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A Home Based Business Modeled After Google
Probably the most exciting company to not only survive, but come out strong out of the dot-com crash of the late 90's is Google Inc. Having started out small as a company operated in the garage of a friend and employing a staff of three, Google's...
Deliverables in Professional Service Businesses - Part 1
While in traditional contract work (outsourced labour) we talk about tangible deliverables, that is, number of labouring hours, number of lbs or pages of reports or workbooks, number of Mbytes of files, etc., in consulting most of the deliverables...
Planning for Product Release
This article may be reprinted for use in newsletters and websites provided that the information box is kept intact. Email notice of intent to publish is appreciated but not Required: ptma@dr.com Title: Planning for Product Release Author: Barrett...
The Four Cultures of Employee Retention
Despite fluctuating economic times and increased globalization of American jobs, most employers are finding it hard to keep good workers. The reality of today's job market is that workers are expecting more from their employers and are not afraid to...
The Value of Values
One of the toughest jobs a leader has to perform is to act as
guardian of an organisation's values.
An organisation's values are the things that are really
important to it.
In the early days of an enterprise, the values are sometimes...
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How To Find New Ideas For Your Business
New ideas are the lifeblood of any business so it is
important to encourage creativity and to be truly
innovative. But creativity and innovation are not the
same. Creativity is all about coming up with new ideas,
whereas innovation involves putting new ideas into action.
New ideas can be very difficult to find. When you do find
them and put them into action, they can provide a powerful
marketing edge and become a license to print money.
Here are some ways to help generate new ideas:
Ask For Opinions
You could hire consultants or you could simply seek
opinions from someone who knows absolutely nothing about
your business. We get so close to what we are doing, that
often we can't see another way of doing things. There are
times when we need to step outside our own environment
because sometimes ideas used in one trade can be adapted
to another.
Encourage Staff Creativity
If you employ staff, then encourage them to think up new
ideas and get them to suggest changes. You will need to
be open-minded and encourage their input. You'll need
to be tolerant when their ideas don't work. And you'll
probably need to reward them in some way, although you'll
probably find that the satisfaction of "seeing their
ideas in action" may be reward enough.
Brain Storm
One of the best ways to tap into new ideas is through
brainstorming. This could involve family, friends, staff,
customers and even other business owners. The key with
any brainstorming session is to disallow any negative
comments and to only analyse or develop ideas once the
session is over. The purpose of a brainstorming session
is to produce a quantity of ideas. It's quantity not
quality. Refining the ideas comes later.
Re-educate The Mind
There is an old saying, "you never stop
learning" and it's
true. If you are willing to make a personal commitment to
perpetual re-education you'll reap the rewards. Allocate an
annual budget (maybe 1% of your turnover) for personal and
staff re-education. Consider training courses, seminars,
workshops, audio-tape programmes etc.
Become A Case Study
Consider approaching a local University or polytechnic that
runs business courses. Offer your business as a case study
in return for feedback from the students.
Become A Surfer
There is a wealth of information on the Internet and most
of it is free. Search other areas of business rather than
just your own as you might be able to adapt a totally
unrelated idea.
Read And Subscribe
You can often find ideas in the most unlikely places.
Business, fashion and trade magazines are all worth a browse.
These days it's easy to subscribe to any number of overseas
newspapers, magazines, newsletters or ezines.
Travel Opens Your Eyes
Visit similar (or even unrelated) businesses overseas.
You'll be surprised at how freely many of them share their
knowledge, after all you are not a threat to them. In my
travels I have made it a point to visit factories that make
the strangest things, huge shopping malls, numerous small
businesses and international marketing companies. Each time
I seem to come home buzzing with ideas.
"The only purpose of a business is to bring in a customer;
and there are really only two ways to do it...
through Marketing or Innovation."
