Tag: new ideas

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Stay open to possibility

NYC - Eataly NY: La Mozzarella di Eataly
Cheese making. NYC – Eataly NY: La Mozzarella di Eataly (Photo credit: wallyg)

We may walk down the same path every day but never see something new. Then one day we are on the path and suddenly something leaps out at us that we’ve never noticed before. It could be a special flower growing along the walkway, a sapling that has been slowly growing out of the earth and has suddenly shot up to waist level or a bird nesting in a tree.

This analogy about a well-trodden path and being observant is very much how we go about our day-to-day life not noticing new things, change or trends. Unless we keep our eyes open often we don’t see things even though they are staring us right in the face. Continue reading “Stay open to possibility”

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Are you enjoying what you are doing?

Kalk Bay station, Cape Town, South Africa. A s...
Kalk Bay station, Cape Town, South Africa. A shot of a departing commuter train. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Feel like a quick quiz?

Answer these questions as being True or False:

  • You can’t find fulfilling work, not in this economic environment.
  • Only people who are bit soft in the head can tune into their inner world, find their unique talents and make a living.
  • You must be a dreamer if you think that you can find a position or create a job for yourself with the hours, challenges and rewards you want. Continue reading “Are you enjoying what you are doing?”
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What can you do about losing more and more control in your life?

Stones on a Rocky Ocean Beach
Stones on a Rocky Ocean Beach (Photo credit: epSos.de)

What’s happening? Why does it feel that so many things are outside one’s control?

Take fuel costs, for example, which just seemed to keep on rising. With no end in sight. What can you do about it except to try to use less? But how possible is that when you have to use your car every day?

Electricity costs are following the same upward trajectory. Use less, buy energy efficient appliances. It’s hard but doable.

Policymakers introduce more restrictions on business. You’ve got less discretion to do what you need to do. Continue reading “What can you do about losing more and more control in your life?”

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How do you coax your thoughts to pair up, make love and spark a new idea?

Jazz Blues Fusion (album)
Jazz Blues Fusion (album) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

On Monday morning I stopped at the traffic lights and a man came over to my car and pushed a one-page flyer through the slit in the top of my window.

I glanced at the flyer which was advertising a service to dog owners. The service includes transporting dogs to and from your vet, updating inoculations, rabies inoculation, defleeing and deworming.

The owner of this service has combined dog care with transport to come up with the idea for a mobile dog service. Continue reading “How do you coax your thoughts to pair up, make love and spark a new idea?”

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The secret ingredient in a new venture is you

Barber Shop and Computer Service, Joe Slovo Park, Cape Town, South Africa (Source: Wiki media commons- Vgrigas)
Barber Shop and Computer Service, Joe Slovo Park, Cape Town, South Africa (Source: Wiki media commons- Vgrigas)

A small business owner in a town sells pet food and accessories. The business has been running for a number of years, raking in a comfortable income.

Do you think this business person needs new ideas and innovation to bring in higher sales?

It depends. But in most cases the town-based main street business chugs along perhaps supporting him or herself and in rare instances enables his/her partner not to work.

Continue reading “The secret ingredient in a new venture is you”

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Despite the red harvest innovation in farming grows

Agriculture
Agriculture (Photo credit: thegreenpages)

We usually don’t consider farming as a small business and so don’t take interest in how much innovation is taking place today on modern farms.

Perhaps it’s because farms are outside the cities. We may only consider farming when we see headlines in the newspapers on farm attacks, labour problems and crop surpluses or shortages.

But these days innovation is taking place in many areas on farms with farmers challenged by the need to reduce costs, increase yields and better protect themselves. Continue reading “Despite the red harvest innovation in farming grows”

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See the wonder of the ocean as you paddle

main_imgSomewhere along the False Bay coastline in the middle of the night I’d paddle out in a dark green kayak with a naval attack dive buddy and head towards the naval base at Simon’s Town. In an exercise to keep the submarine base on its toes, we’d tie our kayak alongside the harbour wall in the pitch black dark, slide overboard with our rebreathers not emitting a bubble, we’d swim underwater beneath the submarines. We’d place mines on the hulls of the submarines near the engines and then slip away in the night back along the coastline.

A few years ago just after Christmas day I went leisure kayaking with a good friend off Kommetjie. This time it was in an orange kayak with two crayfish nets placed on the bow of the kayak. We dropped our baited nets in the kelp beds and after an hour we had our quota of crayfish to take home for supper.

These kayaks were made from opaque plastic that prevented us from seeing the ocean and the reefs below us as we paddled across the water. Continue reading “See the wonder of the ocean as you paddle”

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What’s key to your own business: your idea, execution or you?

Ideas are ...
Photo credit: martymadrid

Your idea for a product or service is the starting point of your business.

You wouldn’t have come up with your idea if you did not believe that you are more than the sum total of everything you are at this moment.

Your idea has an energy that propels you to act to achieve the success you seek.

But can you really succeed with just an idea? Continue reading “What’s key to your own business: your idea, execution or you?”

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Why didn’t I think of that?

Untitled-1.psd_-164x300The Chill Can is the world’s first self-chilling beverage can. Developed by The Joseph Company International, the Chill Can has been in research and development for more than 18 years.

By simply pressing a tab on the can, the temperature of the drink inside the can drops by 16°C in three minutes. This technology makes it possible to enjoy a tall drink anywhere and any time – while camping, boating, fishing on the beach or hiking.

The beverage can has a built-in Heat Exchange Unit (HEU) which uses a C-CO2 and adsorbent-desorption system to cool the beverage in the can. Continue reading “Why didn’t I think of that?”

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An idea that led an entrepreneur to a new food product

512px-Peanut_Butter_Texture (2)I spent two years working in a peanut butter factory in Randfontein, South Africa, and loved it. So forgive me when I get excited about peanut butter and associated food products.

Last year Pick ‘n Pay introduced the Planters range of peanut butter in its stores but sadly with the economy as it is even its flagship on William Nicol Drive, Bryanston, no longer stocks Planters. Pity. But they’ve cut away a lot of frills since opening that store including sometimes no flowers, fancy hand wash or electronically dispensed paper towels in the men’s toilets.

The interesting and innovative part of the Planters product, a company always known for its quality nuts, was that it decided after something like 80 years to introduce a peanut butter. Not only that but the positioning is towards the more mature adult rather than children.

I came across an entrepreneur Justin Gold who came up with an idea from goo packs, gels another squeezable energy boosts sold in stores. Continue reading “An idea that led an entrepreneur to a new food product”