc. God is searching for hearts that are aligned with His. He’s seeing how you treat the perks that are rightfully yours. In the book of Nehemiah, we read that he was appointed Governor of Judah. As Governor, he was entitled to tons of perks.  He was given allowances for food and wine, money, and more.  He could get anything he wanted, however, he took a different mindset. Nehemiah 5:14-15 says, "Moreover, from the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah, until his thirty-second year—twelve years—neither I nor my brothers ate the food allotted to the governor. But the earlier governors—those preceding me—placed a heavy burden on the people and took forty shekels of silver from them in addition to food and wine. Their assistants also Lorded it over the people. But out of reverence for God I did not act like that." Like me, maybe you also find yourself as part of a startup. Or maybe you're like Nehemiah and you find yourself rebuilding your company. Both mean that your business is in building mode.  It’s all hands on deck. When you're starting or restarting your company, especially if you're doing it because God is moving you to do so, this means that God is going to be seeing how you manage the "perks" that are going to start coming your way. Will you be enticed to bathe in the luxuries of your position, or will you stand side-by-side with your lowest rank employees in building the business? We serve a God that is training our hearts to be aligned with his.  It’s not about the product or service you provide, it's about the purpose and the heart behind the business. We all need to stay focused on our mission to produce a business that glorifies God. Once the business is up and running, from our own profits, we will enjoy the fruits of our labor. 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. #AgencyOwners #SharpenLeadership

Anyone doing business online must have a solid personal brand. But what if you’re not sure you have the time and skills to do it yourself? Whether you’re just starting to build your personal brand or are looking for a branding brush-up, hiring an agency could be the right way to go. Take Advantages of an Agency’s Resources You may not have the resources to tackle personal branding yourself. Most small business owners and entrepreneurs are up to their ears in their daily operations and barely even have time for strategic planning and other long-term issues. If you don’t have in-house staff to help, it may be easier to hire experts. Help to Articulate Your Personal Brand If you’re struggling to define your personal brand, an experienced branding agency can help you better articulate it. It’s often difficult for an individual to understand exactly what they’re going for. What image do you want to create in the public’s mind about who you are and what you do? Branding professionals can help you discover and clarify the best approach. The point is that the person or agency you choose needs to match who you are so that there's no disconnect, and this can be challenging. You need to uncover what you were born to do and establish God’s vision for your business first, and people that are called to the vocation of branding help do this for you. A Fresh Perspective It’s often hard to accurately see how you appear in others’ eyes. A branding agency can bring you a fresh perspective. They can see what you’re already doing, right or wrong. Their feedback can help you better decide how you want to present yourself to the world. A fresh perspective can also help you get un-stuck if you’re in a rut. Identify Your Target Market Have you clearly defined your target market and their values and motivations? This can be a huge task, but it forms the foundation of good branding. An agency with a great deal of marketing experience can help you identify and define your target market. They can also analyze the competition and help you find ways to set yourself apart. Brand Visuals and Design Design is one area where an agency can help you in your personal branding efforts. A significant part of branding is defining your visual language. This is hard for those of us without a keen eye for design or specific design skills. The experts have done it before, and they know what will work best to communicate the image you have in your mind. Handle Your Own Personal Branding Of course, you are the expert on yourself, and you are the essential part of your personal brand. This is a challenge to communicate to others, even if they are branding experts. So think carefully before you choose to outsource all or part of your personal branding. If you have the means to invest, you can save a great deal of time and energy by outsourcing. And perhaps you can learn a few things from the experts you hire. If you decide to handle it yourself, you’ll stand a good chance of building a personal brand that communicates to your audience who you are and what you stand for. Let me help you learn the process for creating a successful God-first personal brand yourself. In my new course, I’ll teach you how to craft a brand message that incorporates your unique value, how to develop the visual style of your personal brand, how to compile a branding pack, and much more. If you want to know about more ways to develop a powerful God-first personal brand, then head over to my program, Build Your Unique Christian Personal Brand. In this course, you’ll learn how to create a compelling identity that attracts a value-aligned audience and increases your influence and sales. Check it out here - Build Your Christian Personal Brand | Godpreneur Academy #BuildMyPersonalBrand

