Posts Tagged ‘ Creativity ’

In my part of Tempe, Arizona, I am Varsity Coach for the Boy Scout troop. So one thing that interests me is teaching young people to be creative and look at the world around them for ideas.

The Boy Scouts of America recently announced a new merit badge – Inventing – that fosters creativity and innovation.

The requirements for the Inventing Merit Badge are essential skills for any entrepreneur.  Let’s see how you stack up.

I know what I said last week.  It still applies in most situations.  But in a climate of disruptive innovations, listening to your customers can cost you industry leadership.

Your customers know what they need now.  But if you always base your plans off of what your customers think they want in the future you will lose your position of industry leadership.

Your customers are chasing markets with higher sales and higher margins.  They should and you should.  But there are new businesses trying to expand from their markets to yours.

An example from the steel industry over the last 20 years in the United States is a prime example of this problem.

I happened across one of the most brilliant advertisements today.

A friend passed it along to me on Facebook.  All you have to do is “Like” the Redbox page and you get a password for a free one night movie rental on June 21st.  Redbox wants people on their “Like” page (at 622,000+ as I type this).  People want free movie rentals. Of course I will share the location for your free movie (below the fold).

Money motivates.

But once you pay enough to get money off the table, money doesn’t matter that much.

Once you do that, what really motivates is being autonomous, the satisfaction of skill and mastery, and making a contribution to the world around them.

Check out Daniel Pink’s book: Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us.

Have a watch. This is well worth 11 minutes of your life:

You need extra eyes looking at your business plan.

Find people with expertise in a variety of areas and meet with them twice a year. The big secret on how to recruit them: free food. Never underestimate the power of free food.

Here is an example from working with one of my clients.  He started his firm at the beginning of this year and discussed his business plan and strategy with me. At a previous employer, collections lagged services rendered by 6 months or more.  Being a new firm, he knew that his cash flow would become unmanageable if his collections were so slow.

I was talking to a friend who owns Pointe Pest Control in Chicago, Illinois.

He shared an experience that teaches one of the most important rules to good marketing.

Kyle is an avid baseball fan.  So when he and his partners started their pest control company five years ago, they found a little league baseball team to sponsor and put their company name on the back of the kids’ jerseys.

It turns out it was useless for advertising purposes.  Not a single sale came from sponsoring that team.

One of my biggest fascinations lately has been the role of creativity in business.

I’m not talking about creative accounting.  That can cause serious legal and ethical problems.  You just don’t want to go there.

Everyone in business has creativity.  The evidence is that the best jobs people will have 10 years from now haven’t been invented yet.  Business is about creating something.

An example will show what I mean.  My mom is a veterinary surgeon.  She claims she isn’t really creative.  But then I asked about how she solves some problems with the animals she works on.  It turns out she does have to be creative to solve some of the problems she runs across.

Another reader question asked about how to do market research.

There are several main purposes for market research.  Market research can help you, (in no particular order):

• see the size of your potential market,
• anticipate the needs of your market,
• develop an advertising strategy,
• know what price your product can bring in the market, and
• know where to reach your market (online sales, stick and brick, affiliate marketing, etc.).

A complete market analysis will address five main questions.  First, and perhaps most important, how do your customers hurt?  Their pain will drive your marketing strategy.

Creating something new causes pain.  That’s just the way it is.  Especially anything worthwhile: a birth, a new nation, artwork, a marriage.

If you want a successful business, then you MUST be able to endure pain.

Almost anyone who decides to start a business has determination.  But they don’t always have success in their new venture.  About two thirds of startups survive two years, but only half survive more than five years.  What makes the difference between the winners and losers?