In 2017, Promise Sing left her full-time job to launch The Project J, a Singapore-based business producing creatively-designed journals and other merchandise to encourage believers to live life with a renewed mind through meditation on the Word of God. 

The main idea behind The Project J (TPJ) was to help Christians know Jesus well so they can, in turn, reflect Jesus truthfully to the world.

After a decade of running The Project J and selling some 17,000 journals, Promise closed her business down in June this year.

In Part One of this two-part story, Promise talked about five important lessons she learned running her faith-based business. Here are the next five lessons for the aspiring Christian entrepreneur. 

A believer using The Project J’s Everyday Journal.

The Project J’s Freedom Journal.

Lesson 6: It was never about the business. It was always about you.

The hardest part of building a business is building yourself. Promise found this to be true.

By year four or five of The Project J, she thought she had figured it out. She had seen God provide. She had seen Him show up again and again.

She now had a team, and needed a new office.

Promise in The Project J’s first office.

“I thought I knew how this worked by now, so I started making decisions on my own and running ahead of God,” she admitted to Salt&Light.  

In that season, she found herself contantly overwhelmed. She started comparing her business with other businesses. The more she noticed their growth, their reach and their numbers, the more she felt small and useless.

Nothing that she did to increase sales was moving the needle. It seemed like she was doing everything wrong, though she diligently blasted emailers, churned out content and created products that seemed like good ideas.

“These were all good things, but not all were God things,” Promise, now 37, explained.  

God met her when she was at the end of herself – broken, tired and unsure.  

He told her: “I love you more than what you can do for Me. I could snap a finger and businesses get built, people get saved and work gets done. But I chose to work through you because I want to build you.”  

She sat with that revelation for a long time. God does not need us to build the business. He wants to build us through the business.

The Project J’s 9th anniversary event where they invited a few content creators to share with others about stepping out into what God has called them to do.

Once the revelation sank in, she stopped creating for the sake of noise. She ceased being constantly busy and started listening.

“The products I created because they seemed like good ideas? Didn’t move. The ones God told me to create? Flew off the shelves. Not every good idea is a God idea,” she declared.

When she stopped striving and started resting, sales kept coming in. Every time she went on holiday, TPJ saw peak sales.

“If you are in that striving season right now and feeling like nothing you do is working, stop doing. Take a pause. Recalibrate. God might just be doing something in you that He couldn’t do any other way. Let Him break you so He can build you,” Promise said.

Lesson 7: Give and serve others generously, but move wisely.

Not everyone who comes to you is sent by God. Not every open door is from Him either. There will be times when people use you.

Promise learnt this the hard way.

Over the years, she had friends coming to her for help to start something.

“I gave generously, journeyed with them, created vision boards and strategies, shared my suppliers, my resources and my learning,” she said.  

“That’s because I genuinely wanted to help. I assumed that everyone operating in Christian spaces had the same goal: To build His kingdom.” 

But she learnt that that was not always true. Some people just want to build their own empire.

“Give generously but move wisely,” she said. “We all have limited energy and limited resources. Not every opportunity that seems good deserves an immediate yes.”

Unlike some of her not-too-pleasant experiences, this collaboration with her friends to launch a planner and calendar collection – called ‘Year of Goodness’ in 2020, was God-led.

Some of these opportunities are distractions. Others happen because of people-pleasing tendencies.  

“Learn to slow down. Lean into that first feeling you get; that check in your spirit. Pray on it and discern. Learn to say no without guilt. Moving in wisdom is not the same as being unkind. Being nice is not a fruit of the spirit,” she pointed out.

There may still be times when others disappoint you, take from you or hurt you.

“When that happens, let God be your justice. Let Him fight for you. Give those emotions space, process them and then choose to let them go,” Promise urged.  

“Don’t let these experiences derail you from what God called you to.”

Lesson 8: The best leaders don’t just build the work. They build the people.

Are people better after working with you?

This has become one of the most important questions Promise asks herself about the various people over the years who joined the TPJ team and left. 

In the last decade running her business, she made mistakes.

“I did not always get it right. I am sorry for the people I hurt in the process,” Promise admitted.

There was one principle that kept her going. It did not come from a business book or a leadership course.

