It is arguable that creativity is the one thing that will help you to be a successful entrepreneur above all others. After all, if you want to be successful in business then you need to be able to generate lots of new and interesting ideas and lots of new and interesting ways of implementing those ideas in what is likely to be a saturated market. Creativity will help you with that.
Some of us are naturally very creative, and we have no problem whatsoever tapping into our creative side when we need to come up with new ideas or new ways of doing things, while some of us struggle to tap into the creative wellspring at all.
If you are one of the people who struggle to get your creative juices flowing, but you want to succeed as an entrepreneur, here are a few things you can do to unlock your entrepreneurial creativity whenever you need to:
1. Unplug the electronics
Our laptops, tablets, and phones may have revolutionized our lives and made it a lot easier to do everything from accounting to communicating but when it comes to getting our creative juices flowing, they are not always the best option.
Studies have shown that we are often more creative when working with paper and pen than when we are working on a digital device. Not only that, but when you don’t have access to the Internet and its billions of distractions, you are more likely to get your gray matter working too. So, switch off and start brainstorming, you might be surprised at how well you do.
2. Meditate
Whether you are trying to come up with a new cleanroom design that will boost efficiency and efficacy for your manufacturing company or you are simply trying to come up with a new and exciting logo for your brand, taking some time out to meditate is highly likely to help you unlock your entrepreneurial creativity and get the job done.
How does meditation help? By helping you clear the clutter of thoughts that are not serving you or your business, and opening up your mind to a world of possibilities. Most people think meditation is just good for getting rid of executive stress, and although it can be very helpful for that, it has also been shown to boost the creative parts of our brains too, so learning meditation is likely to be a smart move for any serious entrepreneur.
3. Take up an artistic hobby
Even if your busies is in an area like financial services which does not have much of a creative element to it on the surface, one thing that can really help you to unlock your creativity and come up with new ways of running your company is taking up an artistic hobby where you have to use your hands to create something new. From painting and drawing to knitting and crochet, anything that engages your visual perception, and forces you to work with your hands will help you to be more innovative by releasing your creativity and making you think in a much more creative way than you have ever done before. It, like meditation, is also great for relieving your executive stress too.
4. Find a creative mentor
Finding a creative mentor, or even simply reading more about other entrepreneurs and the unique ideas they have come up with, will help to make you more creative too. You will start to notice their processes and the unique ways they look at the world and it will start to rub off on you. You will find yourself thinking about that math problem in terms of the golden ratio or you will start looking at your logo from the perspective of an artist and it will open up a new world of creativity to you which will undoubtedly benefit your business going forward.
5. Question everything
If you want to think more creatively, then you need to start questioning things more often. From the way your production line packages your products to the way you design your website, every decision needs to be evaluated from as many angles as possible. By doing this, you will automatically start to generate more ideas and tweaks and you will be able to ensure that your choices are always well thought out and as creative as possible.
The more creative you are, the more likely you are to survive in business, so you have nothing to lose, and everything to gain, by trying out some of the techniques above.