The Savvy Business Woman

Proverbs 31:16 – She considers a field and she buys it; out of her earnings she plants a vineyard.

Proverbs 31:18-19- She sees that her trading is profitable, and her lamp does not go out at night. Holds distaff and grasps the spindle with her fingers.

The Proverbs 31 woman is something that many women aspire to be, read books about, and join groups that deal with being the quintessential Proverbs 31 woman. When I was asked to write a guest post about this topic I had to step back and really mediate on my feelings about the Proverbs 31 woman and how sometimes she can be portrayed. Most times if I am being honest, I do not feel as though I fit the specific category of a Proverbs 31 woman.

Let me explain. When I imagine the Proverbs 31 woman, I see her getting up early before dawn to prepare breakfast for her family, buying land, sewing clothes, and planting gardens all to benefit her family. When I would read this, it would seem as if the Proverbs 31 woman is a wife and a mother with a family. I am a wife but I am not a mother, so I had to think about it and really meditate on these verses and see what the Lord wanted to reveal to me about who this Proverbs 31 woman is as it relates to me in this season of my life. I believe most of what He wanted to reveal was solely about this woman’s character.

· She is wise.

· She is noble.

· She is resourceful.

· She is strong.

· She is intelligent.

· She fears God.

As I started to re-read the verses, I started to see how I was living out these characteristics not only in life but also with my business. When I look at the characteristics above, I saw that there are specific things that I have had to do in business that have required these characteristics. I own an Online Christian Boutique that I run along with my husband, and a Digital Marketing company. Both of those take a lot of time and energy. When I examined some of the characteristics of the Proverbs 31 woman, I saw five examples that stood out to me immediately.

1. Wise - There is a lot of wisdom that comes with running two businesses simultaneously, and understanding how to prioritize, and how to delegate what can be done by others. I also can help in determining the various strategies to grow our business, and my husband trusts me to do what is best for our family.

2. Resourceful - I feel that being resourceful came in to play when we first started out. I tried to find a lot of free resources that would help us grow our company but, be cost effective.

3. Intelligent - I believe the intelligence comes in being able to not only handle clients but learn new technologies and being able to implement the ones that will help grow our company.

4. Strong - I believe that being in business takes strength that comes from the Lord alone because you must deal with a lot of ups and downs of stepping out on faith.

5. Fear God - I believe as a savvy Proverbs 31 businesswoman the one thing that is most important is making sure to put God first in all you do and trust in Him. I believe that having a relationship with Jesus helps all those other characteristics come out because you are being transformed daily to become more like Him.

Sometimes it’s important to not look at everything that the Proverbs 31 woman does specifically, but instead look as her character as she is doing those things. I believe when you look at it from this angle, no matter if you are single, widow, married with kids, or married with out kids you will find yourself as well in the Proverb 31 woman.