Stella Oluyomi told how regular advertising had helped build her Bible Wonderland stores into a 10-strong chain in Nigeria. "If you don't do that, they easily forget about you," she said.

While radio and TV advertising was prohibitive, it was relatively inexpensive to pay for billboards and leaflets, and she hired high school students to hand out the literature at Christian events, she said. "God is in advertising," she said with a smile, referencing Is. 55:1, in which God invites people to come and buy without money.

Oluyomi also stressed the importance of having a close personal relationship with God, and good relationships with customers and staff. Business honesty was essential, too. "God will not bless unrighteousness," she said. "God is your supervisor. He sees everything."

Cherie Gregory, co-owner of The Potter's House Parable Christian Store in Valdosta, Ga., told how counting the number of customers who entered the store had helped in analyzing how well visits were converted into purchases, enabling her to better schedule staff according to busy shopping times.

"We are constantly looking for new things that will differentiate us from the big-box stores that are selling most of our other products," she said. "We can't just keep doing things like we have always done."

Jack Scott, CTAI's director of training and member development who moderated the session, also passed along ideas from store representatives who had not been able get to Atlanta for the event because of the bad weather.

Scott told how Jason Green, president of Mardel Christian & Education, had advocated stores to connect, curate, compare, compound and create. That meant looking to build relationships with consumers, managing inventory effectively, getting ideas from other businesses, cross-merchandising and organizing events.