Do you want to learn how to set goals and cast vision for your business the biblical way? Are you frustrated trying to run your business by the world’s standards? Let’s dive into biblical goal setting for your business.

In this episode of the Five Star Business Podcast, I’m giving you permission to ditch manifesting and vision boards and sharing 3 steps to start implementing biblical goal setting for your business. It’s time to make God your primary business partner!

Building a Business God’s Way VS The World’s Way

Let’s talk about biblical goal setting for your business. Now, I’m all about setting goals and casting vision. I’m a dreamer by nature and a Type A planner. Before the pandemic, I was the business owner who had a five and ten year plan. I learned a lot about releasing control through all of that craziness but I still value goal setting and casting vision for your business. I’ve experienced both building the business the world’s way and building a business God’s way. Let me tell you, they are completely different.

Building businesses the world’s way always left me feeling empty and frustrated. I felt like I wasn’t doing enough. It seemed as if I could never reach the goal that I wanted to get to. Now that I’ve learned to partner with God, and allowed Him to have a significant role in my business, my burden is light. I still have to work hard, set goals and cast a vision. But I’m always re-surrendering my business and allowing Him to play a significant role.

Setting Goals The World’s Way

The world’s way of building a business tells you to create a vision board. Add the fancy mansion that you want to live in, nice vehicles that you want to own, add a vacation, and all of these other things that you want to do. The world teaches you to build a vision board and place it where you’re going to see it every single day. It tells you to speak affirmations over it and manifest your dream life and business.

The world tells you that if you do this, you’ll have it all. That’s what the world preaches. I don’t know about you, but I’ve done all of those things. Except, I never tried to manifest anything. None of it ever worked for me.

It’s okay to have a vision board. But the world wants you to treat it like an idol. As if that’s going to be the answer to having the dream life or business that you want. I don’t think that’s the way you should go. Nothing should be an idol next to God. There shouldn’t be something that you’re seeing every single day and essentially, worshiping.

It’s okay to have things that you want in your life or even putting something in view to see where you’re headed. That’s totally fine. But the way that the world teaches this practice is outside of the Bible. They teach these practices apart from God’s Word. They become an idol and a false god. You start putting your hope and faith into your vision boards and in manifesting. Yet we know that they’re not going to get you your dream life.

Vision boards and manifesting? It’s not enough, you’re not enough. I’m giving you permission to throw away the vision boards and to stop manifesting because that’s not what the Bible tells us to do. So, how do you biblically cast vision and set goals for your business?

Biblical Goal Setting for Your Business God’s Way

We need to make sure we’re following the Word of God. Proverbs 3:6 says this, “In all your ways, acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.”

Proverbs tells us that in everything we do, we need to bring it to God, to acknowledge Him, and ask Him to intervene on our behalf. He will make our paths straight. A prayer that I’ve prayed almost my entire life is for God to open the doors that He wants me to walk through or to close the doors that are not for me. I used to pray this about relationships or jobs and careers. I still pray this prayer about opportunities or decisions that I need to make.

When you acknowledge God in every single area of your business and your life, that’s when your burden is going to feel light. Your path is going to feel straight. You won’t always feel like you’re on this roller coaster. The Bible doesn’t say that it will be easy. It doesn’t say that He will give everything to us. God is not a genie in a bottle. The Word says that He will allow us to walk straight paths.

Proverbs 16:1-3 says, “the plan of the heart belongs to man but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord. All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the spirit, commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established.”

Submit Your Plan to God

If we take this line by line, this verse tells us that “the plans of our heart,” (our hearts desire) belongs to us. It belongs to the body and to the flesh. But “the answer of the tongue is from the Lord.” Just because we have a desire for something doesn’t mean that’s God’s best for us. We need to make sure that whatever we are planning for ourselves, that we also submit that to God. Make sure that it is what He wants us to focus on.

