Ding!
A light bulb practically explodes with light inside your brain the minute you have a creative revelation.
It’s the solution, the answer to the problem, and it’s brilliant.
These lightning bolt moments of inspiration are exciting and productive. A flash of creative thought can propel a business idea forward, inspire change, and more.
But, these moments aren’t easy to come by. Creative thoughts can be elusive, always just beyond your grasp. Yet, creative thought is an essential life skill that’s very useful in a wide range of situations, both personal and professional.
Entrepreneurship effectively fosters creative thought, teaching skills and offering situations in which creativity is used regularly. Even children can begin learning entrepreneurship at a young age and so, develop excellent creativity skills that will serve them their whole lives.
But, how does entrepreneurship foster creative thought exactly? Here are 9 ways entrepreneurship gets those creative juices flowing:
1. Problem-Solving
Problems and businesses go together like peanut butter and jelly. Where there’s a business, problems will crop up. Sometimes, there are clear solutions to these problems. But other times, there aren’t.
For example, a software company called Box moved into a big office. It was so large and spacious that employees got tired of walking around in it! So, what do you think they did? The company purchased scooters so that employees could ride around the office and avoid getting so tired. An added plus is that it’s fun to ride scooters. This was certainly a creative solution, and not necessarily one you’d think of right away.
The need to problem-solve is a workshop in creativity. Outside the box thinking can help entrepreneurs solve problems in the most effective ways.
2. Marketing
This area of business is a great for practicing and developing creativity. Entrepreneurs must be heavily involved in marketing, especially during the start-up phase of a business.
Marketing involves a few main areas including the brand and advertising. The brand of the business, including the logo and colors, involves lots of creativity.
In advertising, posters, jingles, newspaper ads, videos, online ads, and more, also require creative thought. To achieve effective marketing, entrepreneurs must come up with creative ways to connect with their customers. Whether it’s through humor, an emotional connection or simply effectively meeting a need, advertising that’s innovative and fresh is what achieves results.
Viral campaigns often include some level of entertainment and emotion, presented in a creative way. For example, Blendtec, a blender company, grew famous when it published a video of an iPhone being blended in one of their blenders. The series, “Will it blend?” was born, attracting devout fans, and of course, a following of loyal customers, too. They’ve attempted to blend everything from marbles, to the Amazon echo, a crowbar, golf balls, lighters and more! Now that’s some creative marketing.
3. Adaptation
In business, curveballs are part of normal life. As John A. Simone Sr. wisely said, “If you're in a bad situation, don't worry it'll change. If you're in a good situation, don't worry it'll change.”
Whether a competitor arrives to shake things up, a provider suddenly increases their prices, or your biggest customer disappears, entrepreneurs must constantly adapt to changing conditions.
The best way to adapt, is to get creative! If a competitor arrives, can you differentiate to highlight what makes your company special? When your provider increases prices, can you find a new provider, charge more, or use a different product? Creatively adapting as changes come helps make sure you always succeed.
4. Improvements
In a business, it’s important to constantly improve and change, not just as a reaction, but as standard practice. Becoming more efficient, adding products, changing marketing strategies, and more, are some common ways entrepreneurs work to improve their businesses.
Improvements require creativity, as entrepreneurs decide exactly what to change and how.
5. Risk-Taking
“Replace fear with curiosity,” celebrated filmmaker Steven Spielburg said. Taking risks can be scary, but risks are also an essential piece to entrepreneurism. Without them, new, innovative designs, products and even whole companies wouldn’t exist at all.
So, what does risk-taking have to do with creativity? Just like Spielburg said, curiosity should be the driver, instead of fear. A curious mind is a creative mind, searching for new ways of looking at things, alternative solutions, and smart ways to take risks.
Risk-taking fosters a creative mindset that’s open to possibilities that are positive and wonderful. When you let fear rule, you assume the worst outcomes and get stuck in negative thoughts. This type of thinking, while it can be useful for creating contingency plans, doesn’t get you to take risks. To take risks, you need to put your creative mind to work and discover a world of possibilities.
6. Taking On the Competition
Any entrepreneur must face competition from companies offering similar services or products. To outshine the competition, entrepreneurs must use their creative abilities to the max.
One example of a businesses successfully setting itself apart from the competition is Zappos, an online clothing outlet. While it may never offer the lowest prices, Zappos is different from its competitors because of its customer service. With Zappos, you can return an item up to a year after you’ve bought it. You can speak on the phone with a customer service representative who will really listen to you and empathize with your situation. In some cases, Zappos has even sent gifts, such as flowers, to customers who are grieving. This amazing customer service is a creative way to make the company unique and results in very loyal customers.
Creative solutions like Zappo’s set the company apart in a way that’s meaningful to customers. Discovering such a creative way to compete with other companies isn’t always easy. It requires a lot of creative thought and dedication.
7. Product Development
According to Thomas Edison, “To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk.” This is a testament to the fact that just about anything can become something of value. Creativity and dogged persistence is what led Edison to invent the light bulb. It’s said that he tried hundreds or even thousands of different materials until he found the one that worked.
When it comes to creating a product or service, entrepreneurs need an attitude like Edison’s. His creativity and determination allowed him to craft many life-changing inventions that have altered history forever.
Take a page from Edison and really exercise your creativity muscle during product development work: don’t give up!
8. Business Growth
What if a business stagnates? It’s time to get creative to see how you can get the business to grow even more. All businesses have a goal to grow, but they might get stuck if they only use traditional, dead-end methods. Raising prices or selling more are common ways to grow, but they aren’t always the most effective at achieving growth.
For more effective growth, entrepreneurs must think outside the box. One way to get there is by using creative marketing gimmicks, like Diamond Candles does. This company includes a ring in each candle! Each candle you buy gives you at the least, a cheap ring. Or, you might get lucky and win a ring worth $1,000 or more.
Other business growth strategies include franchising, opening new locations, using e-commerce, and more. Solutions for business growth are each as unique as the company they’re used for. However, no matter how a business does it, creativity will be an important ingredient in their growth recipe.
9. Constant Practice
The occasional light-bulb moment may come without much effort. But, consistent creativity takes practice. Entrepreneurship provides the perfect circumstances and opportunity for constant practice in creativity. As you can see, the above scenarios detail how entrepreneurship encourages the use of creative thought.
If kids are lucky enough to get practice as entrepreneurs, they’ll get a head start on using a creative business mind. As entrepreneurs, kids must exercise creative thought on the daily and quickly develop strategies for achieving their goals creatively.
Entrepreneurship is the perfect opportunity for your child or teen to hone their creative skills and use them in a practical setting.
The best part is it doesn’t have to be hard to give your child this opportunity, either! With Boss Club, you can get your child started in an entrepreneurial endeavor that’s easy to set up and expand upon as much as your kid would like. These kits offer everything you need to create a small business selling luxury bath bombs, homemade dog treats or gourmet cake pops. Not only do the kits include practical materials, they also teach entrepreneurial skills, including creativity, in a carefully designed curriculum.
Creative thought is as integral to entrepreneurship as marketing or making a sale. Without imagination and a creative approach, it’s impossible to navigate the many needs and situations that arise within the business. However, with practice and patience, entrepreneurship draws out creativity and gives kids plenty of opportunity to practice their creative thought process.
How will you and your kids practice creativity today?
