It just dawned on me that this week in November marks my second year of being totally self employed as an Information Technology consultant. During this time, I miraculously found a total of three contracts to work on. Yes these are miracles from above because it seems like large corporations often do not respect small companies, such as my company, which is run by a single person. Luckily for me, over the past two years, I have had friends and coworkers who made connections for me that led to contracting opportunities. The timing of these opportunities had to have been worked out by God because I received them when I was in serious need. There were times when I thought that this would be my business’ downfall. But then, my luck changed and these new opportunities gave me the hope I needed to carry on with my line of work. I even think that I may need to hire a bookkeeping service like those at Dave Burton, (http://daveburton.nyc/small-business-bookkeeping) to sort out my finances for me, as I’m just too busy trying to get these pieces of work completed. Without any income, there will be no finances to handle, and that won’t do me any good. At least this part of my business will be done professionally and accurately. That’s one weight off my shoulders anyway. Knowing that I have been blessed when a lot of businesses are currently failing, I have been asking myself, what do I need to do on my end? Surely I cannot always wait for these opportunities to fall out of the sky.

In doing some reflecting, I remember a story in Matthew 25. In Matthew 25:14-30 Jesus tells the Parable of the Talents. The master (who is often viewed as a metaphor for God) gives a slave 75 years wages, another slave receives 30 years wages and the final slave receives 15 years wages. The slaves were given wages based on their ability and in Matthew’s version they were not given any instructions on what to do with the money. Two of the slaves increase what they were given and the slave with 15 years worth of wages buries his portion. As a small business owner what can we learn from the 2 slaves who were able to increase the wages they were given by the master? Below are 3 things that small business owners can learn from the parable.

1. Do not be overwhelmed with the blessings you are entrusted with from God.
Two of the slaves take the wages and increase what they were given by the master. Reading the text there’s nothing that shows us that the slaves who increased what they were given were afraid of such a large blessing. In fact we could assess that they were comfortable with these large blessings because they go on to conduct business and increase what they were entrusted with. We also must remember we are given blessings for a reason. Verse 15 lets us know they the were blessed according to their abilities. This let’s us know we will be given what we can handle.

2. Get out and meet people
The only way for the slaves to increase what they were given was to get out and meet with other people. Often we sit on our blessings. When we meet people not only can we be blessed but others can be blessed as well. We don’t know what the slaves traded but Matthew states an exchange of services or goods took place. Chances are another party was blessed in the transaction.

3. Be faithful and take a risk.
The slave who did not increase what he was given shows us that he was afraid to take a risk. This slave relies on his past experience with the Master which has not been a good one. Because of this he buries his blessing. Despite past experiences with God, will you take a risk to increase what God has given you or do you just place it somewhere safe where no one can utilize it? What good is a blessing if no one can benefit from it (not even yourself)?