Because if we don’t, and I am guilty of this, we are going to find ourselves so frustrated, tired, burnt out, and we’re going to be battling down the road. You’ll be asking God, why. But did you ask Him, first? Did you submit your plans to Him? Did you consult Him? He owns it. God is in charge of it all.

Hold God’s Discernment Above Your Own

The second verse says “all the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the spirit.” We always think, in our own perspective, that it’s good. We believe our intentions are pure and that we’re doing things for the right reasons. I want to believe that we are always doing things without being selfish, right? The truth is, sometimes we’re still doing things out of selfishness or we’re focused on things for a slightly-off reason.

We might have our heart’s desire and believe it’s for a good reason. We think it may impact a lot of people or whatever it may be. But sometimes, we’re just chasing a profit goal that was never meant for us. This verse says that the Lord will weigh the spirit. God will reveal to us whether something is truly meant for us. Is this God’s best for us? Or is it something we’re chasing?

Pray to Align with God’s Will When You’re Biblical Goal Setting for Your Business

Proverbs 16:3 says, “commit your work to the Lord and your plans will be established.” The times that I did it all on my own, I felt empty and frustrated. But then I shifted to biblical goal setting for my business and surrendered my plans to God. When you’re constantly praying to God, to give you the desires of your heart, the desires of His heart, what He has for you, that you want to be in His will, then 99% of the time, you are going to be living that out.

Most of the time, when I pray about something, I’m being consistent and asking for Him to guide me, open those doors, close the opportunities that aren’t for me. I’ve noticed that my path feels straighter. I don’t feel like I’m on this winding road of back-and-forth frustration and things not working out.

Surrender to God’s Will to Find Balance in Your Life

Proverbs 16:11 says, “adjust balance and scales are the Lord’s, all the weights in the bag are His work.” I wanted to point this verse out, because in the previous episode we were discussing balance. Is work life balance even possible? I believe that the Lord is all about balance, and that there are scales, and that that’s why justice and injustice exists. There has to be balance somewhere.

When everything is in balance, or when we are truly in the will of God, we’re listening, and we’re submitted, and we are doing the best that we can possibly do with His strength – that is where peace and fulfillment come from. It comes from Him. It’s not in what we’re doing. It’s not in how much money we’re making. But it’s all in this journey, and this heart posture of surrendering and really listening to what He has for us.

Put Your Trust in God

Proverbs 16:20 says, “Whoever gives thought to the word will discover good, and blessed is he who trusts in the Lord.” Whenever you give thought to God’s Word, the Bible, you will discover good, and not the world’s version of good, but the kingdom’s version of good.

It says blessed is he or she, who trusts in the Lord. Do you trust God? That he knows what you need today? In this moment in your life? Do you trust God? I want you to stay with that question. I really want you to ponder that. In order to surrender your goals, your business, and your life to God, you have to trust Him.

3 Steps for Biblical Goal Setting for Your Business

I’m such a logical person. So we’re going to talk about business planning and vision casting. There are three major steps to biblical goal setting for your business

Step One: Define Your Purpose

What is the ultimate goal that you have for your business? Write it down. Where do you want your business to be one year from now? Where do you want your business to be five years or ten years down the road? What is the purpose of you even doing the business that you’re in? What do you want it to produce? Not just money.

Money is a resource. It’s not the end all be all. It is not our God or our idol. Money is simply a resource. It’s something we trade for goods and experiences. Money is just the tool that we have here on Earth to be able to live life, give, and experience a higher quality life, if you will. Your purpose and business goals can’t just be to make a financial profit. That is very important if you want to practice biblical goal setting for your business.

Ask yourself, what’s the overall picture? What do you want in exchange for building this business? It has to be enjoyable or you’re going to get burnt-out. You’re not going to want this business anymore. I really want you to journal on that and create this vision. Cast your vision for your business, what do you want it to produce? How do you want it to benefit your life? How do you want it to benefit your relationship with God? What does that look like?

