Expert Financial & Business Insights for South Africa
Strategic analysis from Idea Accelerator and ready-to-publish content from Financial News Daily.
Have you looked around your local community lately? Businesses are closing left and right. What may have been a cellular phone shop is now a plastics shop. And, in a few months could be a pool store or security shop.
Business sales are stagnant, margins are under pressure and employees are hanging onto their jobs almost as if they were about to fall from high atop a mountain ledge. Continue reading “If you make these mistakes in idea generation, your small business could suffer the same fate”
In Journey to Ixtlan Don Matus tells Carlos Castaneda, after running at night high up in the mountains, to focus on the shadows of the leaves on one single branch and then eventually work his way to the whole tree and not let his eyes go back to the leaves.
Don Matus says Carlos must learn “to not do what I know how to do”.
Where do you look for opportunities?
Where others have looked… but let’s face it, that doesn’t always work out as intended.
In these uncertain and hard times what worked a year ago won’t necessarily work now. Look at what’s happening to small business in your local shopping centres. A pet food shop opens up for six months and then shuts down. The old space is occupied by a new tenant, and enthusiastic “entrepreneur” who has started a pool care centre. It’s happening all the time. A gift shop shuts down after a year of trading and is replaced by a woman’s clothing store. Continue reading “Find opportunities in the “shadows of the leaves””
The other evening I met a man in his late 30s who wants to start something of his own. He has been working in the retail food and catering business. All of this valuable experience but he has no idea for starting something of his own. Not even one little idea. Nothing!
The man in his late 30s wants to go back home to his country in Africa and start something. But he has no seed capital. Not even a little. Nothing!
Now, he’s unfortunately a currency prisoner. He came here looking for work but now the currency here is lower than his home country. It’s difficult for him to save or even send money home. But he’s trying.
Where can he find his inspiration to action? Continue reading “One Mistake Successful People Don’t Make – Amazing, simple secret you should know”
Let’s be clear about one thing: Scepticism works to your favour in most instances. It helps you check out things that don’t add up, just don’t seem right.
Imagine the thousands who wish they had been more sceptical before they purchased loser schemes and products. Where was the scepticism? Why didn’t they use it? Continue reading “Scepticism can be your worst enemy”
Have you had a look around in your local neighbourhood and seen what’s happening? Look around. In your local neighbourhood the pet shop closes after six months and becomes a pool shop. A clothing store runs for little less than a year and closes down. A gift shop fills the same retail space and it too disappears after a few months.
What worked a year ago isn’t working anymore. Continue reading “New solutions needed for new problems as economy opens its jaws”
California landowners are planting orchards of truffles in the hopes of harvesting them because world demand is rising. Black truffles which come from Europe or Australia cost anything between $800 to $1 200 for 0.5kg but supplies are shrinking while appetites are expanding worldwide, according to AP report.
Black truffle hunting dogs such as the Italian Lagotto Romagnolo are some of the best to sniff out the “diamonds” of the culinary world. They sniff for signs of Perigord and burgundy truffles on the roots of oak and hazelnut trees planted next to vineyards. Winemakers started planting truffle orchards five years ago and want to harvest their truffles next year. Continue reading “Are you as good in sniffing for opportunities as these dogs are?”
If you want to be more creative, you become so by being more creative.
You may have got here because you feel you’ve lost that creative spark.
You feel you deserve more out of life.
You could be facing personal and business challenges in this depressed economy.
What can you do about it?
Please do me a small favour and read on. It could prove valuable to you.
Listen up. You will find out how you can increase your creativity and come up with new approaches, new ideas and possibilities.
You can immediately apply the techniques and ideas to your personal, working and business life. With enough motivation, you can use the tools and techniques and without anyone knowing you are using them.
New ideas can lead to personal or business breakthroughs. People need to come up with new ideas to respond to challenges, problems and difficulties they are facing. But often they just can’t make a personal breakthrough. They rack their brains but still nothing comes.
Other people come up with “brilliant” ideas but they are just too impractical or improbable. Others may have great ideas but they don’t know how to develop and implement them and worse they go about it in the wrong way.
How do you come up with new approaches, new ideas and increase your creativity? How can you accelerate your ideas to get more of what you want in life?
My book, “Breakthrough Ideas” shows you simple and practical ways to come up with new ideas. It is based on research into creativity, proven methods, ideas that have succeeded and grounded in real-world experience. By the end of the first chapter, which will only take a few minutes to read, you will be producing new ideas that could spark your personal breakthrough.
Here are a few “golden rules” that will help you become more creative and speed your creativity:
– Use simple techniques that are proven and which you enjoy
– Personal breakthroughs come when you are prepared – practice, practice, practice
– See your world through fresh eyes
– You become more creative by using creative tools more often
– Linking unrelated objects often leads to unexpected new combinations
– Letting ideas “cool” before evaluating them leads you select the most promising one
– Commercialising ideas follows a definite process and framework that is easy to understand and simple to apply
Are you ready to learn to accelerate your idea generation? By investing a few hours in yourself you’ll find solutions faster, come up with more viable ideas and increase possibilities in your life. Go here to find “Breakthrough Ideas”.
I heard about an estate agent who hasn’t sold a house in this market for a year.
It’s unbelievable how we get into a rut and just can’t find our way out.
Let’s wind back for a second. With all his experience you would think that he would come up with new ideas, new approaches even new opportunities. But he remains stuck in a terrible position of misfortune.
Why is it that people don’t use their inborn creative mechanism when faced with a crisis? Why when they could use their creativity and come up with a fresh plan, a new way out? Continue reading “Thousands have this priceless gift – but how many discover its potential?”
In 2014 a massage therapist planted the seed for an idea that would grow into a retail beauty salon chain. Ian Fuhr, the founder of Sorbet, didn’t want to retire and was eager for a new challenge. Today Sorbet has close to 40 outlets with revenues of around R100 million a year.
People need to come up with new ideas to respond to challenges, problems and difficulties they are facing. They also may want to stretch themselves and come up with new ways to realise their aspirations. But they just can’t make a personal breakthrough. They rack their brains but still nothing comes. Continue reading “Thinking fast and slow – speed thinking for great ideas”
A trend in retail in the US about six years or so back involved unearthing century-old heritage brands that survived outsourcing to Asia. Two brothers wanted to start a backpack brand that looked as though it was a heritage brand. Solution? They came up with Herschel in 2009 with a square label logo with the word “Herschel” in hand-drawn script. Their goal was for people to look at the brand and think that they had seen it before. Today more than 4,000 stores carry the Herschel range, according to Bloomberg Businessweek.
New ideas can lead to personal or business breakthroughs. People need to come up with new ideas to respond to challenges, problems and difficulties they are facing. But often they just can’t make a personal breakthrough. They rack their brains but still nothing comes. Continue reading “Unlock your creative self – speed thinking for faster idea generation”
