Coming up with new ideas isn’t always easy. And while there are loads of different ways you can create the opportunities for ideas to spring to mind, there is one fundamental ingredient you must have if you want to get new and innovative ideas. You need to give them space to grow.

To begin with though, have you thought about how you actually come up with ideas? Do you already have a method whereby you allow ideas to come into existence? For example, do you go running or some other form of exercise to create the space to come up with new ways of solving known problems? And what about coming up with ideas about how to help your friends, family, community and the world at large? Idea-generation doesn’t stop with just your needs.

Usually, ideas come about because you want to do something better or there is a problem that you have recognised that you want to help solve. This could be in your business, personal life, of in the lives of others.

What can happen with any new idea is that it can be discounted or dismissed even as it is being shared. The best way to describe this is with the phrase “All ideas are born dying”. This reflects that many people will talk down an idea even before it has been properly heard. The moment you even utter the words “I have an idea”, someone is already thinking “oh yeah, here we go. What crazy idea am I going to hear now?”

So, it is vital that you create a space in which you, and those who you will share your ideas with, are allowed to share any and all ideas without fear of ridicule or being dismissed as having nothing to offer.

Having a safe space in which you can share your ideas still will not actually help you come up with any ideas on its own. So, here are some prompting questions to get you thinking. In effect, this is a brainstorming session.

• Is there a problem that you know of that needs a new solution?
• Is there a need you know of that needs to be met?
• Do you know someone who is in pain and you can help them overcome it?
• Is there something exciting you want to experience or help others experience?
• Is there a part of your community you want to see changed?
• Is there a part of your city you want to see changed? Or even your country?
• Have you always wanted to do something but you aren’t sure what?
• If money was no object, what would you be doing (in your business, your job, your personal life)?

These prompting questions can be asked any time of day or night to help generate ideas. What often happens with ideas is that they come to you at times when you least expect it. You may be catching up with friends, watching a move, reading a book, doing some exercise, or even taking a shower when you have a brilliant idea hit you like a lightening bolt. When this does, as soon as you can be sure to capture as much of the idea in a notebook so you can review it later and share it with others

Once you have some ideas then it is time to share these in that safe space you have created. By sharing ideas, you can build off others’ knowledge and passion, and see what synergies may be between all the ideas. Synergy means that together there is a connected, and through that connection, greater achievement can be made then the separate parts acting independently. So, pair up with those who like your idea and can add to it with ideas of their own.

Finally, once you have some ideas and have seen about aligning these with any others that are relevant, you can then get to the point of seeing how to make the ideas become a reality. What resources do you need to make it happen? If you don’t have all the resources yourself, consider how you could get it. Certainly in business, this is part of partnerships and even buying in specialist help on a particular area. If it is an idea with your community, then perhaps it is finding out which of your neighbours and friends have the time to get behind the idea.

When creating an environment to come up with ideas, go crazy. Brainstorm ideas on a variety of topics, and then create the safe space in which to share these ideas with those you trust. In doing so, you have a greater chance that your creativity can flourish and help you identify ways to be more efficient, more effective and have more fun in what you do.

Working from home is becoming increasingly popular as the world of work becomes more flexible, and this had lead to a growth in the home office furniture market. Broadband internet connections and the affordability of IT equipment mean that for many there is not the same need to work full time in an office as there was ten or fifteen years ago, while there are also an increasing number of self-employed workers in the economy. Add to these the people who simply have a desktop computer set up at home, and the growth in home office furniture sales is not hard to understand. At a basic level, anyone planning to regularly spend sessions of more than about twenty minutes or so at a computer keyboard should use basic home office furniture to prevent the risk of health problems like back and neck strain, and thankfully acquiring this equipment need not cost a fortune – try taking a quick look at the home office furniture provided by suppliers like ryman.co.uk to get an idea of cost.

As you will see, sourcing this equipment online is the easy part, but just as with dedicated office space, the set up of the working environment in the home can be achieved with varying levels of success. Here we will take a look at a couple of factors that can have a significant bearing on getting the best usage out of your home office furniture.

In basic functional terms, your desk chair should be designed for the kind of hours you plan to put in at the home office – some chairs are designed only for moderate use, while others can be used all day. Check manufacturer’s instructions before purchase, and be prepared to invest a little more if you are planning on spending full time hours in the chair. The possible consequences for your health of using inadequate seating over a period of time will far outweigh any initial cost saving achieved by selecting a budget option that does not provide adequate support – you can find out more about how to get the ergonomics right at: http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg90.pdf.

