4 Mistakes small businesses make

 If you are wondering why your business remains small and is not growing, you might be guilty of the some of  the following mistakes I have noticed. Businesses have habits that are killing their business or keeping them from growing. 

1. Being rude or not so polite to customers whether online or in person. Whatever happened to customer is king!? If you do not watch what you say and are too casual with customers you might be losing business without realising it. Basic things we learnt in kindergarten like 'please', 'thank you', ýes sir', 'no sir''  are very important. You will be surprised how people enjoy being respected and given regard and they will recommend yo to other customers based on how you made them feel about themselves. It is also very important to listen, even if you know your business in and out, your customer doesnt and the fact thát they call or text you means they want to learn about your business. However in this day and age you hear answers from business owners like, Óbviously this product works better for this and that one does this', in a pompous way. No it is not obvious to me and I need you to be patient and spend your time explaining and showing  me.'

i once saw a video of a shop that refused to sell Oprah Winfrey a handbag. Beware coz you just might be treating wrong someone who can buy out your whole stock. Some people buy just to support you and will be put off by the way some people receive them.

2. Not following up on orders, even if its one item like a toothbrush, you never know how far it could lead. That one person could refer you to others and they could order a tonne. But if you are lazy and tell yourself that its just a small order you will never find out. Covid and the fact that it forced s to do  business differently taught me to always keep a customer and that any potential customer is king, find out where exactly they are and ways of making arrangements that are win win for both. Meet them halfway if possible or find a person who is near you and them and arrange deliveries. Do not ignore and especially please do get back to someone with information if you have promised to get back to them.

When I was in a Network Marketing business, I still am but at a slower pace, I learnt the importance of follow-ups. If you sell consumables, its wise to even call up customers and ask if they still have a product. At reasonable intevals of course, not the day after you have sold them a product.

3. Not communicating well. Communication is key. I once sent a msg to a supplier of something and we actually got to a point of her asking if I wanted a certain product and I said ÿes". To my surprise when I was now following up she informed me that she didnt have my order. I copied our conversation and sent her and then she said', Áctually for an order to be recorded I will need a deposit." How was I supposed to know all that if she didnt communicate it to me. Ít showed me that she leaves it up to the customer to push for sales for her business and not the other way round. As a small business you are the one in need of making sales, not the customer. Once a person makes an enquiry, it is now your job to get their contact details and to make sure that you do not leave that first conversation without a complete order. If you are shy and wait on the customer to contact you, its to your detriment. In my opinion, an enquiry is a go ahead to contact them and leave with a sale. I like how the fast food stores do it, if you ask for fries they will ask you if you would like a drink with that, if you say yes then they will ask if you would like toppings, or a side and so forth. Its a sales tactic to make sure they get the most out of you. Most of us small businesses could take a leaf out of their book. Supermarkets will put small enticing items at till points.

4. If you are the business owner and employing someone to do your sales whether in a shop, online or door to door, you need to train them. Training doesnt have to be costly and time consuming, you can do it yourself as you are employing and during your induction programme. Important to remember is that this person is a reflection of yourself. Emphasisé to them that they are representing you as they conduct business and they should speak as you would speak. This is why the big businesses like Macdonalds have checklists that a person has to go through with each transaction. hotels do it as well, they have certain wording and mantras that all will speak on a daily basis until it becomes second nature to say and do. 'This includes the way the telephone is answered, it has to be energetic and clear and friendly so that you can 'hear'the smile on the other side of the phone!

Investments and stocks

 Äre you ready to change your life! Are you ready to get rich" I shouted to my husband as I got into our house after work. "Remember the other day when I was telling you that I am feeling again like we are letting down the youths from our neighbourhood by not creating jobs for them", I continued, even as I was saying it, I couldnt help feeling the hýpocrisy of the statement because I no longer believed in people merely depending on their salaries, I now believed in multiple streams of income and having noticed that once someone becomes an employee, the desire and the drive and passion to work on something of their own starts to dwindle. Just days before I had been saying to a mum that knows my passion for ministry tor youths, and she was saying to me , "Please look for a job for my son. I had said to her "Yes we will look but what is he good at, what does he love to do because sometimes its best to turn your hobby and talents into a business. 

I had then battled in my mind on how to explain to the youths that business and especially investing is the way to go. Since I am starting up again investing after the disaster of 2008 where banks and insurance companies had declared bankruptcy on clients and told them that nothing had come of their investments of years . Even though I had continued to study around the subject, I had been wary of doing it myself and now I needed a way to encourage others, especially my youths that it was the way to go.

