So, I may have intimated here a few months back about a small business that started crawling. Writevertising indeed did come out of the mind to the street.

What this has brought my way, however, has been a blessed whirlwind of work in the last few months, work I’ve been humbled to execute at all. There are many wonderful writers out there, to choose my content services at all is a demonstration of God doing what he loves doing, showing off his sufficiency.

That said, as for every Christian businessman with a handful of convictions, getting into the rough- and-tough, elbowing entrepreneurship, especially in Kampala, exposes you to stuff you barely knew in your sleek and comfortable eight-to-five jobs.

Here are some lessons and things I’ve pondered on this journey, starting out. (If you are diving in right now, my writing agency, runs as an individual consultancy, helping brands and individuals communicate with smarter words towards greater business and organisational goals)

1.Squeezed priorities.

First, my commercial writing has sort of squeezed my ministry and reflective writing into the corner. (sorry TGCA and Muleefu)

I am for example writing this a few minutes past midnight, because I know, tomorrow morning, some client will be interrupting my meditation, with a text about some invoice. What this has trained me though is to organise my time better, first, by recalling (often imperfectly) that God still runs the world, even the world that my clients inhabit.

Only then can I be freed to pull my pillow before midnight, inspite of the buzzing emails beside me, trusting the one who, unlike me, never sleeps nor slumbers.

That said, discipline to rest as an entrepreneur is labour in itself, you basically have to remind yourself how sufficient grace is for each day, lest you get tempted to borrow the next day’s.

Once in a while, I’ve also pondered the possibility of regularly walking away from a work desk to snuggle a toddler in the corridor (yes, work-at-home benefits) or attending a nearby lunch hour fellowship — at least in keeping with revolting against the Baal of Capitalism.

2. Faithful in the little

Just over 2 years ago, I never envisioned a writing service would thrive in a society known for a poor reading culture, but here we are. One client faithfully served, telling another, another I served at the lowest price, soon recommending to one who would afford to pay more, another disappointing, but another picking interest, and so on.

I’ve been learning to take Jesus’s words more seriously, “if you are faithful in the little, much more will be entrusted.” principally speaking.

3. Face to face with corruption

One of my earliest clients, sooner rather than later, got my conscience cornered as they asked for a “kickback” from my first official contract. Even when I knew the right thing to do, you should have seen me fumble to speak up.

Notwithstanding, I excused myself out of the awkward situation and instead repented later for not having articulated my conviction straight up and quick (namely, morally ambiguous behaviour in light of opportunity)

I didn’t offer the kickback, but I took the rude awakening that as a Christian in business, I must, if possible beforehand, rehearse how I will reject a bribe, before conversations in the finance office get darker.

It’s just prudent, I learnt, that money on the table (in this case a contract with your name) has a way of diluting conscience. “The journey from your head to your hands, is shorter than you are thinking, “ Casting Crowns once sang.

4. Customer care as love.

You learn early enough in entrepreneurship, that clients (like the sinner I look at in my mirror every morning) can be both annoying, arrogant, manipulative, and sometimes surprisingly kind.

What they all have in common is the need to solve problems, so “putting yourself in their shoes” is the most loving thing you can often do. Sometimes that looks like, mentioning the value of the service you offer, without fronting its price. Sometimes, plain listening and asking questions about what they are trying to achieve.

Love does not seek its own good, the Apostle once told a Corinthian church (just that, not many doing customer care like me carried a notebook)

5. Handling heart failure and supreme success

Tim Keller’s reminder that “making work your idol gets success to get your head, and failure, to your heart” has been my constant reminder.

Many times, you do so well, that you begin to skimp on prayer, word and obedience, deceived by the crumbs of nice customer reviews, then sometimes, a client disappoints so bad that you feel your identity is threatened too.

Under both extremes, I have learnt to go to God, remembering that though I seek to love my client with better products and services, my identity is not in my performance, and even if my client terminates things, God in eternity never ever does.

There’s still more to learn. In the meantime, I am thankful to God for this version of my spiritual transformation. My hope is that I can use my writing and content development skills to serve more people in ways that solve their business, corporate, and communication challenges, meeting their business needs in a way that leaves me sane and sober enough to pursue and nurture my relationship with Christ, whose love I can never transact.

Thanks be to God!