Creativity for Entrepreneurs: 4 Tips

We spoke to Jonah Lehrer, author of the bestselling Imagine: How Creativity Works, to learn how entrepreneurs can be more innovative.

For some entrepreneurs, a great “aha” moment is the spark that leads to the formation of their company. But just one ‘aha’ isn’t going to do it. Once you’re up and running, you may need new products, a better way to deal with your hotheaded marketing chief, or a knotty production issue you can’t seem to solve. So how do you get more everyday creativity into your company – and enhance the odds that when you need a breakthrough, you’ll get one? Inc’s Kimberly Weisul spoke with Jonah Lehrer, the author of the best-selling Imagine: How Creativity Works, to get his advice for entrepreneurs.

1. Stop brainstorming. That’s right. Despite the fact that brainstorming is one of the most widely-used tools for coming up with new ideas, Lehrer says it doesn’t work. Why? Because the first rule of brainstorming is not to criticize. And criticism is great for idea formation. It’s crucial if you want your ideas to be any good. As Lehrer says, “Criticism draws us out. It wakes us up.” He also says that groups that engage in criticism come up with 20-25% more ideas than other groups, and their ideas are rated as more original.
2. Surround yourself with diversity. Real intellectual diversity. If you studied engineering at Stanford, and all your friends are Stanford engineers, it doesn’t matter how much racial diversity you’ve got between you. You’re not getting the diversity you need to enhance your creativity.If you want to be more creative, you need to widen your social circle to include people who really are different than you. Lehrer cites a study of 766 Stanford Business School grads who went on to form their own companies. Those who had a diverse circle of friends—their buddies ran the gamut from biologists to ballet dancers – were three times more innovative than the rest, as determined by the number of patents and trademarks they held.

Continue reading this article at INC.com after the break!

3 Ways to Annoy Your Customers (Plus: 3 Better Tactics)

These boneheaded moves practically guarantee you’ll become an irritant. Try a few better approaches.

Want your prospects and customers to think you’re obnoxious? Want to make yourself persona non grata?

Here are the most common ways sellers make themselves into  nuisances–plus a few thoughts about better ways to work with customers.

1. Ask Scripted Questions

For decades, most sales training seminars have been built around “sales scripts” intended to uncover customer needs. Unfortunately, scripted questions are irritating–because it’s clear from the start that the questions reflect not true curiosity but just curiosity about whether the prospect is likely to buy.

Scripted questions are intended to lead the prospect toward buying; they’re designed to elicit the “correct answer” regardless of the actual situation. And questions are, by their very nature, intrusive–and continually asking them, or asking a series of them, is an excellent way to alienate people, even when you aren’t in a sales situation.

What works better: Rather than scripted questions, write down a brief agenda of the subjects you’d like to discuss, and share that agenda with the customer.  Rather than giving the customer the third degree, have a conversation where there’s a give and take of information.

2. Be a ‘Know-It-All’

Right now, one of the most popular books on selling is The Challenger Sale, basically a rehash of the old “solution selling” but with the twist that sellers should “challenge” customers.

Unfortunately, the “challenge” terminology is likely to increase some sellers’ tendency to lecture the customer, in the hopes that the customer will be impressed with the seller’s expertise. But no one likes being lectured to–and it’s easy to sound like you think you know more than the customer about how to run the customer’s own business. Would you appreciate that?

What works better: It’s fine to have your own perspective, do your own research and develop expertise in your own offerings–but approach every customer with the assumption that the customer knows more about their own business than you do. Use your time with the customer to hear about the real situation she is experiencing. And never, ever lecture.

Continue reading this article at INC.com after the break!

What is it that successful people have that everyone else lacks? Aside from monetary and material excess, there are certain things that successful people do to make them excel. Find out how you can join the ranks of successful people here!

Harvard Business Review shares…

Decades of research on achievement suggests that successful people reach their goals not simply because of who they are, but more often because of what they do.

