8 Online Ways to Get Your Creative Juices Flowing

One of the main disadvantages of online business is competition. Take a look at Groupon.com and Kodak.com. One is a new online consumer based model and the other one an old traditional company. Both have nearly lost their foothold in their respective businesses because there could not keep up with the competition. In short, they were not creative enough.

While online businesses make many things easy, peer competition is hard to measure up to and before you can churn the mind and reach some creative ideas, you may find yourself already booted out of the competition and replaced by another competitor.

With this in mind, I will give you 8 ways which will help you to remain creative.

1: Observe like Howard Schultz

When Howard Schultz visited Milan in 1981, he noticed that the place was full of coffee bars. He “observed” that something like this did not exist back home. Thus, here was an idea which was the result of powerful observation. Howard Schultz is now the CEO of Starbucks, the premium coffee bar chain in the US. As seers say, the rest is history.

2: Draw Connections between Unrelated Things

Think:

• Could we imagine 20 years back that robots will be replaced with surgery?
• Could we imagine that cameras will lose out to mobile phones?

But these happened and similarly, these too will be uprooted in future. The idea here is to connect things which have not been connected previously. Most of the inventors excel in the art of associating unrelated things and creating something wonderful. Do you possess such an art?

3: Intuition

Some things are beyond science and intuition is one such aspect. Sometimes our intuition guides us towards a path or towards people which we did not think about consciously. This is the power of intuition working and like Robert Frost wrote in his iconic poem, “The Road Not Taken”, that “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I —/ I took the one less traveled by, /and that has made all the difference.” It truly makes all the difference.

4: Pen and Paper

Even with all the technological enhancements and writing software, there is nothing better than using pen and paper to write down thoughts and ideas. You do not need to have fixed hours for writing. You can scribble down anything on paper, anytime and anywhere. Use the power of perception and interpretation to get hold of creative ideas.

5: Use Online Classifieds

Online classifieds are a place where you get information about all kinds of products and services in the world. Local and global classified listings could become your repository of creative ideas. All you have to do is channelize them in the right direction. If you even have a seed of idea, I suggest you to check out [tp lang=”en” only=”y”]free classified ads[/tp][tp not_in=”en”]free classified ads[/tp] and see if anyone else is already using that idea or anything similar. How you use the information is completely your prerogative.

6: Use of Social Media

Social media is a very potent tool to get creative ideas flowing if you are active and know where to look. Check out company brand pages and see the kind of activities undertaken to attract customers and loyal followers. See the kind of creative promotional activities undertaken to create brand awareness. Moreover, if you have a wide friend circle, notice the kind of things posted on the wall feed. A lot of ideas will travel within the ebb and flow of things. Note them down and use them.

7: Perfection is Paralyzing

Nature was made to be unruly. Human nature is never perfect. We strive for perfection and the striving is acceptable to an extent but excessive desire for perfection is paralyzing. It paralyzes creative thoughts and ideas. Open the mind and “really” look around without the eyes of a perfectionist. You will be pleasantly surprised.

8: Look into Past Ideas

It’s not without reason we believe that past shows the future. You can apply the same in business. Find out business ideas that were started in the last couple of years but failed to take off because there were no funds or the ideas were not suitable to that particular time or any other reason. You can consider few of them and give it a fresh lease of life.

Endnote

There are no fixed ways to get creative. It’s all in your mind. Open it up and see ideas come pouring in from everywhere.

Guest article written by: Priyanka- an internet marketing strategist and a part time blogger. Currently she is a part of  Wohho.com – a free online classified website where you can search  and post free classified ads to promote get exposure to your blog or website.