Brainstorming

Advertising Tips

So, tell me if this has ever happend to you.  It is a Tuesday afternoon and you are in your store or office.  It has been a very slow day, and as most business owners do, you are stressing over something important.  Maybe payroll, or sales that month, or just your monthly overhead.  You find yourself staring off into space not sure what to do.  If this is something that happens way too frequently to you then you must read on.

Brainstorming Is The Key

Brainstorming is a popular tool that helps you generate creative solutions to problems.  It is particularly useful when you want to break out of stale, established patterns of thinking.  Are you the kind of person that thinks you have it all figured out.  Guess what…you don’t.

Even the brightest and most creative people get stumped sometimes and need help to solve problems.  You can brainstorm in many different ways.  You can start by choosing a couple of hours a week and brainstorm by yourself.  Pick a specific issue you are having and do some research online.  I find Youtube can be very helpful.  You have to weed through quite a bit sometimes but I usually find that it is worth it.

Brainstorming Tips

1.  Get your employees, staff, sales team and your office involved.  Take them to lunch or have something delivered and have a brainstorming session with them.  Tell them specifically what you think needs help and be open to ideas.  Are you going to use all of their ideas? Probably not.  But make sure they know you appreciate any ideas.  If you do this every week or every other week, you will start to see your office buying in to whay you are trying to accomplish.  They will feel like they are apart of something and not just an employee.

2.  Ask your friends and family for ideas.  Maybe you think that because you own your own business that you shouldn’t ask for help.  If you have that attitude, it will hold you back from being as successful as you can be.  You would be surprised what good ideas can come from your friends and family.  Tell them what you are stuck on and ask them if they have any ideas on how to solve the problem.  Including promotion ideas and how to increase sales.  Be prepared to be surprised.

3.  This one might take a while for you to feel comfortable with but it really does work. You can get some great ideas from your own customers.  Tell them you are working on some things to improve the store or the sales process and ask them if there is anything they think could help. You never know what they might say, but some great ideas come from the most unexpected places.

Brainstorming is one of the keys to your success but the majority of business owners think that it is not neccessary.  Try if for a couple months and I bet you will look at brainstorming in a whole different light.