Tag: small business

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How to get ideas

Human ear icon

Ideas can just pop out of the blue.

Or come to us when we are busy.

Reading, watching a movie or overhearing someone complain.

Let’s briefly go through the abilities all of us have to find ideas – observation, listening and questioning.

Observing for ideas

Observation is something we do all the time. We watch people; we observe what they do, observe how they are dressed and see what they buy.

From our observations we connect ideas with those we see to form new and better products and services.

We may, for example, come across a flower delivery service. Then observe at another time home-made chocolate being made, connect these two ideas and fuse them into something like a delivery service for chocolate gifts on special occasions. Continue reading “How to get ideas”

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How to avoid getting lost in the idea-generation woods

Bush Suicide
(Photo credit: bixentro)

Do you need to come up with new business ideas fast?

So urgently that it feels that you’ve got a gun against your head?

I’ll let you into the two main ways to come up with money-making ideas for products and services even if you have no experience.

Are you ready?

Let’s get started.

You can use idea-generation techniques to come up with your own original ideas. For people wanting to generate ideas for products and services this can be the most risky approach. Why? Because original ideas may be too far ahead of your potential customers.

We’re not talking about an original recipe for a new chilli sauce here. These condiment products have been on the market for decades. Think of a product such as James Dyson’s bag-less vacuum cleaner. It took years for such a new invention to be accepted by the marketplace.

New and original often equals big money on educating the consumer or business person. Idea-driven start-ups face difficulties in trying to make money. It’s not impossible but it’s best that you are warned up front about the obstacles you’ll battle against. When you need income in a hurry, you can’t wait for years to develop and have your new product or services accepted in the market. Continue reading “How to avoid getting lost in the idea-generation woods”

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New business ideas – why should small businesses care

Cash
Cash (Photo credit: BlatantWorld.com)

Why are ideas so important to our lives and particularly for our business ventures?

Ideas are as essential to our lives as is breathing. Just think about how many ideas you come up with in a day at home, at work and at play.

For small business owners and those who want to form start-ups to sell and market their own products and services idea generation is absolutely vital for competitiveness and to make money. We need ideas because we are living in times that are changing, dynamic and challenging.

You see it all over the place: in shopping centres, on websites and blogs, in magazines and newspapers and on radio and television. People are coming up with new business ideas all the time to provide products and services to prospective customers so that the value that they create is bought by customers and that the business owners are able to bring in income. Continue reading “New business ideas – why should small businesses care”

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Come on! It can’t be this easy to get ideas can it?

Ideas for recycling

A reader asked me this question after reading “Creativity sucks. Or does it?” last week:

QUESTION: I read your blog post on “Creativity sucks” and wondered whether you are for imitation rather than generating original ideas. What gives?

CHESNEY: First off, I don’t want to offer any stuffy definitions about original ideas and imitation. Let’s be clear: Imitation doesn’t mean wholesale or complete copying of someone else’s idea. You still need to generate ideas to come up with a product or service that is different from those already introduced or you will just be giving customers what they can buy elsewhere. You need a distinct point of differentiation.

What I tried to get across was that imitation can involve creativity. Duplication or direct copying is not. Let’s face it; imitation is not about mindless copying of others ideas, products and services. The fast follower needs creative imagination to come up with a product or service that is similar but different what’s already on the market. Continue reading “Come on! It can’t be this easy to get ideas can it?”

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Kill your creative ideas! It’s innovation that counts

Kill your creative ideas!When people think about creativity associations that come to mind are playing silly games, drawing with crayons and coming up with ideas on flipcharts that are so unrelated to real-life that it seems that they are just one big fantasy.

No wonder why many people dislike talk about creativity or even fear creativity.

Creativity requires uncertainty because it usually involves something that we have not done before. New ideas can be scary. And when one faces uncertainty fear increases: creative ideas can make one look foolish or lead you to doing something stupid. This is why it’s often better to get yourself in a relaxed state no matter what the circumstances to come up with new ways to solve important problems.

At www.ideaaccelerator.co.za we hardly ever talk about creativity, treating it cautiously so as not to put you off. The number of negative associations with the word and the process of creativity is a large field quite distinct from the world of innovation and particularly innovation in small business.

Continue reading “Kill your creative ideas! It’s innovation that counts”

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What you need to know about age and innovation

Ideas at any ageA reader asked me this great question a week or so ago:

QUESTION: I’ve read about all these innovators below the age of 30 forming new businesses, mobile apps and Internet businesses. What chance has someone got if they are older? Is it too late after a certain age to innovate?

CHESNEY: Right off I’d say that age doesn’t matter at all. But at the same time who’s going to argue that youth doesn’t have a strong head start? Especially when it comes to energy and drive. And the reason why so many young people are making it especially in the online world is because they have grown up with the technology.

Continue reading “What you need to know about age and innovation”

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Business owners with new ideas – better check this out

Shower
Shower (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“Ideas you have in the shower are rarely what the market wants.” – Quote from a discussion on entrepreneurs

Should those ideas that pop into your head while in the shower, driving to work in the morning or listening to your favourite music on your iPod be so easily dismissed as the quote implies?

The answer is probably yes if you decide to take your white-hot idea from the shower straight to a cut-throat market even if it’s some unlikely tucked away niche. Continue reading “Business owners with new ideas – better check this out”

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From idea to product – make it easy on yourself

Growth emerges from small beginningsIn 1996 McDonald’s introduced its more sophisticated Arch Deluxe burger which was marketed as a “burger with grown-up taste”. The burger came with peppercorn bacon, served on a potato flour sesame seed bun, with lettuce, onion, tomato, cheese and a secret mustard and mayonnaise sauce.

The $100 million ad campaign flopped. Why? Most people go to McDonald’s for a quick bite – a tummy filler. They don’t see McDonalds as a purveyor of gourmet meals.

Examples like this go on and on. Many large companies have suffered new product failures – just think of Apple, Pepsi, Coke and the motor vehicle companies. Continue reading “From idea to product – make it easy on yourself”

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Innovation in the media – too little too late?

Tabloid Tycoon
Photo credit: Wikipedia

Visiting the city of Cape Town I was surprised to see its afternoon newspaper transformed into a tabloid after packaging itself for 155 years in broadsheet format.

The maiden editorial shouted “Here’s the future” with loud protestations that the newspaper would not become a frothy “tabloid” but a sober “compact”.

Yet you had to thumb through a feature lead story on the front page and several more feature pages until you came across a few news bites tucked deep inside the middle.

Mainstream, traditional media are in a frenzy to innovate because they are bleeding from online media. Today’s wired generation has a short attention span and is addicted to social media. Even companies are battling to know their shareholders, who buy online and are shareholders for as little as 24 hours.

Why is all this important to small business people? How does it relate to the business? I’ll come to that in a moment. Continue reading “Innovation in the media – too little too late?”