Milestones are times in my business life when something significant changes. I have a Google Doc of milestones in my business where God HOOKED IT UP! Whenever there’s a moment where I’m like “Dude, this is a miracle, only God could have orchestrated this”, then I write it down on my list. At least once a week (usually Mondays) I’m reading that list to myself. It reminds me that God is amazing!  It gives me a chance to celebrate what He’s done in my business, and positions my mindset to receive more blessings. God works in our businesses even before we realize it.  He’s the reason for every victory, whether we give him credit or not.  The problem is that we entrepreneurs are such forward-thinking visionaries that sometimes we don’t look back to the past to celebrate.  Sometimes we’re so focused on the FUTURE that we miss the opportunity TODAY to celebrate God for what he’s done. The people of Israel had also stopped celebrating God and it cost them the city of Jerusalem. Then, Nehemiah came back to rebuild the wall and bring back the worship of God. When the wall was finished, they celebrate who God is and what he did in the past. Nehemiah 9:6-7 says "You alone are the Lord . You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, and all their starry host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to everything, and the multitudes of heaven worship you.  “You are the Lord God, who chose Abram and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans and named him Abraham." This verse teaches that whatever ability they had to rebuild that wall, they served and glorify God according to the utmost of it. The priests were leading the people to glorify God so that they would be kept humble, thankful, and watchful to not fall back into the sin they had just gotten out of. Hopefully, you're at a place where you've rebuilt your business God's way and you're in a new place along your entrepreneurial journey. If God is first in your business, should be feeling really good about your operations, the people you’ve invited into your wall, and your ability to lead them to new heights. Celebrate this milestone and remind your staff to also celebrate! Send out an email this morning to your team…a celebration email. I do this at the start of each month. Set a recurring calendar reminder to do this. Whenever God has done something amazing in your business, have a Google Doc list where you’re keeping track of this. Each month, send some victories to your people and let them celebrate with you. If we can become Godpreneurs that celebrate all the amazing things that God has done, I believe we are setting our hearts in the right spiritual vibrations to continue to receive all that God has promised for our businesses.  Amen! 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. #WhatBusinessIShouldStart #FindMyCalling

If it´s to read a leadership book he's put on your heart, then read.

respectfully show a partner where a financial error has been made, or supply the courage to address leadership

