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Further
Reading ...
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How To Drive The IRS Crazy - Wayne M Davies Looking for an easy way to increase your business deductions? Look no further than your driveway. First, the general rule: your vehicle is deductible to the extent you use it for business. So, if you drive your car 100% for business, all car-...
Uncle Sam is Ready...Are You? Organizing Tips for Tax Time - Stacey Agin Murray Anyone who is closely related to an accountant knows that there are not four, but five seasons in a year: Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, and 'Tax Season.' During the other seasons, we accumulate leaves, snow, and mosquito bites. During 'Tax Season'...
Adam Smith the Real-life Grinch Who Stole Christmas and Won - George Matafonov At about this time each year, without fail, the lament will go out about how the real meaning of Christmas has been lost. This pre-Christmas tut-tutting is as much of a tradition as the obligatory Christmas cards, and treated in the same casual...
Selling Your Business Note - Afra AmirSanjari Why wait for payments on your note? In many parts of the country, business owners who sell their business must take back financing from the buyer in order for the sale to be consummated. The reason- banks and other conventional lenders are hesitant...
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How To Find New Ideas For Your Business
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Written By:
Noel Peebles
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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. - continued below ...
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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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The Shrinking Ad Dollar - Rebecca Game CPR CPA CTR... what does it all mean? What it means is dollars "out" of your pocket instead of "in" to your pocket. Advertising dollars are gaining in value, meaning the regular advertiser now gets MORE for his dollar than he did a few years back....
Automated Expense and Timesheet Management - Gerd Schmidt Automated Expense and Timesheet Management The pressure on companies to become ever 'leaner' and optimize the business processes is higher than ever. Investors demanding higher profits, customer's demands for lower prices and greater quality and...
How to Network Successfully Online - Rachel Goldstein Article submitted by http://www.Allfreelancework.com If you want to get your business name out there, nothing is better than referrals and networking. Networking is the act of passing someone's name on to another person. But, in the new world of...
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