Three Ways To Be More Innovative In Your Business

Let’s stop calling 2020 the year of uncertainty and start calling it the year of innovation. I’m sharing three ways below to help you become more innovative in your business. 

But first, a little story...

While myself, my husband, my two adult children and their significant others were all in quarantine together, we had to find things to do and we embraced a game new to us: Pickleball. 

Pickleball is a paddle ball sport, so think of badminton, ping pong and regular tennis all in one. 

Doing some research, I was a little surprised to find out the game wasn’t invented until the 1960’s! I could not believe it took me to this decade to find it. As with all great inventions, it came from innovation.  

According to Wikipedia, three friends returned from a golf trip and due to boredom wanted to set up a game of badminton. They couldn’t find a shuttlecock, so they used a plastic ball, lowered the net and made some paddles from plywood. 

Innovation at its finest! 

No matter what your business, this is a time for innovative thinking. Here are three tips to get you taking action right now.

1. Steve Jobs said, "Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower." 

If you want to be seen as a leader in your industry, you need to make moves. We witnessed this at the beginning of the pandemic when whiskey companies moved to making hand sanitizer. Listen to the needs of your clients and build services around those needs. What has been working might not work anymore. If you are open to change, you will more effectively create it. This is where market research is your friend, send out a survey to your email list, hop on social media and ask your community some pertinent questions or pick up the phone and make some calls to ask key people questions about their current issues or problems.Then sit down and figure out how to take actions to make things happen. 

2. Albert Einstein said, “You can’t solve a problem on the same level that it was created. You have to rise above it to the next level.”

Thinking outside the box has never been more important. How can you level up in your business? If you are a team of one, or two, it might be the right time to bring on a bigger team. I know it’s scary hiring during these times, but isn’t it scarier not taking action and staying in indecision? You can’t get to another level without building and growing. Delegating to a team is one great growth strategy. Watch how their support becomes a game changer. 

3. Brené Brown said, “There is no innovation and creativity without failure. Period.” 

Not everything is going to land. You have to be okay with failures, which I like to call learning curves. But, if you don’t try anything, you won’t see new results. When you commit to trying something and it doesn’t work, get out a piece of paper and a pen and write down what you learned. Read it out loud. Commit to trying it a different way next time and keep moving forward.

How can you be an innovator in your industry? The world needs your great ideas. 

Take action today.