A fashion model from Sri Lanka decided to go into business for herself when her father wanted her to do something in business. She decided to give it a try. She started selling haircare products to salons and subsequently also added garments from a factory which she sold to family and friends. Through selling garments she learnt all she could about the fashion business and eventually came up with her own fashion brand. She now owns a publicly listed company. Continue reading “Finding a gap in the market”
Do you need to review your goals?
Some time ago I went to the farewell party of a successful entrepreneur who built up a marketing consulting business over many years. It was interesting to learn how many awards he had achieved over the years for brilliant work and how he had always been able to attract blue-chip clients. But now that he’s in retirement, he has had to set new goals. He will be lecturing at universities, engaging with the media and communicating brand and marketing leadership and helping to nurture young brand leaders.
Can you use strategic doodles for coming up with new business ideas?
A business magazine was extolling the virtues of strategic doodles, which is really defined as scribbling absentmindedly, saying that it has gained credibility so much so that one Internet giant has appointed a chief doodler and give staff time to doodle and generate ideas.
Apparently doodling can help because when you draw your thoughts it slows down your thinking, allowing new perspectives and time to “go deeper following a particular thought”. Strategic doodling in teams or with business partners and clients gives them a deeper level of “ownership and understanding”. Apparently the term used for doodling has gone so far as “strategic doodling”, “visual thinking” and “graphic facilitation”. Continue reading “Can you use strategic doodles for coming up with new business ideas?”
Do you have the ability and experience in generating new business ideas?
A professor who teaches on a Masters of Commercialisation and Entrepreneurship program recently said that our ability and experience in being able to generate ideas is not in question but felt that there was general inexperience in applying the tools for innovation to transform these ideas into something more tangible.
While I agree with the part about inexperience in commercialisation of business ideas, I question his assertion that our ability and experience in being able to generate ideas can be almost taken as a given. Yes, I think anyone, almost anyone, with the will to succeed can use their creative imagination, observation, listening skills and personal brainstorming to come up with a promising business idea. But how often does this happen? Is it really so easy? Continue reading “Do you have the ability and experience in generating new business ideas?”
Warning: turning your promising idea into a viable business requires hard work
A small business owner recently bought a pizzeria and restaurant franchise in a local shopping centre. Not happy with the appearance and interior design of the restaurant, he set about refurbishing it. His contractors started early on a Sunday morning and by the Wednesday evening had completed the entire refurbishment of the restaurant. (You can buy my book “Breakthrough Ideas here: http://wp.me/P1A3Pz-2hY) Continue reading “Warning: turning your promising idea into a viable business requires hard work”
The power of a new idea for personal success
In Sydney, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada, a grade 8 student James Murphy came up with the idea for a solar air heater, constructing the energy-producing equipment with recycled materials. He used about 160 empty soda cans, an old door found at a dump, a big piece of glass and aluminium tape. He included several of his fellow students in the project. The solar air heater they designed and built was part of an initiative to make the school more energy efficient. The project won the Zayed Future Energy Prize for Global High Schools. Continue reading “The power of a new idea for personal success”
How all these people can multiply their services and income from just one breakthrough idea
Be aware that you can’t stand still in whatever profession or business you are in because changing times demand new ideas, new approaches and new methods.
The sad fact is that people are being left behind, professionals are being made redundant and businesses are closing down because of rapid change and economic upheaval.
Fortunately, there is a way to come up with new approaches, new concepts and new solutions whatever your professional business. For individuals who are inspired to act and small business owners who are ambitious and open to new ideas, opportunities can be found that put them ahead of their peers or competitors.
If you are in any one of the professions or small businesses listed below, you will find that my new book “Breakthrough Ideas: How to Produce Ideas for Profit in Your Life and Business” can help you quickly think up new products and better ways to multiply the value of your personal services and income.
Retail business owners – Look around, see how restaurants close in six months and become Asian clothing stores. Pool shops in six months become pet stores. What’s happening? Changing times. Use proven idea tools and techniques to “recession proof” your small retail business and diversify your customer base.
Bed and breakfast owners – You can increase your business by using techniques and tools that bring in more visitors and improve your gross margins.
Saturday morning market owners – Generate new ideas to more effectively attract quality store owners and bring more customers to your morning market.
Country business owners – If you’ve always yearned to live in the country and enjoy a country lifestyle but don’t know how you could make income, then use the easy-to-follow steps to come up with income-generating opportunities.
Sales managers – Punch-up your sales with personal brainstorming to give better value to your customers and leave your competitors grovelling in the dust. In this challenging economy, new solutions are crucial to new problems.
Trainers – Your same old “creativity” exercises no longer interest your participants. Why not come up with new creativity games or exercises that excite your participants… and encourage them to tell their friends?