I then stumbled on a video on Youtube by the Wallstreet Trapper, actually he was being interviewed by .... talking in the simplest terms on how and why to invest in the stock market and how shares are a way of owning something even if it means owning a fraction of a share.

My mind was blown at how the Lord works

 

Who is the focus of your worship

Today I want to share a post from a guest blogger. A fellow church member and someone I once worked with on a personal project. Kelvin Mutize is a young man, passionate about worship and very hardworking. He is full of compassion and volunteers for Champions for life, a church program which supports children infected and affected with HIV. I wanted you to hear from him, so here goes.

Studying the books of Isaiah, Ezekiel, Revelations, Daniel and Job one thing that stood out was the detailed explanations of how these man of God had numerous encounters with God and in detail they explained how their whole experiences set a platform to know God from that place forward ad that revelation became the basis of their worship.

God is a good God and the way that He appears to me and you is totally different especially determined by our level of comprehension of who He is and it’s true that we have not been all called in the same way but today we want to focus on your walk with Him by self introspection to gauge where we are. We are not comparing but looking from the start of our walk with Christ and our lives today.

Questions To A Worshipper

• Is the presence of God (face of God) evident in your life

“And it came to pass, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tables of testimony in Moses' hand, when he came down from the mount, that Moses that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him”. Exodus 34:29

Worship is becoming to us, we become more and more like the one we are worshipping daily and because we spend time in his presence of God we become more and more like God. The question is, does the glory of his presence become evident in your everyday life as we ought to be shining because of that which we carry forth from his presence.

• Who is the focus of your worship

“This people have I formed for myself; they shall show forth (declare/ herald) my praise”. Isaiah 43:21

It’s easy to lose focus of the reason why we worship, as we grow older we tend to ask a lot of questions and we call it rationalization. Have you lost your focus are you still as hungry as when you started living for his glory? Has protocols, constant bugging and confrontation with people destroyed your focus in worship?

• What experiences have you had whilst worshipping God?

“He answered and said, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him? And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee. And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him”. John 9:36-38

The place of growth in one’s life is when we experience the touch of God, it fuels our hearts, minds and lives to continue to press on. The more God reveals the more we search for him and as a worshipper if you are in a place where God isn’t revealing himself to you then it’s time we start working on our own lives and hearts to check if we haven’t gotten numb to God.

There was a point when Smith Wigglesworth had backslidden and when he recognized that he was in that place he went on a fast until God restored him. Worship alone causes revelation and when revelation is absent then you need to go back and earnestly chase after God (entreating the Lord)

How many of us do actually inquire of the Lord for a Sunday song list, style of our worship and how many of us inquire who God is and how heaven worship so that we may understand what fuels the worship of heaven? How many of us inquire to know the sound of heaven and when was the last time you sought to see God in a new light?

These questions are meant not to bring you down there are there to make you realize, self introspect of your life as a worshipper, singer, musician, choir member, ordinary church member where ever you are standing.

Think about it what has changed, what has shifted, what has made the difference to your life as a worshipper?

Worship journey

My family, as far back as I can remember, have always sought God, even when we didn’t even know we were seeking God. My mother especially, would take us as kids to Sunday school. I remember pre-school days, my family stayed in Mutare, a small town in Zimbabwe, and I would attend Church Gomo ( Church on a hill), and I remember singing familiar songs like “Huyai mose, tinamate Mwari”, ( Come everyone, lets worship God).

Later we moved close to the capital city of Zimbabwe, to a town called Chitungwiza and my mum took us to Salvation Army Sunday School.  There we learnt all the bible stories they teach in Sunday School and morals and Christian values which I am convinced played a major role in shaping my adult life. So throughout grade school this was our way of Worship. The bible commands us to worship and Isaiah 43:21 comes to mind, “The people I have formed for myself, they shall declare my praise”.

My father then got saved at an AFM (Apostolic Faith Mission) crusade when I was now in secondary school.   I remember coming home from boarding school and finding out we were now going to a Pentecostal church. We had attended their home services sometimes when we were still going to Salvation Army and a  friend of mine would look at me and we would laugh when it came time to pray because they all prayed at the same time and others spoke in a funny language that didn’t mean anything. Others actually cried in a meeting full of people and acted like they were shouting at God. My mum and I would later discuss these things and concluded that they cried because their sins were too many and they were asking for forgiveness.