1. Get specific. When you set yourself a goal, try to be as specific as possible. “Lose 5 pounds” is a better goal than “lose some weight,” because it gives you a clear idea of what success looks like. Knowing exactly what you want to achieve keeps you motivated until you get there. Also, think about the specific actions that need to be taken to reach your goal. Just promising you’ll “eat less” or “sleep more” is too vague — be clear and precise. “I’ll be in bed by 10pm on weeknights” leaves no room for doubt about what you need to do, and whether or not you’ve actually done it.

2. Seize the moment to act on your goals. Given how busy most of us are, and how many goals we are juggling at once, it’s not surprising that we routinely miss opportunities to act on a goal because we simply fail to notice them. Did you really have no time to work out today? No chance at any point to return that phone call? Achieving your goal means grabbing hold of these opportunities before they slip through your fingers.

To seize the moment, decide when and where you will take each action you want to take, in advance. Again, be as specific as possible (e.g., “If it’s Monday, Wednesday, or Friday, I’ll work out for 30 minutes before work.”) Studies show that this kind of planning will help your brain to detect and seize the opportunity when it arises, increasing your chances of success by roughly 300%.

3. Know exactly how far you have left to go. Achieving any goal also requires honest and regular monitoring of your progress — if not by others, then by you yourself. If you don’t know how well you are doing, you can’t adjust your behavior or your strategies accordingly. Check your progress frequently — weekly, or even daily, depending on the goal.

4. Be a realistic optimist. When you are setting a goal, by all means engage in lots of positive thinking about how likely you are to achieve it. Believing in your ability to succeed is enormously helpful for creating and sustaining your motivation. But whatever you do, don’t underestimate how difficult it will be to reach your goal. Most goals worth achieving require time, planning, effort, and persistence. Studies show that thinking things will come to you easily and effortlessly leaves you ill-prepared for the journey ahead, and significantly increases the odds of failure.

5. Focus on getting better, rather than being good. Believing you have the ability to reach your goals is important, but so is believing you can get the ability. Many of us believe that our intelligence, our personality, and our physical aptitudes are fixed — that no matter what we do, we won’t improve. As a result, we focus on goals that are all about proving ourselves, rather than developing and acquiring new skills.

Fortunately, decades of research suggest that the belief in fixed ability is completely wrong — abilities of all kinds are profoundly malleable. Embracing the fact that you can change will allow you to make better choices, and reach your fullest potential. People whose goals are about getting better, rather than being good, take difficulty in stride, and appreciate the journey as much as the destination.

6. Have grit. Grit is a willingness to commit to long-term goals, and to persist in the face of difficulty. Studies show that gritty people obtain more education in their lifetime, and earn higher college GPAs. Grit predicts which cadets will stick out their first grueling year at West Point. In fact, grit even predicts which round contestants will make it to at the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

The good news is, if you aren’t particularly gritty now, there is something you can do about it. People who lack grit more often than not believe that they just don’t have the innate abilities successful people have. If that describes your own thinking …. well, there’s no way to put this nicely: you are wrong. As I mentioned earlier, effort, planning, persistence, and good strategies are what it really takes to succeed. Embracing this knowledge will not only help you see yourself and your goals more accurately, but also do wonders for your grit.

7. Build your willpower muscle. Your self-control “muscle” is just like the other muscles in your body — when it doesn’t get much exercise, it becomes weaker over time. But when you give it regular workouts by putting it to good use, it will grow stronger and stronger, and better able to help you successfully reach your goals.

To build willpower, take on a challenge that requires you to do something you’d honestly rather not do. Give up high-fat snacks, do 100 sit-ups a day, stand up straight when you catch yourself slouching, try to learn a new skill. When you find yourself wanting to give in, give up, or just not bother — don’t. Start with just one activity, and make a plan for how you will deal with troubles when they occur (“If I have a craving for a snack, I will eat one piece of fresh or three pieces of dried fruit.”) It will be hard in the beginning, but it will get easier, and that’s the whole point. As your strength grows, you can take on more challenges and step-up your self-control workout.