My accountant called me one day warning me that I was going to owe a lot in taxes that year. See, I had a really good year in sales that year. Business was booming! However, nobody wants to pay taxes, right? Although I had a great year, there was a seed of anger, resentment, and greed in me that was not thinking about how great of a year I had. So, when my accountant told me I'd be owing taxes, I immediately started scheming up ways to not pay the taxes. Then my accountant said these profound words: you should WANT to pay taxes! She explained that paying taxes means your company is doing great! Her reasoning was that the better the company does, the more it can contribute to the growth of this awesome country. Wow, I was mind-blown. That conversation shifted my mindset. Instead of plotting on how to work around paying taxes, I needed to focus on trusting that paying taxes are part of the plans God has for my company and that my business and that I'm part of the growth of my country! We all have ways where we are tempted into deceit. Sometimes we have friends propose illegal business opportunities. Other times our clients ask us to do illegal things on the books or in licensing, permits, contracts, etc. A “Godpertunity” would never come across your desk that asked you to do something illicit.  Although Robin Hood might have thought he was doing a good thing, it was illegal and not from God. In the Bible, we read the story of Nehemiah and his quest to rebuild the wall at Jerusalem. During that rebuilding project, he faces many obstacles that threaten the success of the entire endeavor. It got to the point where outsiders were sending spies and trying to play tricks on him so that he would commit a sin, be arrested, and the entire project of rebuilding the wall would come crumbling down. Case in point, in chapter 6, Nehemiah shows us his skill to discern a lie - a lie that could have ruined his career as a developer. Nehemiah speaking, says "But I said, “Should a man like me run away? Or should someone like me go into the temple to save his life? I will not go!” I realized that God had not sent him, but that he had prophesied against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him. He had been hired to intimidate me so that I would commit a sin by doing this, and then they would give me a bad name to discredit me. (Nehemiah 6:11-13) Nehemiah was the governor and the leader of this rebuilding project. He needed to show a good example of undaunted courage. He has shown such resolve and confidence in God's calling over his life to rebuild the wall. He's so far into this project, he's thinking why now would he dishonor God and religion, and betray the people and city of God, by his cowardice? God forbid! Nehemiah feels, not that he would profane the temple by making it into a place of refuge, but that he would break the law by simply entering it. Being a leader and taking on BIG projects that bring glory to God in the marketplace means the enemy will expose you to many ways you can cut corners and perform illegal activities.  Some could lead to a damage of reputation and integrity, some risk relationships, others can lead you to jail. The greatest mischief our enemies can do us Godpreneurs, is, to frighten us from our duty, and to lead us to do what is sinful. We can't allow ourselves to decline doing a good work with a bad one. We can't always avoid getting advice from others, however, when we do, we need to reject what is contrary to the word of God. How can we stand firm against the enemy's various schemes to derail what God wants us to build (or rebuild) for Him? In my experience as a Godpreneur, I've only been able to discern the enemy's plots by staying in the word of God. We, Godpreneurs, need to be consistently studying the Bible. This is the only way we can guard ourselves against the anger, resentment, and greed that comes about when our business is being threatened. Following Jesus's examples is how we yield to impatience, discontent, or anger that could lead us to sin. We are Godpreneurs, our boss is God, and the Spirit would never lead us to deceit.  God will provide, always and forever.  We don’t have to engage in illegal activities, even if disguised as good.  If its illegal, its not of God. We can let our spirit guide us to stop doing anything illegal. 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. #GainConfidence #AccountingHelp #StrengthenIntegrity

I love doing logos and websites for churches. Obviously I’m going to feel good about hooking up one of God’s churches with awesome identity. I even have a special rate for churches, lower than what I would charge another company for the same deliverables. Why? First of all, those are my peeps! I’m Christian, I go to church, I understand the struggles churches go through to survive off of the tithe, and I want to help. Second, every church practically needs the same exact stuff when it comes to graphics and web, so I benefit from ‘economies of scale’.  This means that I’m not reinventing the wheel with each client, but instead able to make a solid system and process more efficient, thus lowering my costs to produce the product. As Godpreneurs, God has a plan to use our businesses to help the church and our fellow Christian brothers and sisters. However, sometimes we focus on our own needs (profit) and we don't even consider what others - especially those in need - are going through. In the book of Nehemiah, we run into a situation where Jewish ‘business owners’ were treating their own Jewish brothers and sisters unfairly. Nehemiah 5:4-5 says "Still others were saying, “We have had to borrow money to pay the king’s tax on our fields and vineyards. Although we are of the same flesh and blood as our fellow Jews and though our children are as good as theirs, yet we have to subject our sons and daughters to slavery. Some of our daughters have already been enslaved, but we are powerless, because our fields and our vineyards belong to others.” The world's problems are not yours to solve, and your business must generate revenue in order to manage your finances correctly. You aren't expected to provide free services for the Christian community. However, you must leave room in your heart (and budget) for special occasions where certain brothers and sisters in true need can be "hooked up" with your services. It's not about providing a free service, it's about meeting someone at their place of need. It's about God using your business to work in someone else's life. We aren't expected to provide free services all day, however, we are expected to have a heart for our brothers and sisters and do whatever we can to help those that are less fortunate and in a special need through their circumstances. Personally, when people reach out to me on my social media to tell me they want to take my courses, but they can't afford to pay for it, I send an email to my team to grant that person access and I bless them with what they asked for. I do what feels right for my brothers and sisters in Christ, especially when they have the courage to share their financial situation and ask for the help. Look into ways you can serve your church with your business.  Use your power and influence to help your church community, too. If you want to brainstorm ways your product or service can serve the church, or brothers and sisters from the church, comment below and we'll come up with ideas to help you. 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.

