God’s Plan for Your Financial Prosperity—Part 3

We have been looking at the fundamental keys to financial prosperity from the Biblical perspective. From Genesis 1:28, we have learned that we cannot prosper financially without being fruitful by way of producing goods or rendering services or both. It was settled that the need for one to be engaged in a thriving business enterprise is God’s model for financial prosperity. It was also made abundantly clear that we all have multiple income-generating potential and there is the need for us to make full use of that potential by stepping out of our comfort zone.

Fruitfulness is about producing. But there is a second level that God expects us to take our fruitfulness. That is the multiplication level. The multiplication level involves reproducing more of what one has been fruitful in. Operating at that level requires an investor or seed sower mentality, which we considered in great detail.

The third dimension which we will consider under this part is replenishing the earth. This has to do with marketing and distributing goods or rendering services or both on a worldwide range.

Marketing and Distribution

God has set a very high standard for all of us, regarding our work towards financial prosperity. He wants us to produce quality goods and render high-standard services. Not only that. He expects us to produce goods in large quantities to meet global needs, and render services on the international dimension. That is what replenishing the earth with what we produce means. However, I always admonish that one starts small with the global dimension in perspective.

Marketing and distribution are about sales. The goal of every marketer is to sell a product or provide a service. This is a very important aspect of financial prosperity because no matter how fruitful you are if you do not have a good marketing and distribution strategy, your efforts will be wasted. So everything, from production or skill development to sales, must be done with exceptionally faultless accuracy. Whatever you cannot get customers to purchase is not worth producing. So producing goods or developing skill must be done with the customer in perspective.

Competitive Necessity

In order to be relevant in any business environment, you must be abreast with facts regarding the best practices and competitive necessities in that industry. Competitive necessity refers to the standard practices in a particular industry that every competitor must uphold to stay in business. Performing below that standard will make you appear antiquated to customers and you will lose your customers to other competitors.

Whether we like it or not, advancement in technology has made the world a global village. The Personal development platform from which you are reading this article is a blog which is being hosted in Canada. We the “Smart Living Duo” who co-founded TOPVINCENT.COM are living in different continents but we work together perfectly every day. And although there is no viable Personal Development Blog in Ghana, we started out with the Competitive Necessities of the global market in view. The very first day we launched our blog, we received 2,500 people to our site from all over the world and the numbers keep increasing. Because the blog was designed to meet global standard, serious-minded readers are attracted to us, besides the good contents we provide.

Branding

Branding is a marketing practice by which a positive perception and admirable identity for a company, its products or services are created in the mind of customers. This could be achieved through the design of the company’s logo, clear and meaningful vision and/or mission statement, or a cliché that tingles one’s ears. Branding can give a company, even a new company, very good social presence if it is done very well. Good branding practices can give you a strong edge in an industry even if your product or service is relatively new in the market. Visibility is key in a highly competitive business setting and branding can help meet that need. All these details must be considered before you come into the marketplace so that you can begin on a very good note.

MARKETING STRATEGY

Marketing strategies abound. Depending on what one wants to sell, certain practices or strategies may be more fitting than others. However, there are general principles of marketing that are very fundamental and worth applying for success. We are going to look at the 4 A’s of marketing. It may be needless to say, but anyone who wants to be successful at marketing products or services must make all marketing decisions for customer satisfaction. A marketer stands a good chance of meeting his own goals by putting the interest of the customer above his or her convenience.

Here are the 4 A’s of marketing:

1. Acceptability: Customers must have a special preference for what you are offering. This means that whatever you are offering must be packaged to meet their expectation.
2. Affordability: The sale value of the product or service should be reasonably priced.
3. Accessibility: It should not be difficult for customers to buy your products. You can do online sales and offer delivery services for the convenience of the customer.
4. Awareness: This is about the visibility of the product. If a particular good or service is properly promoted, a large number of customers are likely to be attracted to it. This is why creating a very strong and appealing brand is very vital.

Everything you do in terms of marketing should follow the marketing mix explained above. They must define and inform the mediums you will use to achieve your goals. For example, your target audience will determine the most affordable and suitable means of creating awareness for your products. As popular as social media is, there are certain products that may not reach the target groups in certain areas if you use that medium of promotion. For example, in certain villages where social media is not popularly used, one cannot succeed at marketing a product through that medium.

Whatever you have to sell to the world, you must always ensure that you are doing it at a very high standard so that you can make good financial gains to be able to support the work of God and any other good cause. This is what we have looked at in summary:

Part 1 – Be Fruitful = Produce

Part 2 – Multiply = Reproduce

Part 3 – Replenish the earth = Market and Distribute the produce

Remember that generosity is not the fundamental key to financial prosperity. If it were so, how does one raise the first amount that will be given for a spiritual return without the person being productive? Never make a fool of yourself by succumbing to the trick that you can give $1,000 in exchange for a mysterious $1 million wealth transfer. If it were that simple, why would any pastor constantly ask for your money to meet the every day needs of the church? One-time offering would have been enough for the church since it would have been thrown into the fictional supernatural jackpot for huge returns.

However, it is obvious that giving is not a supernatural jackpot. Consequently, no amount of offering or sacrifices, coupled with fasting and prayers will succeed at reducing God into an ATM machine. God assigned the duty of producing, reproducing and distributing whatever has been produced to humankind and He has not promised anywhere to take over that responsibility.

Dear, smart reader, please, “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” (Galatians 6:7). However, regarding money, you must understand that it only functions as a seed that can earn financial returns when it is invested in a productive venture. The promises of God are guided by particular principles, procedures and processes which He has established. Due to the established principles, procedures and processes which govern the fulfilment of God’s promises, you cannot obtain by offerings, sacrifices and prayers, what God has commanded you to attain by being diligent in business. And this is because no amount of offering and sacrifices can make God turn away from His word.

Every Christian has a worshipful duty to provide for the needs of the church so that the Gospel is preached everywhere in the world. You must be clear in your mind when you give to support any good cause that the blessing of the Lord which is promised to generous givers is not a doubling and tripling of their cash. Don’t waste your life expecting a mysterious personality to bring huge bags loaded with dollars that you have not worked for to you, simply because you gave money to the church or your pastor or to a needy person or for any other good cause.

May you receive illumination to focus on deploying your skills to do profitable work so that you can have enough to finance the mission of God on earth as your worshipful duty.