FamilyEbiz

Greetings from Moscow, Idaho!
This is Stephen Beck with Family Entrepreneurs.

Before we get started:
Our family’s EBay results (the power in the little things):
Month of December (to date, since the month is not over yet)
Sales Total: $1,929.59

One more “before we get started”:
We are presenting a “Starting Your Own Business…For TEENS!” workshop in cities near you. For more information, please click on the link above.

Coming Soon!
DVD’s of the Teen Business Workshop mentioned above.

Biblia:

Ecclesiastes 2:17-20

Therefore I hated life because the work that was done under the sun was distressing to me, for all is vanity and grasping for the wind. Then I hated all my labor in which I had toiled under the sun, because I must leave it to the man who will come after me. And who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will rule over all my labor in which I toiled and in which I have shown myself wise under the sun. This also is vanity. Therefore I turned my heart and despaired of all the labor in which I had toiled under the sun. For there is a man whose labor is with wisdom, knowledge, and skill; yet he must leave his heritage to a man who has not labored for it. This also is vanity and a great evil. For what has man for all his labor, and for the striving of his heart with which he has toiled under the sun? For all his days are sorrowful, and his work burdensome; even in the night his heart takes no rest. This also is vanity.

Solomon hated life. Think about that. Here was the wealthiest man in the wealthiest country of the world at that time. Scripture says that gold and silver were as common as stones during his reign (2 Chronicles 1:15). He was also the wisest man to have ever lived. He had wealth, power and lots of women. And yet, Solomon had a problem. He hated his job. He also hated his life. One of the reasons Solomon hated his work is found in the passage above.

Then I hated all my labor in which I had toiled under the sun, because I must leave it to the man who will come after me. And who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will rule over all my labor in which I toiled and in which I have shown myself wise under the sun.

Notice why Solomon is upset. He does not want to leave his work to another man. What especially irks him is the thought of someone else ruling over his labor in which he has toiled and in which he has shown himself wise. Who is missing in this equation? Had not God, through His sovereignty, placed Solomon in line to be the king of Israel? Had not God allowed him to be chosen over his older brothers to rule? And Who gave Solomon his superior intellect and wisdom? Solomon was trying to extract from work something that work was never meant to give. Never in Scripture will we find work as a legitimate avenue to our personal glory. Glory is the sole property of God.

Scripture makes it very clear that relationship with Him is the priority, and work is designed to be an outward manifestation of that relationship (Matthew 6:33). Solomon’s priority in work was to bring glory to himself, not his Creator. He wanted everyone to see his labor and remark how well he had shown himself wise under the sun. Does this sound familiar? Our culture worships fame and fortune. We even have television shows that take us into their houses, when our gods are not home. Frustration is inevitable when we substitute work for a deep and abiding relationship with our Creator. We will fall into the same trap as Solomon; for work is to glorify God, not ourselves.

An excerpt from A Father’s Stew, by Stephen Beck
For more information on this book, CLICK HERE.

Practica:

If you have been following my newsletters or heard me speak, you know that I recommend selling downloadable products…specifically e-books. I have even suggested that you write your own. It is not as hard as it sounds. Surely, you know about an area that others are interested in. Perhaps you have even written a paper or lengthy article on it. Well it is time to put that information into a saleable format.

I have already written a book, A Father’s Stew: The Biblical Integration of Family, Work and Ministry, so we will use that as an example. The first thing you need to do is convert your information into something everyone can read. For most of my adult life, I have used Microsoft Works, but many people can’t read those files. If I convert my information to a PDF file, then everyone can read it (don’t ask me how…I am not a techie!) simply by downloading the free Adobe Reader.

Although the Adobe Reader is free, the Adobe Writer is not! Adobe Acrobat is expensive and can be difficult to learn for the newbie, so I purchased Instant PDF Generator for $97. All you do is open your document, click the print button, choose PDF generator and voila, your computer saves the document as a PDF file. When your customer orders a copy of your e-book, you email them your e-book as a PDF file. Very simple. See a sample of our e-book in PDF form here (it is only the first chapter so that you will be tempted to purchase the entire book!) To read more about Instant PDF Generator, CLICK HERE.

Now, suppose you are afraid that someone might download your e-book and email it to 100 of their best friends. If you put your e-book in html form and kept it on the server, then you could control who viewed your e-book (only paying customers) through a registration system and for how long they could view it (that way he doesn’t give his access code to 100 of his best friends so they get your book for free!). Meaning, only paying customers could view this book and because it does not download to their hard drive, they can not pass it along…they can only print it out. You could even disable someone’s access to your e-book if you needed to. E-book Generator makes all this a snap! I created A Father’s Stew e-book in about 30 minutes. See the Father’s Stew e-book in html form here. (Incidentally, I made the cool 3-D book cover with E-cover Generator) You can bet that I will be offering it on my homeschool curriculum website real soon!

Now, all I need is a way to automatically give people access to my e-book when they pay for it. Meaning, one of the huge reasons people buy e-books is to get the information NOW! Even if it is 2:00 AM. In subsequent newsletters we will discuss auto-responders. This is a way to send someone a message (or an e-book!) in response to an email they send you. So if they pay, they are immediately sent an email with a registration code that gives them access to your e-book. You can conceivably sell an e-book, take the payment and deliver the e-book all while you are skiing with your family in Colorado! Now that is a business idea I would like to pursue!

Warmly in Christ,

Stephen Beck

www.familyebiz.com
www.curriculumconnection.net
email: steve {at} familyebiz {dot} com

Click Here for Tip #11