Farmers – only if you’re a farmer will you know just how important profitability has become to farming operations. Now, you can come up with new ideas, new methods and approaches to make your farming income more viable. If you’ve wanted to develop a side-income, use the idea-generation system to produce a business that will provide “insurance” in tight times.
Teachers and lecturers in entrepreneurship – As entrepreneurship makes its way into basic and higher education curricula don’t be left behind. Get your creativity working to make your courses more real-world and intriguing, and show students how to turn their business ideas into viable new products and services.
Marketing agency owners – Your clients are demanding more creative ways of marketing on ever tight budgets. Don’t rely on luck or what you’ve done in the past. Learn to systematically come up with attention-getting, more profitable marketing plans and campaigns.
Breakthrough Ideas” it is for the solution-finder, the person who wants to become a better idea-generator and a sharper opportunity seeker. It’s based on real-world experience, research into creativity, proven methods and ideas that have succeeded. By the end of the first chapter, which will only take a few minutes, you will produce new ideas that could spark your personal or business breakthrough.
I will give you my 100% NO-RISK Guarantee if you want my book “Breakthrough Ideas”. If you are not absolutely delighted, I will promptly refund your purchase. Just send your copy back to me. No questions asked. No hard feelings.
Do yourself a favour and pick up your copy today…
You will need to grab this special edition NOW for just $29.95!
Don’t you think you owe it to yourself to invest at no risk this small amount in your future?
Inspire yourself to act NOW. Enough stalling, go get your own copy NOW!
How long does it take before promising ideas pop up?
A business and innovation consultant who also does training recently said that he had found after running over 100 structured group brainstorming sessions that it takes some time to warm up before quality ideas start to flow. He believes that in group brainstorming innovative ideas start to occur after about 25 minutes while in one-on-one sessions the lead time is about one hour and 15 minutes.
This is not a surprising finding. It’s a well known phenomenon that it takes time for the creative imagination to warm up. You can’t just expect to say now I need ideas and for them to pop up in your mind. Once the mind starts combining ideas, cross pollinating concepts and looking at problems from different perspectives, new solutions start to emerge. Continue reading “How long does it take before promising ideas pop up?”
How a personal tragedy produced a fine coffee roaster
On a Saturday morning I visited a fine morning market at Parys, Free State. It was amazing to see the quality of hand-crafted merchandise on display. This market compared to the best that Johannesburg has to offer. Not only were there fine crafts and arts but there were also fine foods – you would be hard pressed to find anything better elsewhere. I don’t know the history of the market but I’m very hopeful that based on the quality that is being provided that the market will go on from strength to strength. Continue reading “How a personal tragedy produced a fine coffee roaster”
How do you develop your vaguely formed idea into something that can fly?
I visited a Saturday morning market in Parys, Free State, while spending a weekend just outside the town in the country. This was a Saturday morning market that compares with the best. On display were various food products, arts and crafts, clothing and interior home accessories. The profile of the stall owners ranged from people in their early 20s right up to people in their mature years.
Let’s not kid ourselves, it takes a lot of energy to get to the level where you can put out your product for sale even to a Saturday morning market. These days Saturday morning markets are no longer jumble sales. They have become a place where finely hand-crafted products are for sale and where buyers are more discerning because they want quality as well as value for money. No one wants to buy something and end up with it at home broken or useless.
You may have an idea for a product or service but it is still not fully developed. An idea like an egg that’s not fully cooked is just an oozing mass of liquid. It’s got to get form. It’s got to be taken from a mere idea into a product that provides a benefit for others.
What are the key steps in product development? It begins with evaluation and testing. You would need to develop a prototype or sample product that you can show others and get feedback. This is an immediate form of evaluation that survey feedback or panel discussions will not give you about a concept or an idea. You’ve got to make the real thing and put it out there. A morning market or any other form of selling will give you an indication of whether you’ve hit on to something or whether you have to go back to the drawing board.
Say the sales start coming in, then what you do? This is where distribution channels are important. You could either sell your product through a retail store (not necessarily in a high-cost shopping centre), on the Internet or business-to-business, depending on the nature of your product. For example, a coffee roaster I met at the Saturday morning market sells his coffee to other businesses. He has worked to acquire a number of regular customers that use his product heavily and so he benefits from a steady stream of repeat orders. Yes, he may lose some of these larger customers but then he also gains new ones.
If you have an idea not yet fully developed, you may want to speak to someone on how you can develop it further, study some resources on product development or find it all in one place with a book called “Breakthrough Ideas”. This book offers the information to take your idea from conception through to product testing and eventual enterprise formation. For someone deciding to take the leap into starting something of their own it can save you time and money and help you avoid common business mistakes.