Once you have established that you have a suitable chair, you need to make sure that you get the right desk. While the desk needs to be big enough to accommodate all the equipment you will regularly use without being cramped, this is mainly an issue with the height of the desk. Your feet shall be able to rest on the floor while your eyes are level with the top of the display screen, and while you can use a footrest to get this posture right, it helps to have a desk that is roughly the right height for you, given your body size.

Fitting all the equipment that you need into your home may be a challenge, but try to avoid selecting the space that you will be working in simply on the basis of the dimensions of some home office furniture that has caught your eye. It is much better to use a smaller desk that can fit into an area with natural light and access to fresh air than to end up working in a windowless box room. If space is tight there are always solutions, such as using a wireless printer situated in another room to free up limited desk space.

An executive summary is a short, sharp snapshot of the key points contained in a document. It reflects the content of your detailed business plan and makes it easier for the reader to gain a good understanding of what the rest of the document will cover.

In order to prepare an effective executive summary, you will first need to write your business plan. And whilst there are many ways you can go about doing that, such as using software, writing it from scratch or using a business planning template, you will need to keep one key point at the top of your mind during the process – who the reader is. Without readily knowing who will be reading your plan, and basing decisions on what you include, then your document and executive summary may be quite confusing.

Using sample business plans are also a good way to see an example of a good executive summary. You can check out some sample business plans here.

To help get this clarity up front, think about the purpose for writing your business plan. Is it for a banker or investor to review and consider loaning you money for your business? Is it for your staff so that they have a clear understanding of what the business will do in the next 1-3 years? Or is it for you, helping to shape your ideas and strategies for business establishment and growth?

Even though your plan should be applicable for all three types of readers, once you have determined who the audience is then you can shape your executive summary to highlight those areas of the plan that matter most to the reader.

For example, if your reader is a banker who you are asking for a loan, then they will want to know that the plan outlines the ways in which the business will make a profit and how you have come to your conclusions (such as market research and testing). They will also want to know how well you have captured the current and planned expenses of the business, and the projected income from the products/services you intend to sell. Including a budget in your plan will also help show the details of your financial projections which you can then refer to in your summary.

The bottom line is that an executive summary is a top-level outline of what the rest of the document is about. A good summary will mean that someone can read it and get a reasonable understanding of what you want to communicate, and then choose to dig into the plan for the areas that most interest them.

It needs to be engaging, succinct and to the point. No rambling sentences and repetition. Keep it short and sharp. As long as it communicates the essence of the plan, then it will be fine. It may help to structure your executive summary before you write it. Think about the major aspects of your plan and structure the summary in a way that each points leads to the next and builds a good understanding in the mind of the reader. You may also want to try explaining to someone what the plan is about and ask that person to write notes as you talk. Then, you can use these notes as the basis of your summary.

Your executive summary in the business plan will not be as long as the rest of the document, but it is probably the most important aspect of the entire plan. Without a good, clear and direct summary, your reader won’t get past the second page.

As you go about developing yourself in your business or in your career, you will have moments when you feel on top of the world, and other moments when you think that everything is falling apart around you. The good news is that this is a natural part of being human. But knowing that your emotions may go up and down on your journey to success is not the same as and actually keeping your emotions in check.

Success can take many different forms. It can be a successful family, a blossoming career, or a booming business. Whatever success means to you, it is important to always remember that it is an impermanent thing. Success is not a constant state of existence, and as such, when you feel that you have achieved success, you haven’t ‘gotten there’.

I have read many self help books, business books and religious books, and all the inspired authors recognise one truth – that the good comes with the bad. What this means is that with every success comes failure, and with every failure comes success. The two feelings and subsequent emotions are intrinsically tied. And as such, appreciating each emotion you have on the journey to success is important, but not as important as not getting carried away by them.

In no way should you deny yourself the chance to feel and experience the joy, happiness and excitement that comes from achieving a dream. It is everyone’s purpose to experience these feelings for themselves during their life, and to help others experience these emotions too. But, as with any process of learning and experiencing, there will come a time when the feelings will fade, the experience will change, and you will be presented with more challenges in your life that will cause you to think that you have not succeeded.

So, whilst you are enjoying the emotional highs during a period of success, recognise that future challenges will come your way. This will help you to remain respectful of others and their current situation as well as appreciate your present moment even more.