Noel Peebles
About the Author
Noel Peebles
noel@marketleadersltd.com
The Quick And Easy Ways To Get Better Results
From Your Advertising...Increase Your Sales
At Higher Profit Margins Than You've Ever Done
Before. FREE newsletter. FREE ebook.
http://www.betterbizprofits.com
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| DTI - Welcome to the DTI's Innovation Home Page |
| The DTI is working to stimulate a significant increase in innovation throughout ... It covers Living Innovation, web streaming of a series of high profile ... |
| www.dti.gov.uk |
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| Innovation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
| An innovation in this light occurs whether or not the act of innovating ... A convenient definition of innovation from an organizational perspective is ... |
| en.wikipedia.org |
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| National Innovation Website |
| The Department of Industry, Tourism and Resources has developed this website to raise awareness of the importance and benefits of innovation and ... |
| www.innovation.gov.au |
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| Innovation, creativity and brainstorming resources from ... |
| A comprehensive site designed to provide busy entrepreneurs with a focused collection of the best resources on innovation, creativity, and brainstorming. |
| www.innovationtools.com |
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| Innovation Weblog - Trends, resources, viewpoints from Chuck Frey ... |
| The Innovation Weblog - Valuable trends, resources and viewpoints in innovation, creativity and brainstorming from Chuck Frey at InnovationTools. |
| www.innovationtools.com |
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| CORDIS: Innovation Portal: Home |
| This Innovation Portal is supported by DG ENTR of the European Commission, ... European Commission adopts new Communication on Innovation: on 13 September ... |
| cordis.europa.eu |
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| CORDIS: Promotion of Innovation: Home |
| This programme stands at the cross-roads of the Community's policies on Research, Innovation and SMEs. |
| cordis.europa.eu |
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| Innovation Network... leveraging innovation, creativity and ... |
| The Innovation Network is an association of companies and employees committed to innovation. The site features some interesting articles as well as some fun ... |
| www.thinksmart.com |
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| Business Innovation : Car Reviews, Online Gaming, and Product Branding |
| If your in need of great Online Gaming material, we carry up to the minute news and reviews for all of your favorite games and gaming systems. |
| www.businessweek.com |
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| Innovation - Life, Inspired | PBS |
| Learn about fascinating innovations, explore interactive features, submit questions to our experts, investigate resources and lesson plans, and more. |
| www.pbs.org |
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| Innovation.org - Welcome |
| Impact of Innovation Saving & Improving Lives Controlling Healthcare Costs Strengthening ... Future of Innovation New Medicines in Development Next Wave of ... |
| www.innovation.org |
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| Innovation: See what people are saying right now on Technorati |
| See all blog posts tagged with innovation on Technorati. |
| www.technorati.com |
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| Innovation Relay Centres - The World Largest Network for ... |
| Innovation Relay Centres giving advice on Innovation, Technology Transfer and Exploitation. Major European source for innovative technologies or new ... |
| irc.cordis.lu |
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| The Tech Museum of Innovation | Welcome |
| The Tech Museum of Innovation - Welcome! The Tech Museum inspires and educates the innovators of the future. |
| www.thetech.org |
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| Pages tagged with "innovation" on del.icio.us |
| CoDev 2007 - Co-Development for Business Growth: Open Innovation and Alternatives ... PDMA & IIR's 5th Annual Front End of Innovation ... |
| del.icio.us |
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| innovation |
| Publication highlighting the research activities of NUS. The site provides snippets of selected articles online, and provides a subscription form online. |
| www.innovationmagazine.com |
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| Canadian Innovation Centre |
| Services includes invention evaluation, technology due diligence, market research, and education programs. |
| www.innovationcentre.ca |
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| London INNOVATION :: Home |
| Maximise your business potential through innovation. Learn the secrets of successful business innovation in London. |
| www.london-innovation.org.uk |
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| Eric Von Hippel's Homepage |
| Downloadable Books. Democratizing Innovation (2005) ... The Sources of Innovation (1988). Free download of the complete book. Permission granted by Oxford ... |
| web.mit.edu |
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| Intel Innovation in Education |
| www.intel.com/education/ - 3k - Cached - Similar pages |
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