In her early 20s, she had an exit interview with a human resource manager who said something that has stayed with her.

“My goal is to make sure every person who leaves this company, leaves better than when they first came in,” the manager told her.

Years later as she built TPJ, she realised that was the kind of leader she wanted to be.

“I don’t expect people to stay forever. Seasons change. God moves people on and that’s okay. But while they are with me, how can I help them be better till the time comes for them to move on?” she asked herself.  

Promise and her husband Shawn with two of The Project J’s team members.

Some of the questions she asked her staff members during regular check-in sessions included: What’s on your heart? What is God saying to you? What’s your dream?

“More than just building the work in TPJ, I wanted to build the person in front of me. This is so that they become better in skill and character, clearer about who they are and what God has called them to,” she told Salt&Light.

She admits that when someone good leaves, it hurts and she grieves.

“I have learnt that we are not called to gather and hold on, but to gather and scatter. We are to call people into their destinies, and not keep them comfortable in ours,” said Promise.

“Releasing someone you have invested in is one of the most painful and most Kingdom-minded things you can do. Perhaps because that means you were never building your empire, You were building His,” she added.

Leave people better than when you found them.

Lesson 9: Count the cost: Is it worth it?

After a decade of following God’s call to run TPJ, has it been worth it?

After a decade of having no bonus, no CPF, no climbing of corporate ladder, was it worth it?

There were seasons when Promise really had to wrestle with that question – physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually.

She remembers sitting in many gatherings where everyone was talking about bonuses, promotions and upgrades.

Once, she sat in silence listening to someone being upset that her company “only” gave out three months’ bonus that year, instead of six months at a competitor. 

While everyone was talking about what they were gaining, Promise was trying to figure out how to keep TPJ (and herself) going.

No annual bonus. No CPF. No car. No fancy dinners. No random grocery snacks run. No climbing of any corporate ladder.

All she had to her name was a little journal company that had its origins from a folded piece of mahjong paper and a prayer.

The reminders that Promise wrote and pasted on the wall opposite her work desk at home.

When she was in youth group things were easier, the world did not have such a hold on her. But as she grew older, it became harder as she got married, bought a house and watched everyone around her building their lives.

“That’s when the cost became real. The world is attractive – the lifestyle, the credentials, the security and the success. It was tempting to look around and wonder if I made the right call,” said Promise.  

“I think we do this thing where we admire people from afar who gave up a lot to follow God. We call them inspiring. We share their stories. But do we actually want what they have? It comes with a real cost,” she noted.

After she graduated from school, Promise went into advertising. She had intended to climb the corporate ladder and eventually have her own office.

Two years in, she felt God nudging her to quit and enter the social service sector – she took a huge pay cut. 

Just when she was going to be offered a new role with a higher pay, Promise heard God tell her to leave again, this time to help pioneer a non-profit centre. Her pay was cut again.

After seven years with the non-profit centre, Promise was offered a small team and a pay raise. But she left to launch The Project J instead.  

The Project J’s Be Still tote bag that was sold out three times. It was launched during COVID when Promise felt God calling His people to be still and trust in His plans.

What helped Promise during these challenging moments was thinking about the people in the Bible who were clear-eyed in measuring true worth.

Peter said it best: “Lord, where would we go? You have the words of life.”  (John 6:68)

The Psalmist wrote: “Even if I make my bed in the depths, You are there. Where can I go from Your presence?” (Psalm 139:7-8)

And the accomplished Paul who counted everything as loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Jesus. (Philippians 3:8)

Promise also makes it a point to remember what God has done in TPJ.

The laptop that showed up. The church order the morning after she almost launched her Kickstarter page. The journals that sold like hot cakes. The provision, the miracles and the moments that happened that only God could take credit for. 

“Don’t follow this path because it sounds noble or looks inspiring from outside. Count the cost,” urged Promise.

“But if God has called you, here’s what I know. Life is better with Jesus. It’s not easier and not more comfortable. But it is better.”

She knows that she does not have to hustle and scramble for ideas, or strive to perform, because God always shows up when she takes time to pause and listen to Him. He is the best business partner, she said.