Get the full article at Harvard Business Review!

Are you finally fulfilling your entrepreneurial dreams and starting your own business? Do not forget the most important part of the process…the name! These 5 tips will help you choose a name that is sure to make you money!

Business On Main suggests…

Entrepreneurs fret over packaging and a host of other details as they get started, and then leave one of the most important aspects as an afterthought.

The sad truth is that the right name can sometimes make all the difference when it comes to propelling a business to success, rather than just slogging on.

Get more information at Business On Main!

The Fast Track to Start-Up Life

Have big dreams of tech entrepreneurship in Silicon Valley but no clue how to realize them? A Dev Bootcamp alum explains how he did it.

Suppose you’re sitting around your hometown, whether it’s Poughkeepsie or Pensacola, with big dreams of start-up life in Silicon Valley but only a modest amount of tech know-how and absolutely no idea of how to get where you want to go. Do you head to university or sign up for a graduate course to gain the skills you need? Do you pack your bags for the Bay Area and pray you land on your feet? Both paths are risky. Lachy Groom suggests there may be a better way.

Already a veteran of several start-ups at the tender age of 17, Groom desperately wanted a life of entrepreneurship in America’s tech hub but being from Perth, Australia, he was, well, as far away from the action as you can get geographically. Then he spotted an ad by Shereef Bishay in Hacker News, offering to teach highly motivated but relatively unskilled novices the programming language Ruby on Rails in an intense eight-week course in San Francisco, which Bishay dubbed Dev Bootcamp.

Groom signed up and never looked back. He completed the intensive experience in the spring of this year and is now navigating the choppy waters of U.S. immigration for the necessary visa to start work as a Dev Bootcamp employee in the Valley. And he’s not the only one of his cohort of 20, including recent grads, mid-career professionals from industries spanning insurance to finance, and a handful of start-up veterans, who found the experience life-changing: 88% of Groom’s fellow students currently have job offers on the table, with approximately 60% of those headed to start-ups and the remaining 40% mostly employed at consultancies.

“I went with the idea that I would use [programming] as a skill to complement me being in start-ups,” Groom told Inc.com, explaining that Dev Bootcamp was a great choice for others with similar ambitions but cautioning, “the thing about Dev Bootcamp is you’re trained to become a software engineer, not just given enough knowledge so that you can be competent in a conversation with a CTO, so I think it’s great for start-up people to do it as long as they’re willing to put in the hard effort because it’s a very intense course.”

How intense?

“It’s officially nine-to-six every day but you’ll struggle to find a day when people aren’t there until midnight,” Groom says, noting participants basically put their lives completely on hold for the duration of the course, which was eight weeks for Groom but is increasing to 10 weeks for future courses.

Continue reading this article at INC.com after the break!

6 Habits of Truly Memorable People

How to stick out in the minds of your colleagues and customers–no gimmicks required.

In order to succeed, almost everyone—whether business owner or employee—must be memorable.

While you don’t have to be The Most Interesting Man in the World, being known is one of the main goals of marketing, advertising, and personal branding.

Out of sight is out of mind, and out of mind is out of business.

But if your only goal is to be known for professional reasons, you’re missing out. People who are memorable for the right reasons also live a richer, fuller, and more satisfying life. Win-win!

So forget the flashy business cards and personal value propositions and idiosyncratic clothing choices.

Here’s how to be more memorable—and have a lot more fun.

1. Don’t see. Do.

Can you speak intelligently about how clothing provides a window into the inner lives of Mad Men characters? Do you find yourself arguing about how the degree of depth lost in the Game of Thrones TV series as compared to the books?

Anyone can share opinions about movies or TV or even (I’ll grudgingly admit) books. That’s why opinions are quickly forgotten. What you say isn’t interesting; what you do is interesting.

