When it comes to consumerism we all have complex needs and prioritise them according to what’s going on our lives at the time. But while the must-haves we want to max out our credit card on may be poles apart, you’d be surprised how much we all have in common when it comes to the basic human needs that motivate us to buy.

Getting a handle on those needs is a big stride for any business operator, not only in targeting your marketing messages but also ensuring your customer service processes become a powerhouse for customer retention and growth. This baker’s dozen plays a big part in winning people’s business. (continue reading…)

Alright I admit it, I confess. I’m a self-proclaimed enemy of the ordinary. What else would you expect from a business creativity and innovation evangelist?

In an era where competition is fierce, the marketplace is cluttered, economic instability is squeezing budgets and technology is leaving many in its wake, taking a creative approach to running your business (bricks or clicks) has never been more essential.

Business creativity is about so much more than having a clever name, cutesy logo or a website with all the bells and whistles. Think beyond branding or marketing. Business creativity is something that can be applied in just about any area of your business. From how you answer the phone to how you service your customers, how you manage your people to how you engage with suppliers, or how you cultivate referrals to how you develop new products.

Creativity in business is about better ideas and doing things differently, sure. But it’s also about problem solving, vision, innovation, unlocking potential, achieving efficiencies, manifesting ideas into reality, implementation, creating value, building stability and growing profits. I could go on, but you should be getting the picture by now.

Don’t cling to the tired old excuses that your business is too small, too new, too time poor, no budget or you’re not creative.

You don’t have to be a ‘creative type’ to be creative in your business, and money doesn’t drive creativity. There are countless low-cost, no-cost approaches that can be taken to improve business in any environment.

The switched on business operators are the ones taking steps to find out what business creativity is and how it can benefit their business, then working out how to put it into practice and get the most out of it.

Today’s most successful companies are the ones who make business creativity a big part of their culture and are turning fresh ideas and smarter ways of operating into dollars as a result.

Well, well – Entrepreneur Magazine tells us 2010 will be the Year of the Entrepreneur. No surprises there, of course they’re going to tell their target market what it wants to hear. But healthy cynicism aside, they could have something.

During the EGC we looked on as some of the world’s biggest companies became the biggest casualties. Just goes to prove size isn’t everything. So if this is the Year of the Entrepreneur, I say “bring it on”. After all, entrepreneurs start small and as Seth Godin says … small is the new big.

Big used to be beautiful and getting big as fast as you could was everybody’s aim. We equated size with stability, growth, jobs, economies of scale, R&D.

Today small is the new big because small means you and your staff are at the coalface, so you’re more in touch with your market. (continue reading…)