Business Brainstorms 6 Ways to ignite your creative-thinking processes

Remember that exciting, lightning-flash moment when youconceived your first idea for a homebased business? That initialelectric charge of creativity is often followed by bursts of energythat help you complete vital tasks and spur you on to make yourbusiness ideas become realities. Many experts feel that, ratherthan being a personality trait, creativity is a way of thinkingthat BIZ Experiencess can take advantage of to build their businessesin innovative and profitable ways.

The following suggestions are offered to help you make the mostof creativity techniques in originating, developing and expandingyour homebased business.

1. Explore creative-thinking methods. Creativity guruEdward De Bono says that creativity is like the reverse shift in acar. While you would not dream of driving along in reverse all thetime, if you did not know how to use reverse, you would be unableto get out of blind alleys, thus limiting your generalmaneuverability.

In De Bono's SeriousCreativity: The Power ofLateral Thinking to Create New Ideas (HarperBusiness, $14,800-242-7737), he states that in conventional verticalthinking, you take a position and then seek to build on thatposition. The next step you take depends on where you are in thefirst position. In lateral thinking we think sideways,rather than in a linear fashion (from one logical conclusion to thenext), in order to try different perceptions, different concepts,and different points of entry-using various methods to get us outof the usual line of thought, which can sometimes become a rut. Oneway to do this is to pause before reaching a "logical"conclusion to ask yourself, "Is there another way I could dothis?"

2. Think like an artist to "make friends" withfailure. Patricia Sullivan, who has taught creativitytechniques for 18 years in her own homebased business, The SullivanGroup, feels that her biggest revelations were accepting the valueof risk-taking and realizing that creative solutions are oftenreached after much trial and error. She explains that students aretaught in school that they succeed when they reach the "oneright solution" and get an "A" or a 100 percentscore.

"In business, people can't figure out why the'single right solution' isn't just around the corner,like money found on the sidewalk," says Sullivan."Today's advertising makes solutions seem instantlybeautiful, clean and neat, when creativity is more likely a slowand often messy process."

Sullivan says an artist is likely to begin a painting with manystarts, thinking of each different version as a differentincarnation rather than as a failure. "When you arecreating," advises Sullivan, "be accepting of yourwork's newness, and value the steps you are going through. Anartist knows that if he lets something he doesn't like in oneincarnation stop him, he'll never proceed to the finalincarnation."

3. Let creativity help your business evolve. Being opento influences around you, as well as being receptive to thevalidity of each of the stages of your own creativity, can help yourealize which business strengths you have. "When you put yourwork out to the public," says Sullivan, "their responsecan help lead you to the next step."

Tina Scott Lassiter, owner of The Business of Women'sBusiness in New York City, watched her homebased business evolvethrough three distinct stages as she discovered her businessstrengths.

In her first business, Nouvelle Image Consulting, Lassiteraccessorized homes, planned small parties, and helped clientschoose professional clothing. "The creativity involved kept mymotivation high," she recalls.

In 1992, operating under the business name of T. Scott Lassiterand Associates, Lassiter's business segued into the realm ofpublic relations, concentrating more on "image development inevents planning," in which she helped clients create marketingmaterials that reflected their unique personalities. But she soonfound herself feeling confined in this new field. "Even thoughpublic relations is a creative field, I felt unproductive in mywork because the passion wasn't there. I liked thewriting," says Lassiter, "but the other noncreativebusiness aspects of public relations were draining to me."

Finally, in 1995, after many glitches in refining and revampingher business, Lassiter returned to her original goal-building aprimarily creative business-by originating The Business ofWomen's Business. This new entity is a personal- andprofessional-development business that coordinates special eventsand workshops targeted to a female audience-or to businesses thathope to reach this audience. She feels that her current businessmakes the most of her creativity while still effectively utilizingher business skills.

4. Choose a creative theme to help launch and grow yourbusiness. When Kellee Harris decided to open her own homebasedmarketing consulting company specializing in sports and fitness,she knew she had to have a dynamic marketing theme for herbusiness. A sporting-goods corporate marketing manager for 15years, the Portland, Oregon BIZ Experiences marveled at the creativitydisplayed in the marketing campaigns used by sporting-goodscompanies at trade shows she attended. "From a marketingperspective, I knew I needed a theme that would attract attentionand create awareness right out of the chute," she says."I needed a new company name that would make medifferent."

Harris continued to brainstorm, mulling over the words"market" and "marketing," hoping to conceive awinning name.

Then, Harris awoke at 3 a.m. one morning with the name"Market-Spark" on the tip of her tongue. She felt theword "spark" was an electric, positive-energy word whichsymbolized the excitement of ideas and also captured her own upbeatpersonality. Brainstorming with words like "electric,""energy" and "spark," she decided to use animage of a sparkler for her company logo.