Spend your life doing instead of watching. Cool things will happen. Cool things are a lot more interesting and a lot more memorable.

That’s especially true when you…

2. Do something unusual.

Draw a circle and put all your “stuff” in it. Your circle will look a lot like everyone else’s: Everyone works, everyone has a family, everyone has homes and cars and clothes….

We like to think we’re unique, but roughly speaking we’re all the same, and similar isn’t memorable.

So occasionally do something different. Backpack to the next town just to see how many people stop to offer you a ride. (Don’t take them up on it, though. Unless you appear to be in distress, the people who want to give you a ride are the last people you want to ride with.) Try to hike/scramble to the top of a nearby mountain no one climbs. (Trust me; take water.) Compete with your daughter to see who can swim the most laps in three hours. (If you live in my house you’ll lose. Badly.)

Or work from a coffee shop one day just to see what you learn about other people… and about yourself.

Continue reading this article at INC.com after the break!

Looking to make the most of your social media efforts? Here is some valuable information you haven’t received yet! Find out the best times to post on the different sites to maximize your company’s gains! Get the information here!

Entrepreneur reveals…

A big question business owners struggle with is the best time to post. Publishing your content at peak times can help you reach the most people on those networks.

Turns out the best time depends which social network you’re posting to, according to popular URL shortening service bitly. It tracks metrics on bitly links that are shared across networks. In particular, bitly has examined how the day and time something is posted affects how “viral” it might eventually become.

Facebook: For the best click-through rate, bitly suggests posting to Facebook between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. EST. Wednesday at 3 p.m. EST is the peak time of the week to post. Traffic from Facebook fades after 4 p.m. Weekend posts often get less attention than weekdays.

Twitter: Your best chance of getting high click counts on Twitter is with tweets sent in the afternoon earlier in the week — namely 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. EST, Monday through Thursday. Bitly suggests users avoid posting after 8 p.m. or after 3 p.m. on Fridays. As with Facebook, weekend tweets are less effective than those sent during the week.

Related: Want Better Twitter Results? Try These Effective Types of Tweets

Tumblr: This social network has a “drastically different pattern of usage” than Facebook or Twitter, bitly says. Tumblr traffic from bitly links peaks between 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. EST on Monday and Tuesday, with similar traffic on Sunday. Friday evening — a time that’s generally ineffective for other networks — can be an optimal time to post on Tumblr. On average, content posted after 7 p.m. receives more clicks over 24 hours than mid-day posts during the week.

Get the entire article at Entrepreneur!

Sick of hearing a constant stream of criticism about your work? Why not turn that negative into a positive? Use that feedback to your advantage to make money! Here are 3 ways to convert the criticism into dollars!

INC suggests…

1. Consumer feedback is free. Consultants are expensive.

Consumer feedback is free, and often much more insightful than the findings a fancy consultancy is going to share about the same matter. So when I get a raw email from a consumer, I set it aside, and then later re-read it as if I’d gotten my hands on a confidential strategy document that our strongest competitor created in order to leverage my company’s deepest vulnerabilities. This “role play” allows me to get past the rawness, absorb and act on the growth areas, and keep money in my pocket while still benefitting from authentic consumer insights.

2. Take a hint, or risk losing a client.

If you’ve chosen wisely, your clients seek smooth sailing on the path to profits, just like you do. So when I receive hard-hitting client criticism, I’ve learned to pay attention to the message, not the messenger (or the package, for that matter…it is tempting, but dangerous, to dismiss criticism just because it’s loud, offensive, or lengthy). Case in point: straight out the gate, my company had a client contact infamous for being a hothead. I once dismissed some essential feedback he shared, thinking it was just his ridiculous attitude talking. Well, turns out that despite the horrible delivery, his sentiments were shared by several other decision makers…we almost lost the account. Thankfully, both parties were able to strengthen our businesses from the experience, but the lesson it reiterated was: Throwing the baby out with the bathwater can be costly.