His provision has never failed her. In the last decade, she has travelled to Australia twice, America three times, Europe and New Zealand at no cost. The flights and accommodation were paid by others through doors God opened.  

Promise and her husband Shawn in New York, one of the holiday trips that God provided for them.

Thus, the abundance that Promise chose – and would choose again – can be found in Psalm 4:7-8 where King David declares that God has given him greater joy and peace than that of others who abound in grain and new wine.  

“Don’t compare your journey to anyone else’s as everyone is on a different path. Just keep your eyes on Jesus,” Promise said.

Lesson 10: Don’t overstay your season.

Closing TPJ didn’t happen overnight.

It was something Promise had been praying about for months.

One morning in July 2025, she woke up and just felt it was time.

“It felt like a traffic light turning green. Not a red light to stop. A green light to move. There was this clarity,” she said.

To her, it was like that moment one puts on glasses for the first time, or when someone undergoes Lasik treatment and suddenly everything they look at sharpens and comes into focus.  

“It was not a hunch. Not a maybe. It was a knowing. Crystal clear. God cleaned my lens and suddenly I could see exactly where I was and exactly where I needed to go,” she added.

In that moment, she felt deep relief, like a stone lifting off her chest.

“It’s okay. You can let go now,” God said to her.

After the relief, however, came the grief, which she is still going through now.

Promise felt grief for losing TPJ, the journals, the community and the identity of being its founder.

The Project J’s most popular T-shirt to date. It was sold out thrice.

She was also forced to confront the hardest question of all: What did she actually achieve in this decade?

“In the eyes of the world, probably nothing. Nothing went viral. There was not much money. We even downsized our apartment along the way,” Promise told Salt&Light.

“But in the eyes of God? I would like to think and believe that this decade led many people to Jesus, brought prodigal sons and daughters back home, sparked movements and called people into their destinies. Personally, it gave me a closeness with Jesus that I would never have found if I hadn’t stepped out and experienced Him up close,” she added.

The Project J’s customised tabs for each book in the Bible.

Another personal confirmation for her to close TPJ came through a secret pact that she had with God.

Every year, she would take time to pray about whether the TPJ store should continue.

Her pact with God was that she would continue to run the business if she heard a particular word during an exchange – an uncommon word not used in daily conversations. 

Every year since TPJ started, she had heard the word spoken to her only once each year. 

In July 2025 when God told her it was time to close TPJ, she had not heard the word spoken to her since the start of the year, and she did not hear it at all up to the end of the year.

She knew it was really time to close shop. 

The Project J’s last office space.

“When God gives you the green light, whether it’s to start or to close or to move, trust it. The clarity might come slowly. But when it comes, you will really know,” she said.

Don’t overstay your season, Promise urged Christian business owners.

Overstaying may cause one to feel a constant sense of striving, a lack of inner peace and being unfruitful because one is operating out of fear. 

Sometimes, believers mistake their fear of stepping out for a lack of clarity from God.

“He won’t give you the full masterplan. He will just show you the next step. The next step will be crystal clear,” she added.

“Don’t be afraid of what’s next. The same God who led you through this season is the One leading you into the next.”

What’s next? Every ending is a new beginning.

A few years ago, Promise was in the shower one day when she heard God saying to her: “Unstuck my life.”.

She knew that each time God prompts her to start something new, He would give her the name of the business or idea first. 

“When I heard those words, it instantly clicked for me. I’ve always had a burden for those who feel stuck in their jobs. I see many on the streets every day, walking like a lifeless zombies, and I have sat around tables of people who talked about how much they hated their jobs but were stuck because they needed the money,” said Promise. 

“I hear the dreams and see the talents in many people who refuse to try something new because of the fear of lack. And I dream of a world where everyone is walking in the dream that God has given them,” she added. 

Promise’s latest venture is a coaching programme aimed at propelling others to start their own dream businesses.

She has since started a coaching programme called The Dream Club that curates a space for people to get together to dream, and provides practical skills to put real wheels to those dreams.

“It is not about quitting your job to do something reckless; it’s about discerning times and seasons, and working through practical ways to embark on the dream,” said Promise.

The Project J’s online store is still open for any freewill offerings to its remaining bundled products. 

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