The One Thing That is Guaranteed to Jeopardize your Spiritual Business

When we think about what makes a business a spiritual business, one of the key distinctions is a commitment to service. The word service is at the forefront for most conscious entrepreneurs these days. While what that looks like and how that shows up continues to grow and evolve. On the surface we may think about a focus on sustainability, B-corp designation, social impact, having a not-for-profit arm of our company or financially supporting causes near and dear to our hearts, but there’s even more to the idea of service when it comes to the spiritual entrepreneur.

So, what do I mean by service exactly?

Put simply, your service is part of a much bigger game you are playing – consciously or unconsciously. One where the deep desire to have your business impact your clients in such a way that they then turn around and impact others in a great way – be it their clients, friends, families, children, ultimately the world at large – is a primary motivation for the creation, development, sustainability and expansion of your business.

Your service is inextricably intertwined with your message and mission and your business is your conduit for getting that service out into the world.

One of the most common mistakes new business owners make 

One of the most common mistakes new business owners make especially in a spiritual business is thinking that it’s wrong to make money for your service. (Often spending a great deal of time crafting their spiritual business names and overindulging in contemplation over spiritual business ideas.) Additionally, far too many spiritual entrepreneurs fall for the all too common misconception that one should not be paid for spiritual work. This is when you run the risk of your service turning into sacrifice.

You know what I’m talking about. Maybe it’s even been you. You want to give your gift so badly that you give away your services, your calendar is filled with trades to and from other practitioners and if you’re honest, you may struggle to cover your own expenses at times.

While it’s noble to want to make the world a better place – I’m right there with you! – sacrificing yourself and your wellbeing for anyone else isn’t service; it’s sacrifice. And it’s not going to do you or anyone else any good in the long run.

Money and Spirituality

On the other side of the coin, when combining money and spirituality, the pendulum can just as easily swing too far in the other direction. We end up losing sight of our service (likely our initial reason for starting our business in the first place) and begin focusing only on the profit. When money becomes the primary driver over service things tend to go haywire for soulful business owners (and SoulFULL Business owners).

For example, recently I started working with a past Business in Your Soul® graduate once again who had found that even though he was doing everything his new traditional business coach told him to do, things just weren’t flowing as they once had when he and I were working closely together in his business. He had become too focused on the profit piece and inadvertently lost sight of the real reason he was in his spiritual business – to be of service.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying you can’t make a profit by being of service. Far from it!

Believe it or not, we don’t need to completely disregard profit when focusing on being of service. In my experience over the last decade plus of working with a wide array of spiritual entrepreneurs in both traditional and spiritual businesses, I can tell you it’s not one or the other – it’s both. Profit and service.

After all, if you don’t make a profit, you aren’t going to be able to keep your business open. But consistently putting profit over service is guaranteed to jeopardize your spiritual business every time. Learning how to create an equilibrium between the two is key.

Soulful Service Creates Soulful Success

In a very short time, we were able to realign him with his Divine Coordinates®, anchor him back into his Purpose Pyramid™ (the intersection of your Soul’s intention, your vision for the world you want to help create and the mission you are taking on for your business), and his commitment to serve his clients over the strictly external money goals his new coach had him focusing on. And the results (including the profit!) were not only profound, they were almost immediate. Here is the text message I received a short time later:

Scarcity thinking can have us become overly focused on revenue at the expense of our true service. Sacrifice can have us overgive thereby blocking the law of reciprocity that naturally wants us to be rewarded for our service. As long as you show up to serve while also making space for a reciprocal energetic exchange, as long as you allow the universe to give and allow yourself to receive, when you serve you will be rewarded.

In an earlier article, I shared the structural differences between a “business-as-usual” business and a Soul FULL business. A “business-as-usual” business is for better or for worse primarily driven by profit, and a Soul FULL business is motivated by something much bigger than profit – service.

If you’re running a spiritual business, somewhere deep down you already know your motivation for running your business isn’t strictly to make money. As a spiritual entrepreneur, your primary driver is far more likely to be of service; to make a difference; to make the world a better place; to heal humanity in some way. I’m here to tell you that you can make the difference and the money you were meant to.

When you grow your business through service, and allow yourself to receive the financial success that it will undoubtedly bring to you, you can then be of even greater service to the world.

Running your business as a SoulFULL business owner allows you to be of service, create the change you want to see in the world and make a great living at it. To find out more about what it takes to truly run a SoulFULL Business check out our live public event SoulFULL Business Planning where we dive deeply into the 3 Essential Elements of Business Planning for your Soul FULL Business for 2022.