Step Two: Create a Plan

This is where the logical business planning for biblical goal setting comes in. That is to plan. While our purpose isn’t based on finances alone, it’s still important to identify a profit goal. But now we’re going to create a plan to make everything you wrote in your purpose happen. What do you need to do? What is your role? Create your plan of action to reach the vision you cast for your business.

Step Three: Surrender Your Plans to God

Submit and surrender those plans back to God if you want to practice biblical goal setting for your business. Everything we just read about in Proverbs 16. That is what you’re going to do in step three. Knowing this verse is where the logical side comes in. When I coach business owners, we identify why they are doing this. What’s the overall purpose? Then, we cover what the profit needs to look like in order to support those goals.

Every single one of us is going to have different answers. We’re going to have a different profit goal. One thing that I really want you to clear out of your brain is thinking that you’re only successful if you have a 10k business or a 20k business. That’s a world standard. That is a world view goal, that doesn’t have to be yours. Maybe for you, you’re in a season of your life, where you just need to hit $3,500 in your business. Amazing! Do not feel shame, because that is the goal that you’re going after. That is amazing.

There was a time when I was working nine to five as a teacher, and I had no idea how I would ever in my wildest dreams make more than $1,900 on my paycheck. Once I was able to leave my full-time job and build these other businesses, I’ve never made less than $1,900 a month since I left my job back in May of 2018. Really sit with that, I want that to encourage you.

Calculating Your Profit Goal for Biblical Goal Setting for Your Business

You’ll need to identify a profit goal, whatever that is for you. There is a way to identify what you need. One of the best ways it to look at what you need to make in order pay your bills and pay anybody that you have on your team in your business. Personal expenses + business expenses. What is the bare minimum you need to cover that? That’s how you get a realistic goal.

Once you figure out what that number is, maybe it’s $4,000, I want you to add $1,000 of cushion to it and let $5,000 be your goal. Let that be your profit goal. Now we need to work backwards. How are you going to hit that? How are you making money in your business? This is where you really need to write it all out.

What are you offering? Is this even possible right now in this season of my business? Once you figure out the services you’ll offer or products you’ll sell, whatever that is for you and your business, you’re going to write all the ways you make money. Then you’re going to start making goals for each one of those. For some of you, you’re only going to have one way that you make money. Decide what your pricing looks like.

How many clients do you need to make it happen? Do you have enough time to make that happen? That’s the other question and it’s really important. If you’re setting a goal of $8,000 in your business, and you’re planning on working 40 hours a week, and you’re leaving no time for your family, we probably need to scale a goal back or we need to scale some expenses back. Really take a look at all of this information and make a plan. Once you have a plan in place, write it out in a notebook, a Google Doc, whatever your thing is and submit it to God.

Submit Your Business Goals to God

I want you to pray and to submit. Tell God what you have for your business. Pray to Him about your vision casting. Tell Him about the purpose of why you’re doing this. Pray to Him, “Here’s what I have laid out on the table. What do you have for me? What’s on here is in alignment? What is not? What is going outside of what you have for me? Am I dreaming big enough? Break off fear in me.”

Submit those to God and see what He has for you. You may not get an immediate answer. You will know this is why we have intuition. We have gut feelings. It might be three or four days down the road and all of a sudden you’re hearing confirmation from people.

Write out your purpose. Plan it out for how that’s going to happen, and then you’re going to pray about it and surrender it back to God. I hope this episode helps you learn how to practice biblical goal setting for your business. But I also hope that this gave you encouragement and how to take the next right step.

Need help taking the next step to start biblical goal setting for your business?

Go plan out your purpose, go vision cast for your business, plan it out. If you need help planning it out, then you are the perfect candidate to do a coaching call with me! So just reach out to me, brooke@brookebrookejefferson.com. Shoot me a quick email and let me know that you’re interested in hearing about coaching with me to create a business plan to know what you need to do every single day in your business, and we will make that happen. I’m praying blessings on your business!

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