This is the church we now found ourselves attending after my father got saves. Slowly we became Pentecostal and soon I also repented of my sin and asked the Lord Jesus to come become the Lord of my life. I have always said this was the time I met God, I mean the true and living God. He moved from being a distant and terrible father to a present and loving father. I got baptised in water and in the Holy spirit and after some time began speaking in the strange language I had once laughed at.

When I first started writing this article, my aim was to highlight two types of worship I have noticed in my own life. When I was in high school and part of my adult life, the only way I can think of describing my seeking God is in a song we used to sing. The lyrics go like this:-

I will enter His gates with thanksgiving in my heart

I will enter His courts with praise

I will say this is the day that the Lord has made

I will rejoice for He has made me glad

 (Composer unknown)

 

A couple of years back up to now, the way I can describe my hunger and search for God’s face are amazingly articulated in the below song:-

              Take me past the outer court, into the holy place

Past the brazen altar, Lord I want to see your face

Take me past the crowds of people and the priests who sing their praise

I hunger and thirst for your righteousness but its only found one place

So take me into the holy of holies, take me in by the blood of the Lamb

So take me in to the holy of holies, take me close, cleanse my lips

Here I am…. “Prophetess Juanita Bynum”

God takes us on a spiritual journey which I think never ends until we die or meet with Jesus in the sky. I am amazed at God and how He can continue to teach and direct you to greater and greater heights and from glory to glory in the spiritual journey. I have read and watched many testimonials of people of God crying out to God for more of Him. Others even take days or weeks away from everything but seeking His face. One thing is for sure though, He initiates the hunger and thirst according to what He has called a person to do in life.

 

Be Happy

 

 

I once read a book in a Library of a company where I worked. I have always been a bookworm so I went into this library full of resource books looking for light reading material. Sure enough I found a kind of self-help book called, “What if it were all alright?”. I have forgotten the author of the book but it changed my life. It began a journey I now know as the Law of Attraction. The Bible is full of this law if you are looking for it. An example is Philipians 4:8 ‘Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things’.  

So the book was saying we have a lot of things in life that stress us and make us unhappy and uncomfortable. What if we looked at these things and changed the way react to them. What if it is alright for it to rain just as I was about to go out for a volleyball match with my kids in the garden. What if instead of getting furious and depressed and sad, I laughed and joked about it and said ‘ah its alright, now we can play that new board game we bought and never opened.

Now I am not talking of harmful things to ourselves or our families but let’s face it, women especially have are addicted to worrying. We will often look for something to worry about, oh I have solved this problem now what can I worry about next! Those little things that are not a train smash (like a friend of mine likes to call them), what if we just ticked them off as alright. Recently in our difficult economy I have found I have learned to live without some things that used to be crucial, and I mean mandatory. Only to realise that if I left them out of list for a day or two I didn’t die, the sky did not fall and life actually went on.

In the same way, we burden ourselves with things that we have told ourselves should be perfect all the time. The doormat must face north and be at exactly ninety degrees to the little grass path in the middle of the driveway. Really!? We end up adding pressure to our families especially the husbands who will be trying to please us or to stay out of trouble. This reminds of the dining room scene in the movie, The War Room when the husband apologises for not being able to come where the wife had just had a near mugging. The wife then says, ‘It’s ok, I knew you were busy and probably in a meeting’, to which the husband is surprised because she is normally negative and not understanding.

What if we also, from today on, behave like that wife and say, its ok honey, I know you are not intentionally late for supper, you have things to do. Even though the meal is a bit spoiled it’s not worth us fighting over and spoiling the evening too. Besides you were out working for this family.

I seriously believe that our lives and our relationships would change for the better. Less stress means better health and happiness for all. As the cliché says, life is short, make the most of it. It might also assist in our quest to live like 1 Corinthians 13 Christians.

1 Cor 13:1 If I speak in the tongues^[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. ³ If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,^[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing.

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

⁸ Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰ but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. ¹¹ When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. ¹² For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

¹³ And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Ministry of 'Helps'

Years ago at a Youth Camp, one of the Pastors taught on the ministry of Helps. It was my first time to hear of this type of ministry and he had to explain for most of us. He was talking about how you do not have to be a pastor of any other prominent person in the church but how you can help the men and women of God to make their work easier. These people that are assistants to pastors, or those that carry their bibles, bring their water, order their food and sometimes even babysit for them are called 'Armour bearers'. The term came from ancient bible times where the armour bearers would literary carry the armour of the King and other prominent people. I am sure present day men and women of God are really grateful for people like that and it is indeed a ministry on its own.

