Five Successful Businesses and Growing!

Playing golf is one of the ways Leon and Lataunja Johnson take a break from their busy schedule of running five successful companies.

Leon says, “My life is incredible right now because of God.”

To get where they are today, Leon has learned some hard lessons. It was 1993, when he and a partner started a mobile car detailing operation after 14 1/2 years in the navy. Even though he worked hard and had a lot of customers, he wasn’t making a profit.

Leon recalls, “When you go into business, everyone generally believes you're just going to be an instant success. We didn't understand market research.  So you quickly realize you have a lot of business, but you're not making a profit.”

Lataunja’s salary as a bank teller was their only income. They couldn’t keep up with their bills, and had to move out of their apartment. A friend rented out a room to them and their young daughter.

Lataunja says, “I just remember some nights just laying there and just crying myself to sleep and that my husband didn't even know. But I would just silently just cry out to God and say, ‘God, you-you've got to help us.’”

Leon started suffering from stress and anxiety.

Leon recalls, “My consistent prayer to God was ‘God, I love you, I need your help.’  God's answer to me was consistently, ‘I love you.  Follow my principles.’”

One of those principles was tithing, something the couple hadn’t done consistently since starting the business. Leon decided to tithe faithfully on anything he made. He says afterwards the business started turning a profit. It did so well they were able to move into a house they had rented. But after a year, they stopped going to church and tithing. Once again, the business started losing money.   

Leon shares, “I think the reason I went back to my old ways is sometimes we feel like, ‘Okay, thank you God, I got it from here.’”

After a year, his business began failing. His income dropped so dramatically that he couldn’t afford to shop at discount stores.

Leon recalls, “The reality hit me that I could not afford one item in the Dollar Store.  

That was a very sobering moment for me.  From that point, in that Dollar Store, I said, ‘Lord, I get it.  Lord, I will be faithful.  Lord, I will be obedient.’”

Soon afterwards, he and Lataunja found a new church and started tithing and giving to CBN!

Lataunja says, “Things were starting to turn around. We actually had hope again.”

With the detailing business doing so well, Latuanja quit her job at the bank and started a cleaning business of her own. Now the Johnson’s own five successful businesses. The one that provides medical solutions has been ranked among Inc. Magazine’s top 5,000 fastest growing privately held companies in the U.S. for the past three years.

Leon shares, “The financial blessing has been wonderful but God has restored me to right thinking and humility and as a man I feel that I am very well balanced.”

In addition to their tithes, the couple are also CBN founders.

Lataunja says, “It's a great ministry, a great opportunity to give into something that's a lot bigger than us.”

The couple has learned many lessons about running a business, but the most important one is giving obediently to God.

Lataunja shares, “God is faithful and he is a God that He will not lie.  Just determine in your heart, in your mind that ‘I'm going to start.’  And God knows your heart. He knows where you are, and He will meet you right where you are.”

Leon says, “God is faithful to everything and to every principle and to every promise that's written in the Word. Be obedient to God. Just trust Him.”