The reverse can also happen. People can feel depressed or worried when they are achieving or have achieved success. The phone is ringing, things are going your way, and you begin to think “When is this going to end? When is the bad news coming?” It surprises me that some people have this tendency, but it can and does happen.

If this has happened or is happening to you, then remind yourself of this universal truth – this too shall pass. What this means is that every experience you have ever had has come and gone. All the past good AND bad experiences have come and gone, and your current situation is no different. It is not permanent – by its very nature, achieving success is an impermanent thing and it will pass.

So, you most likely will experience future challenges after success, and you will achieve success after challenges. If you make efforts each day to live the best way you can with what you know, look to improve yourself through education and taking risks and helping others in the process, then success will come your way. And when it does, remind yourself that whilst it is a wonderful feeling, it too shall pass.

Coming back from a break can be hard for most small business owners. Knowing what to begin working on and where to develop your business can be a challenge. Providing some clear direction to the energy you have for promoting your business is vital to set yourself up for the coming year ahead.

If you live in a culture that celebrates the Christmas season, then you most likely have had a short break. During this time, you might have thought about your business and about how you can grow it in 2012 – how you can market your business, get more customers, and either achieve the success you have dreamed of or achieve a higher success than you had in 2011.

But, when most people return from a period of absence from their business, they can find themselves at a bit of a loss about what to begin working on. And, if you don’t know what it is you should be doing, then all the enthusiasm and energy you had before returning can be whittled away until you find yourself back in the same routine without much to show for your good intentions.

To help set you on the right path for your business development this year here are some simple and actionable steps you can take to provide a great foundation for the coming year ahead.

1. Develop focus. Know what your goals are for this year. Know with absolute certainty what you want to achieve, how much and by when.
2. Get rid of the clutter. This could be either physical clutter of papers, etc in your office or it could be the mental clutter of all the ‘things’ you keep telling yourself you need to get to. Unless your business has come to a halt over the period of time you have been away, a few more days will not cause it any harm. Spend the time to brain dump all the things you are worrying about that ‘need doing’
3. Match your Goals to tasks. Look at your brain dump of the things in your business – the marketing strategies, the phone calls, the sales, the accounts – and match them up to your goals for the coming year. All those activities that will help you achieve your goals put a tick next to them. For the activities that do not help you, put a cross next to them.
4. Create your business action plan. All the tasks with a tick next to them, put them into an order that clearly shows what goal they support, when you will do the task, how long you think it will take you, what has to happen before you start one of these tasks and what resources do you require to complete them. In effect, you are putting together a chart of activities that show the realistic timeline of when you will complete these goals, and it will show you the resources you require to do so.
5. Review your plan. For the list of tasks and resources in front of you, take note of the resources. Have you created too much demand on your time, someone else’s time or on another resource? If so, review the time you have allocated to complete a task to balance out the resources so you are not operating at 110%. No matter what you think, no one can operate at more than their capacity.
6. Delegate. For those tasks that you have put a cross next to, consider if you can delegate them to someone else. Could you get another business to help? Could you outsource it? Do you really need to do the task anyway? Wherever possible, free up your energy to focus on those business development tasks that will help you achieve your goals.
7. Do it. Now you have uncluttered your bran, know what you are aiming for, and have a clear action plan, you can unleash the creative energy inside of you and get on with the job of achieving the business success you are striving for.

This 7 step action plan for developing your business can be applied at any time during the year. You can also apply it to a specific strategy you are running as well as across the business. No matter where you are at in your business development, by using these steps you will set yourself up for a successful business year.

I just read this short article on the dangers of inconsistent customer service by online retailers , when compared to the in-store experience. An excerpt from the article:

“Some major American retailers faced negative consumer sentiment after establishing their online businesses as siloed operations. Separate management teams with different strategies and profit and loss statements lead to numerous customer service issues.

US retailers faced specific problems with customers attempting to return items bought online in-store. Unintegrated loyalty card programs also created issues when customers assumed their online purchases could generate rewards.”

The full article can be found here:

http://www.marketingmag.com.au/news/view/aussie-retailers-must-learn-from-us-1371

It is all well and good to manage the financial aspects of online selling as a sub-entity within your business, but your customer will want the same service from online retailers as well as in-person shopping. They will also want to be able to seamlessly operate in both areas.

Does your online business strategy provide this solid customer service experience? If not, what needs to change?

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?