 

In the last couple of years I have noticed a different kind of armour bearer or Helper if you will. These have not served pastors or any prominent person but ordinary people like you and me. My mum has had lots of friends over the years in the high density area where I grew up. It seems that at every stage she had one very good friend that would not miss a day of passing by and bringing goodies and making her laugh and she in return would do the same. One was called Mai Rori ( mother of Rori) who later passed away. Some ten years back after my father died, my mum all of a sudden had another very good friend. It seemed sudden to me as I was away at boarding school and when I came home there seemed to be a person very familiar with my family and who knew her way around the house even better than me for the first few days of holiday. Mbuya vaMacolm was her name which means grandmother of Malcolm.

 

I didn't notice the significance of these people in her life until recently but I did realise how she seemed to live for them especially after my father passed away. She got sick and my husband and I, now living away from her in a medium density surburb were discussing bringing her to live with us so that we could monitor her nutrition and taking of medication. We realised that she never wanted to stay for more than a few days and were buffled, till we went to visit and realised that mbuya va Malcolm would come in frequently and would pass through on the way to church to get her and they would go together. Then we understood that besides her having a life of her own in the high density surburb, it kept her alive because she had friends at home and at church. She had responsibilities at church like being treasurer for activities in her section. At our place, she would be alone most of the days because we would be off to work and school early in the morning and the house helper would be too busy for her.

 

Then mbuya va Malcolm also passed away. She grieved so much and didn't have the energy anymore to go to a little plot where they used to go and plant seasonal plants and plan staying there in their old age. But then an amazing thing happened, I visited and was greeted by mbuya Musakwa, who, you guessed it, knew her way around the kitchen like it was her own. I later learned that even though my mum had a niece living with her, mbuya Musakwa would sometimes bring warmed bath water or cooked pumpkin leaves, a delicacy in the African culture, for my mum every time she cooked them. Every time she cooked anything at her house she thought my mum would like or would be good for her, she would bring it over. At a time of difficulty when my brother got into some trouble with the police, I went home to find my mum was at mbuya Musakwa's house praying, getting comforted and encouraged in the Lord.

 

Mbuya Musakwa was not in the area when I was growing up. She moved in after I had already been married for a while. How did she single out my mum to befriend, and how could she be such an angel? I often now call all her friends angels because I have seen that they are sent by God. They enrich her life and make difficult days bearable.

 

 I have seen the same thing happen with my mother-in-law. You might think that her friends are older like my mum's but they are young women who come in and cook for her and chat with her. Recently I saw a new one I had not seen before and it clicked when my sister-in-law commented that she did not miss a day of coming in to sit and chat with my mum-in-law. I am amazed at how God can meet the needs of these women so wonderfully.

 

I once saw a program on Television where in the western countries young volunteers can be paired off with elderly people for purposes exactly like the above. They visit to chat, go grocery shopping, cooking, eating together and general companionship. One of the young volunteers actually stated that it had saved her live to be able to be useful again in life. So my friend don’t despair and be alone, don’t keep searching for a purpose in life when you can just in the meantime be a friend to someone in your neighbourhood who needs it. It doesn’t take much on your part except time and lovingkindness.

The Helper

This is a huge subject but today I will scratch on the surface. Most women, especially in African countries will relate to this. How many of us are working mothers with helpers in our homes? Other women that we call maid, aunty or other names, who 'should' be at our beck and call and who run the home in our absence but should do it like they were us.

I have noticed that I expect my helper to anticipate my needs and that of my children! I expect her to follow my instructions without question even though sometimes I expect her to use her own discretion in making decisions on what to cook for supper on the days I get home late. I have often caught myself telling her conflicting instructions, like I would have said something earlier in the week and then when I change my mind I rarely notice or acknowledge and I just expect her to read my mind!

Although I have had maids since 2005 when I had my first baby, I only realised it now, ten years later as I began a journey on a different but crucial subject, Me as Helper to my husband. Boy am I amazed at the similarities to the requirements of my husband to those of me from my helper. How many times as a wife have you tried to anticipate the needs of your husband? What he would rather eat, when he would rather make love, which shirt he needs to be clean on a certain day and other acts of love? How many times do you obey without questioning especially in things that are harmless to you or the kids? Sometimes we just rebel against our husbands just for the sake of it. We feel like we do not want to be bossed around. I am not saying we should blindly follow when there is danger but just giving him his place as head of the family.

Today I challenge all working mothers and wives to watch how they treat their helper and how they respond to the husband's requests for help. I believe if we take our rightful place as helper to our husband, our own life and that of the family will improve in quality because then he will feel respected and appreciated.