Spiritual Perspective Can Hurt Your Business

There are three ways that spiritual perspective can hurt your business as follows:

1. If you or your staff try to impose your view on other people - Every single person has some type of belief. It might be in a God of the universe, nature, or even in life ending on this earth. Most do not want to hear about what others believe unless they specifically ask for it and they certainly do not want to go into a business only to be evangelized or confronted about their faith.

2. If You have specific beliefs or religious customs that conflict with client needs - Some religious groups observe specific days of the year or have celebrations that might interfere with regular business hours. Still others may have particular traditions that might offend customers who either are not familiar with them or have negative connotations.

3. If you believe that God is going to do everything for you - Owning and operating a business takes work - hard work. You may believe that God is an active partner who helps and supports you but, if you think that you can just sit back and not do anything to improve or grow your business, you are likely going to be very disappointed with how things end up.

Despite the above, there are many people with strong spiritual beliefs that they will not ignore who build very healthy businesses. Brothers in our city, for example, who are Mormon have a law firm that will not represent people who are divorcing. Christian doctors frequently choose never to do abortions. Other professionals and business owners honour their own particular spiritual beliefs and do well.

The whole key to building a good business is to make sure that you offer enough products and services to generate the revenue and profit that you need and want while, at the same time, taking care not to offend the customers or clients with who you serve.

Spiritual beliefs can be very powerful. They can provide the believer with a quiet confidence that the work being doing is supported by someone bigger than they are who cares about the outcome. Spirituality also offers the business owner a way to share trouble through prayer.

Over the years I have never marketed as a Christian psychologist but, if asked about my faith, have said that I am a psychologist who is a Christian. That way I can leave my practice open to a much larger pool of prospective clients. And, when someone who does not believe in God asks if I do, this provides an opportunity for me to share my faith. If you offer excellent service based on your spiritual values, you and the client and the business benefit.

On the other hand, if you do the opposite and allow your spiritual beliefs to lead, you may find that you are actually hurting your business.