Kim Avery Coaching

How Much Money Do You Want to Make Next Year?

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Coach Dotty (not her real name) makes money. A lot of money! And she should. She works harder than any two coaches I know put together. Dotty feels that contributing to God’s kingdom through her finances is part of the calling that God has laid on her heart and life, and so she is happy to work 60+ hours a week to make that happen.

Dotty is a successful coach.

I like money, too :-). But in all honesty, I don’t see making and donating large amounts of cash as the primary driver in my life. Along with coaching, I value family, friends, time alone with God and sleeping in on Saturdays.

I don’t work nearly as hard on my coaching business as Dotty does on hers.

None-the-less, I feel successful as a coach.

Dotty and I are both living as God is calling us to live.

Success means different things to different people. And that’s okay. But I didn’t always realize that.

How Do You Define Success?

How much money do you want to make? seems like it would be an easy question to answer. As much as possible, right? That’s what I used to assume.

But as long as we live this side of heaven, life is a series of trade-offs. To gain one thing we are automatically giving up something else.

For example, suppose that to make the income you want from coaching you decide to devote two hours every evening to building the business of your dreams. That’s great, but the obvious question is this: What aren’t you doing during that same period of time?

You may be giving up watching “The Voice,” reading books, serving on a committee at church, playing with your kids or all of the above.

The truth is, you can’t do everything, at least not all at once.

How Does God Define Success?

coins

When I first began coaching, my default goal was to make as much money as possible. So as my expertise and experience grew, my prices did as well. There’s nothing wrong with that… except, I forgot to check in with God to see if that was His goal for me.

For those of us born in the western world, our hearts and brains have been pickled in the narrative that success = money. The more money we make the more successful we must be.

God looks at it differently. In Matthew 6:24, 33 (NASB) Jesus says,

You cannot serve God and wealth… But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

The point isn’t that wealth is wrong. If God rewards your hard work with lots of money, that’s a great thing. The point is that the only true definition of business success is God’s definition of success. We must center our lives and businesses around Him.

Several years ago, I sat down with God and asked Him to show me His highest priorities for my life and my business. During that process, I rewrote my vision, mission and purpose statements. I developed a statement of my Core Business Values. These priorities and values are now a guiding light in my business.

Once I became clearer on God’s definition of success for my business, I saw some changes that needed to be made. One big change was to lower my prices to 2/3rds of what they had been. Not because I needed to but because I was clearer about who God was calling me to serve and how He wanted me to serve them.

Making a lot of money was not God’s highest priority for me. As a good steward, I strive to be productive, efficient and profitable, but for my business the balance sheet is measured by lives changed versus money made.

How About You?

God has a unique purpose for each of our businesses (Eph. 2:10.) What is His purpose for yours?

 

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