In what ways will you reinvent?

Trust in the LORD with all your heart

and lean not on your own understanding;

in all your ways acknowledge him,

and he will make your paths straight.

Proverbs 3:5-6

Many women entrepreneurs are still struggling and rebounding in this economy.  No matter your level of revenues: $50,000 to over $5 million… everyone is in the same boat: reinventing.

Meet my client Felicia…she reinvented her business by surrendering her own understanding and trusting her core – who she is by Christ’s design.  Made in the image of her Creator.

Felicia is in a service business and in the past, provided consulting for corporations. Last December we began a strategic planning process for 2010. She detailed out the 12/31/10 goals and we started to create a plan. In the process I could hear the goals that were resonant for her and the areas where traditional business said to focus. As I pointed this out to her she agreed and admitted that she was attached to conventional business wisdom and wanted to stay focused here as it has the most credibility and the largest revenue potential (at least in her understanding). So we completed the planning process in this manner.

What do you think happened? Not much. For the first four months of the year she felt weighed down, faced many “closed doors” and felt tied to obligation and what she “should” do rather than following the true desires of her heart.

This drove Felicia to her knees in prayer:  she got honest with herself about who she is, what she believed and what she really wanted to do. As she loves research she began to search the internet for information about her desires and interests. At the end of April she emerged with a revelation: her ‘deepest desire met a need in the world’ (Fred Buechner). Small businesses were having a hard time standing out among the competition and were looking for the type of intelligent information she provided to gain new contract and revenue opportunities.

Over the course of her coaching we’ve put together a clear picture of the core of who she is. In December, we knew her personality, gifts, strengths, impact and purpose. The two most relevant pieces we knew were 1. her primary motivator: to be the go-to person for revenue-generating research and information and 2. her interests: small and minority-owned businesses.

Felicia’s research confirmed what we knew in her December strategic planning session: that the goals that were resonant are the ones she needs to focus on in 2010:  the ones that support small businesses by providing the intelligent information they need to apply to gain new profitable business leads before their competition and to stand out in the marketplace.

Her prior understanding of the marketplace was developed through her life experiences, her intelligence, her success with corporations prior to the economic fallout and through a prestigious MBA program.  Felicia had logical, credible and experiential evidence of the path we designed in December – and a lot of it.  Now after much soul searching and prayer she was willing to trust in the Lord and surrender this understanding – an enormous leap of faith.

She quickly revised her strategic plan and May was a whirlwind of activity and results: new company name, new branding, new business model, repackaging of services and products, press releases and the resulting new opportunities for her company to provide a series of entrepreneurial workshops for those hit hard by the economy.

What happened this time? She decided to trust in the Lord’s design ~ in who she is created to be.  Felicia decided to start on the inside and go with Holy Spirit wisdom v. conventional wisdom.  In trusting her core, Felicia is experiencing new business opportunities herself and the bonus of  “a sense of elation, lightness and creativity around new goals and what the future holds. A sense, a feeling of invincibility or as Pattie LaBelle sings it ~ ‘I got a new attitude.”

What is that still small voice whispering toyou?

Where do you need to trust in the Lord?

In what ways will you reinvent?

What action will you take today?

Ginny Victory

Ginny Victory, CPA, ACC   Coach & Trainer

www.ginnyvictory.com