"Once I got the lead, everything else began to fall intoplace," Harris recalls. Feeling that spark was "ascripty, jagged-edge kind of word," she designed a logo in hotpink and black that captured that description. Today, hernewsletter, Web site and letterhead all feature this logo.

As her business grew, Harris continued to expand and reinforceher original idea. For her sideline speaking business, she chose touse her full name, Kellee Harris, followed by the tag line, "ASpeaker with Spark." A quote from Dante-"From littlesparks may burst a mighty flame"-appears on her postcards, andher answering-machine message concludes with "Keep the sparksflying."

5. Cross-pollinate your creativity. While an BIZ Experiencesmay be inclined to spend all his time working alone in thebusiness, the stimulation of others' ideas is often one of thegreatest enhancers of creativity, says Padi Selwyn, a homebasedBIZ Experiences and the co-author of Living Your Life Out Loud(see "Worth Reading," above, for ordering information)."Homebased BIZ Experiencess need to constantly expose themselvesto new ideas and the thoughts of others for cross-pollination oftheir own creativity," says Selwyn. She advises homebasedbusiness owners to form or seek contact with a "mentor"or "mastermind group," in which participants meetregularly to discuss and consider ideas. Her own mastermind groupconsists of five people who regularly work alone. "We meet andrun ideas by each other, then serve as a sounding board," saysSelwyn. "It's a great way to get creative ideas."

6. Break away from work so your ideas can marinate. For16 years, the hand-painted fish Bri Matheson creates in his garagehave graced T-shirts, bolo ties, jewelry, sculpture, andpromotional materials for an international tuna company. On dayswhen he's not feeling creative, Matheson spends a briefinterval in his garden, takes an energizing walk, or goes skiing."I find that changing my environment spurs me on to want toreturn to my artwork with fresh ideas," says Matheson.

Selwyn agrees. "Most exciting breakthroughs occur not whenyou are sitting at your desk, but rather when you are doingsomething pleasurable for yourself," she says. "Forexample, Art Frey, a 3M executive, got the idea for Post-It Noteswhile singing in his church choir. Velcro was born when a Swissengineer took a walk to escape from his work. When a burr landed onhim and stuck, he thought that it would make a greatfastener."

Selwyn recommends taking at least a 30- to 45-minute block ofuninterrupted time for ideas to marinate in your subconscious mind."When you break away," says Selwyn, "be sure to takea 'capturing device' with you, such as a tape recorder ornotebook."

Using creativity techniques can help your business advanceduring the downtimes when you most need that spark in order to moveahead. From the initial brainstorm through each subsequent sag inmomentum, creativity techniques can jump-start your enthusiasm andkeep you focused on the track to success.

Carolyn Campbell, a home-office BIZ Experiences for 20 years, haswritten more than 200 magazine articles.

Worth Reading

Living Your Life Out Loud, by Salli Rasberry and PadiSelwyn (Pocket Books, $12., 800-759-0190).

Worth Using

"The Idea Activator" card deck. Availablethrough the American Creativity Association, P.O. Box 2029,Wilmington, DE 19899, (302) 239-7673.

Creativity Exercises

We are all creative, and creativity is like a muscle that willstrengthen if exercised, says Cal Moyer, the executive director ofthe American Creativity Association. The following are ways you canbegin to exercise your creativity today:

1. Include a "creative space" within your home orhome office. Homebased business owners can follow the exampleof many corporations by providing a "creative space"within their home offices. "This physical area could be adesk, a nook, or a corner of the house," Moyer says, "andwould include fun tools and things that sparkle theimagination."

2. Use triggers to help spark your creativity. Roger vonOech, author of A Whack on the Side of the Head (WarnerBooks, $13.99, 800-759-0190), has created a stack of cards calledthe "Whack Pack," which includes thought-stimulatingphrases such as "Think like a kid."

"The Idea Activator," another set of flash cards,comes in a "Rolodex" format and can be used to furthergenerate creative ideas. (See "Worth Using" on pg. 10 forordering information.)

3. Tap into your subconscious creativity. Before you goto sleep, be clear on problems you want to resolve. Expect to findthe answers in the morning, then relax and go to sleep."During the night, your subconscious mind will continue togrind," says Moyer. "When you wake, focus on harvestingthe ideas that come overnight; write these solutions in acreativity journal as possibilities to be consideredlater."

Contact Sources

American Creativity Association, P.O. Box 2029,Wilmington, DE 19899, (302) 239-7673.

Bri Matheson, 8889 Hidden Cove Rd., Park City, UT84098, (801) 649-6519.

MarketSpark, P.O. Box 22794, Portland, OR 97269, (503)222-6871.

Padi Selwyn, padispeaks@aol.com.

The Business of Women's Business, 250 W. 100thSt., #700, New York, NY 10025, (212) 864-4722.

The Sullivan Group, 24 Jane St., #1A, New York, NY10014, (212) 243-2878.