If you use gift God gives you, He gives you another one, too! Then, when you use both gifts for Lord, He'll double it again, and again! There's no longer any reason to whine about how others are so gifted and you're not. Get going! One gift is a good place to start; at just your speed. How do you think I ended up with so many different gifts!? It really works!

And, do you know what else? Now, this is really cool! If you make just one person smile, they will feel happier and will, in turn, make at least a couple more people smile. Then, you have two new people smiling who will, in turn, make two more people smile. You started with one smile, which was yours. And now, that seed has already multiplied seven times when all you did was smile!

The same is true in sharing joys of Lord. Each time you minister to someone, they will find opportunity to share it again. It's kind of like Energizer bunny. It keeps going and going. Some seed multiplies a little, some up to a hundred fold. It could even be more!

Thank God that we don't have to count how much our seed gets multiplied. All we have to do is offer seed and God will take it from there.

I often wonder if person who led Billy Graham to Lord had any idea what they had done. One seed multiplied more times than anyone but God can count. Have you ever thought to realize it could be your seed that will reach next Billy Graham?

Just think of all good we could accomplish were we to quit letting Satan tell us that we can't. Why, we could change world ... if we would just think.

© 2004 by Joyce C. Lock http://my.homewithgod.com/blessingsandlessons/

How You Thanked Them – If you don't currently use a simple system to thank your customers, start now! Customers who feel appreciated are easier to retain, and better yet they will reciprocate with referrals.

Deal Breakers - This is most overlooked bit of critical data. If you've lost customers or just haven't seen them in a while (and it happens to all of us), find out what's going on. Most customers will welcome opportunity to tell you, especially if something went wrong. What you don't know can hurt you!

Now, compile information, keep it up to date, review it regularly, and use it to manage your customer relationships. A simple spreadsheet, database may work just fine for a smaller business. The objective is to collect enough information and data that you can use to understand how they are important to your business. It's same concept retailers and buying clubs use in issuing customer cards. They use information to track customer value, buying habits, etc.

Too busy to spend your time collecting information about your customers? Think again!

If you're serious about competing in today's business climate, it's time to start strategically managing your customer relationships. After all, your relationships with your customers are your business.