If you want your business to succeed, you will need to write a business plan. Whether you have tried to write a plan before and failed, or have never tried before, the best way to prepare for this process is by starting a-fresh.

This website has been created to provide you with the information and resources you will need when writing your business plan and marketing strategies. As you go through the site be ready to capture the ideas that you will have when reading the content, watching the videos or using the business tools provided.

This section will cover a range of topics that will help you better understand your customer, your industry and how you might be able to sell your product or service to make a profit.

It is worth noting what you want your business to become – the end point – and where you are now. This will help you map out the process to move from now to the ideal place you want to be. There are also some pages around business goals and mission statements along with some exercises you can do to help with this.

When writing a business or marketing plan, you begin with finding out where the business is at and what you know. This is called a ‘Fact-Find’. It is important to note that if you do not have a business, writing a business plan is just as important, if not more, than if you did. If you are unsure of any of the answers during this process, ask yourself:

• “What would I …”, or
• “How many would it take …”

Try to imagine what it would be like when your business is up and running. Don’t let your present situation hold you back from what you want your business to achieve.

Fact-Find	Know Your Customer	Know Your Industry	Know Your Business
Begin with identifying the parts of your business you know and those you don’t. Read more	Knowing your customer unlocks the door to your future success. Read more	Get the facts about the industry you are operating in and where the growth is set to go. Read more	Understand the various parts of your business that impact on your bottom line. Read more
Putting the Plan together	Sample business plans
Put your business plan together and learn how to use it to build and grow your business. Read more	Sample business plans are a great way to start writing your own business and marketing plans. Read more

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.

When writing your business plan, you will need to include your forecast revenue and expenses. To help with business forecasting and setting business benchmarks you can use to measure your success, you will need to carry out some business budgeting. But why prepare a business budget? What are the pros and cons for completing business budgets?

Pros

• Provides business owners with a practical budgeting tool
• Helps a business monitor its expenses, and adjust their needs accordingly to their expected performance
• Allows a business to plan for capital expenditure on plant equipment and machinery
• Assists with obtaining business loans from relevant institutions
• Helps with planning business growth

Cons

• Takes time to prepare a detailed business budget
• Most people don’t use a budget so it becomes an annual event that once done, is forgotten about
• Often, the predicated income and expenses are not realistic enough

To help overcome some of these obstacles, we have provided you with a free microsoft excel budget spreadsheet. In this budget spreadsheet, you can enter your expenses and income per category. Using this excel spreadsheet, you can also enter your actual results and see the difference o n a month-by-month basis..

You will be amazed at how empowering this can be, once you start doing this. As you produce your P&L report (either from your bookkeeper, accountant, or own financial software) for each month, enter the data in the appropriate categories of the budget. As you do, the difference will show in either red or black.

Find out more on Profit and Loss statements, and how to create your own using a free profit and loss template.

Using the free budget spreadsheet template, it is the RED numbers that you should be concerned with. The higher these numbers are, the more attention you must pay to the particular category. For example, your expenses one month for stationary were $458.99, and your budget was $450. The result would be a -$8.99 difference. You wouldn’t worry about this.

However, in the same month, your staff wages were $5680, and your budgeted amount was $4700, leaving you with a difference of -$980. This area would need to be investigated, so you are aware of this large difference. If there was any way you could avoid it happening again, this investigation would show you.

Setting up a budget takes time. That is one of the main reasons why businesses never bother with doing it. We have set up a template to save you hours both in the setting up of the budget, and in how you can use it throughout the financial year. In this file you will be able to set your budget for each month, and it will produce Year-to-Date figures, a basic Year-to-Date Profit and Loss statement (similar to Steve’s), and graphical charts about your best performing products. Download your Budget Template here.

Every aspect of the business needs to be included in the budget. All of your expenses, which will include your promotion strategies, are included. Your revenue can be broken down into product lines, or you can simply put a figure in for total sales. Often, the categories that a business uses in their Profit and Loss statements serve as the items to include in your budget.

Top Shelf Groceries Budget

Take a look at Steve’s budget for Top Shelf Groceries, before you write you own. He has incorporated his expenses for his promotions as well as his everyday expenses into his budget.

Click the image to enlarge it.

Have a go at preparing your own budget. If you do have financial history, then gather that and use it to make an educated guess for your future earnings.

Keep in mind that a business budget is not a hard-and-fast business tool. It is important to work toward a budget, but it is a guide. Get started today with the free microsoft excel business budget spreadsheet.