Here’s some food for thought. Is our current education system killing creativity for kids? Are we doing our society any justice by encouraging the focus on scientific and linguistic learning whilst down-playing the importance of class room creativity?

Here is an interesting presentation about this issue, and well worth the 19 minutes to watch. It is thought-provoking, funny and raises some serious questions about creativity and innovation, and the value we as a culture put on creativity.

Thanks to TED.com for the video and for allowing others to share it.

What are your thoughts?

Every business, whether big or small, should consider purchasing business insurance to protect the interests of that business. Owners or managers of a well-run company must deal with many different issues every day. They must control inventory, hire employees, handle finances and attract customers. If something goes wrong in any of those areas or with some other aspect related to the business, there is potential for a loss of income, or possibly, a lawsuit being filed against the company. In order to guard against all possible contingencies, it is prudent to buy an adequate amount of business insurance.

One can buy business insurance to cover everything from employee theft to personal injury lawsuits. There are policies that will cover loss of business in the event of an outside event that causes you to have to temporarily shut down your operations. If a severe hurricane or flood strikes and your business must be closed until power is restored and the streets are made passable, business insurance can help compensate your company for the loss of revenue over the time period you are unable to operate. Policies do vary as to what circumstances are covered and to what degree they are covered. For further details on the different types of policies available, you can visit businessinsurance.org.

One specific situation that is quite common in most retail businesses is someone falling and injuring themselves while on your property. While not every slip and fall victim will pursue legal action, many will. Even if the case was no fault of the business, there are still legal costs and expenses that may be incurred while defending the business. Business insurance can help cover those out-of-pocket expenses.

Another situation might involve a disgruntled employee. You may be exposed to a lawsuit if an employee accuses the business of discrimination or unfair dismissal. An employee can also act negligently and do something that the business will be found liable for correcting. You just never know what can occur on any particular day.

It is relatively inexpensive to buy a business insurance policy. You will get protection and peace of mind. Consider this type of insurance as part of the cost of owning or operating a business.

I have talked about this with others. I have had others explain it to me. If you haven’t had a clear explanation yet of what a business model is and why you must have one if you want your business to survive, please watch this presentation below.

Trade marks are what distinguish one business and its products from another.  In selecting a new trade mark, whether as the name for a business or just a new product, there are a number of important issues to consider.

Is it distinctive?

A trade mark should be distinctive.  It should not merely describe the products being offered.  Why is that?  Because other businesses in the same industry may have a legitimate need to use non-distinctive words and phrases, and the law recognises their right to do so.

Read the rest of this entry

Web Marketing can be considered by some to be an unknown process that only a rare few know how to do. It is true that search engine marketing requires a specific skill set, but there are ways in which you can market your website effectively to increase traffic.

Internet sales continue to soar, particularly in certain market segments and more and more, the first place people go to in order to learn about your business is the internet.  If they find a well designed web site that is full of features, that works fast and draws them in, that can be a tremendous tool for promoting your business.

Read the rest of this entry

Trade marks are what distinguish one business and its products from another.  They allow goods and services to be recognised and selected by the trade marks that they bear.

Good trade marks are memorable and distinctive.  They will be remembered by the consumer, who has either seen an advertisement or used the product.  They then allow that same consumer to look out for products bearing that same trade mark when shopping.  As such, it is important that businesses can protect their trade marks from competitors using something similar.

Read the rest of this entry

User-centred Graphic Design is an approach to designing creative projects that focus on delivering information relevant to the end user that views the design. In its essence, it puts the needs and perceptions of the end user at the centre of the creative process.

Whilst this concept may seem apparent and be common sense, it is an often over-looked or under-valued component of the creative process. And the reasons why are usually the same regardless of the type of project – such as a website or a corporate brand.

Read the rest of this entry

Customer Relationship Management, or CRM for short, is the term given to the process that a business uses to manage its interactions with customers. Why it is so popular and is one of those corporate buzz words is that it helps organisations systematically track the activities they have with their customers and prospects.

You most likely already have a system in place to help you track your customers’ needs and the conversations you have with them. At the most basic level, it is usually a pen and paper. If you have a desk littered with reminder notes about people to call or email, then you can most likely relate to the frustration that this basic CRM system causes.

Putting into place a system that helps your people manage customers can be a complex task. Hopefully after reading this post this task will seem much more doable.

Read the rest of this entry

Have you ever had a design agency ask you for a graphic file format for your brand or logo, only for their request to sound like complete gibberish? It’s about time we helped clear the air and explain what the different graphic file formats are that can be used within the design industry.

When you have finished reading this article, you will know the difference between vector file formats and bitmap file formats, and how to determine the difference between the two.

Read the rest of this entry

Let me start by stating that you don’t need to wait till the end of a financial year, calendar year or any other ‘end’ to look at what you are doing in your business and change it to something different or better.

That being said, dates like June 30th, December 31st or March 31st (depending on where you are) can prompt as a reminder to take stock of your business and re-align where it’s going.

Firstly, check to see if you are happy with how the business has performed the past 12 months. Are you pleased with the results? If not, what are you not happy with that you could have done better, given different resources? If your business has grown and you are happy with its performance (taking into account the issues below), then it’s a matter of keep doing what you’re doing.

If you are not 100% happy with the results thus far (lets face it, most people think that something could have been done better or differently), find out how you have been perceived by your customer. This means asking for feedback. You may think that things weren’t great, but what did your customer think? The information you can get from your customers can help with your next 12 months.

Did you set a budget for the past 12 months? If so, did you perform well against your expectations? Where did you fall short? Were your expectations too high? Were there unforseen factors that impacted on the results? Did you set the bar too low? Checking your dollars is not the only measure of success in a business (see the first point), but it goes to checking the financial viability of the business now and in the future.

What do you want to achieve in the next 12 months? What types of business, customers and opportunities do you want to experience? If it’s as simple as “I want to grow my business”, you’re got to know by how much or have a rough idea of the target you’re aiming for. Otherwise, how will you know if you have reached it? Your targets may be financial, cultural, or ideological – it’s important that you know what you want to achieve before you work hard at getting there.

Lastly, how are you going to do it? Employ more staff, sub-contract, buy another business, create new business, or conduct a joint venture? There are so many different ways you can create the outcome you want. It’s a matter of picking a way that you believe will work.

Two important final points:

1. This process is fun. It takes the impossible and crazy ideas you dream of and helps you figure out a way to make it a reality for you
2. You can change the plan! If the ideas you set for yourself now are not working for you in 3-4 months, change it. Go through this process again.

If you have any ideas you want to share, please feel free to list them below.