3. Inventory your strengths in order to catalog your weaknesses.

There are two sides to every coin. When you receive positive feedback, take the time to write it down, and then write down a possible opposite. For instance, if a client compliments you on being “super responsive,” receive the compliment, but also ask yourself if there are times when you take exceeding expectations too far with one client, to the detriment of not fully servicing another. Heading off foreseeable negative feedback at the pass can help you avoid making costly mistakes later.

I only truly learned to stomach criticism when I realized it made me an exponentially better entrepreneur. So, I’ll amend the adage when it comes to business: If you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say anything at all…unless it makes me money!

Get the full article at INC!

Art Entrepreneur Wins $100,000 Pittsburgh Prize

In November, I wrote about Pittsburgh’s Experienced Dreamers contest for entrepreneurs 45 and older. The former smokestack city offered a $100,000 prize to the out-of-town entrant with best idea for locating a new business, philanthropy, or artistic endeavor in Pittsburgh.

The prize goes to Tess Almendarez Lojacono (right), a 55-year-old artist currently living in East Aurora, NY. She won by proposing to relocate and expand her already-existing Fine Art Miracles, a five-year-old company that teaches fine art classes to residents of assisted living facilities and nursing homes.

Lojacono’s goal is to provide intellectual stimulation for older people and to help them tap their creativity.

“I like to show people that they’re still able to create,” she says. “We’re offering something a little more intellectually challenging for them than painting between the lines, and a lot of them really like that. We have older gentlemen who sign up for our classes who wouldn’t do crafts.” You can read an excerpt of her application for the award here.

For Lojacono, her second act in Pittsburgh actually is a homecoming. A native of Pine Township in the city’s suburbs, she earned a degree in fine arts from local Carnegie Mellon University, and lived in Pittsburgh until 1991. The seeds of her current venture actually were sown back then; one day she stopped at a flea-market sale held by a local nursing home and suddenly had the inspiration to volunteer to make clay sculptures with residents. “They let me move my kiln into the basement, so that we could fire the pieces,” she recalls.

Continue reading this article at Entrepreneur.com after the break!

What To Do If You’re Failing

Startup founders tend to say everything’s great, all the time. What to do when that’s not true. Not even close.

There is only one real difference between a startup that exits and a startup that fails: who quits. If the entrepreneur keeps going then the startup isn’t a failure. It’s just in a rough spot.

Here are four ways to get through a rough patch:

1. Tell people.

There’s this terrible code of silence in the startup world. You never tell people when you are having trouble. Your products are great, your customers are great, your cash flow is great. You have to say all this in order to get funding. At least this is the common wisdom.

In fact, though, I have found that the more honest I have been about my funding troubles, the more help I’ve received. At one point, I wrote about how my company was at the edge of financial ruin and I was an emotional wreck. The post did not attract any funding, but it did attract an incredible number of emails from A-list entrepreneurs who offered moral support and encouragement. And that is what got me though the rough spot, mentally, so that I could get myself to the funding sources I needed.

2. Play mental games.

So much of a startup is having a crazy, irrational faith that you are going to be the one in ten that actually makes it.

But no one is perfect. You can’t be perfectly crazy every moment. Which means that either you go completely nuts (not healthy) or you have bouts of rational self-doubt (healthy). During this time of self-doubt, you should find some mental tricks for forcing your brain to remember what it feels like to have faith in yourself. Each person finds their own ways of reaffirming their faith in themselves. Here are five things that help me regain faith in myself.

3. Pivot. Big.

I know that the idea of the pivot is very hip right now. That is, if things are not working with your current model, just change it. You can do this pretty easily if you ride another trend as well: lean startup.  If you pivot with a lean startup you get lots of chances to mess up with a very low cost (Bonus: When you talk about what you’re doing, you’ll sound like the king of jargon).

Continue reading this article at INC.com after the break!