Sometimes, the same leadership quality you don’t like about yourself is the same thing God wants to use

The scariest part of Restarting my business was doing it alone with my assistant.  We were the first ‘wall builders’. Then, I had to strategically convince others to join this amazing team of two that promises to change the world. I did all of this with debt piling up and no guaranteed clients. I was relying on my faith that God would provide and that it was His will that I start the business. Serving God in entrepreneurship takes much courage. Yet, we do so because, as Christians, we know the cause is just and that God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek to serve him. People generally fall into two groups: people who volunteer to attempt the difficult tasks for God, and people who applaud those who do. To which group do you belong? I thank God every day for blessing me with team members that pioneer new ventures with me. How do I find and recruit other God-first people to come work with me? I let God bring them into my life. I primarily start recruiting through my network of friends at church. God shows us in Nehemiah 11 how the leaders rebuilding the city re-populated Jerusalem the same way. Nehemiah 11:1-3 says "Now the leaders of the people settled in Jerusalem. The rest of the people cast lots to bring one out of every ten of them to live in Jerusalem, the holy city, while the remaining nine were to stay in their own towns. The people commended all who volunteered to live in Jerusalem.  These are the provincial leaders who settled in Jerusalem (now some Israelites, priests, Levites, temple servants and descendants of Solomon’s servants lived in the towns of Judah, each on their own property in the various towns," Nehemiah and the people restored the city wall. Now they needed people who would live in that city and defend it, if necessary. Jerusalem, despite its new fortification, was still a dangerous place to live. the city was still prone to attack from neighboring factions. Nehemiah decided the nation’s leaders and their families would live there, and to give the remaining spaces to people who volunteered or those who drew lots. You have a network of people around you, too.  Most won’t fit into your business.  But if you pray for God to reveal each person, they will begin to surround your business.  As long as your antennas are up, you’ll seize the opportunity when it comes. We are loved by God.  We are to prosper and succeed.  God will reward us for the risks we took as pioneers to restart and rebuild.  If we stay in the spirit and always come to God for our next steps, he will be faithful to bring us the right people to continue to build our businesses. 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 #SharpenLeadership

I believe all of us Godpreneurs were given dreams by God for the purpose of accomplishing those dreams and bringing those visions to life. I don’t know what that dream is that you have for your business. I don´t care how far-fetched that crazy product or service idea might appear to be. I don't care how disappointing it might have been as you’ve worked toward that dream, but here’s what I know: that dream that you're holding in your mind is possible. In the Old Testament, we read Joel 2:28 says “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions." Christian entrepreneurs, we have been given the gift of the holy spirit. It means we are constantly downloading and receiving dreams and visions. And, sometimes we can’t see how we'll accomplish that dream, but what we do know is that it's possible to have a dream and run toward it as we work on it day in and day out in our businesses. However, most entrepreneurs don’t work on their dreams. Why? For many years I didn’t. One is because of fear - the fear of failure. What if things don’t work out. And, the fear of success - what if I do succeed and I can’t handle it? The other thing that happened is some entrepreneurs get comfortable. They have a good thing going. The family business is stable, why rock the boat. They stop learning and growing. They stop working on themselves. They stop stretching. They stop pushing themselves. And there's another group of entrepreneurs that I want to talk to. You guys that had a dream, pressed play on it, invested all your time and resources, you followed God's prompting and, yet, the business failed and took you down with it. You've ended up becoming very cynical about entrepreneurship, and you throw in the towel on yourself and on your families and on your dreams. For others listening, you don’t feel worthy. This happens to a lot of 9-5 workers with a dream of entrepreneurship, but not willing to take the risk. You keep thinking about pressing play, but because you don't have a college education, because I don't believe in yourself, because you allow other people's opinion of you to control your destiny, you don't act on your ideas. Can I share with you that passion for something will outwork and win out over knowledge, skills, talent, natural talent, natural gifts every single time.

I thought to myself, "man, Alex, you need to be praying moreover your own leadership and those of your