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and this is Joe Theys from Ashgrove and today we're talking about a concept that could take
your business from just surviving in this tough economy to growing and that is
innovation
i once knew a chicken farmer
who was just getting by every month he sold eggs he sold chickens he sold
a little bit chicks to hardware stores and he was able to pay his bills every
month but that's about it
when he finally realize that there's something else coming out of a chicken
he could sell besides the eggs which is of course than the manure he opened up a
whole new market for his business
he branded it under garden organic fertilizer sold at the local garden
centers and eventually a nationwide chain picked it up and the rest is
history
i know of
to businesses i've worked with
on a first-hand basis that took their business from a fairly ordinary living
month to month to an extraordinary business by innovating
one of was a company that the consultant
they would work with small businesses
uh... helping them using act software
and they also realize that those same customers were also using quickbooks and
they developed a software it that would help sis that this thus up the
c_r_ and saw four acts up for work with quickbooks
and began selling it like crazy
another was a fitness instructor
worked at it jim
one-on-one with clients but realize that if he sold dvds of his workouts
workout videos and began
focusing in on specific demographic which was
women that were trying to lose the extra weight they gained after giving birth to
a child
he could take up with the business and in fact he has and now he has boot
camp's uh... in several different cities he selling dvds online as businesses
looks completely different from when i first met him
you can do the same in your business but there's three things you have to keep in
mind in order to innovate
the first is
it has to match the core competency of the organization what is it you're very
good at doing what is it you love to do
if you're going to shift your business policy let me make sure that whatever it
is
is still a great fit for what you do within your organization
the second concept is that you'd need to be curious and have fun with this
looking out in the world find out what is it that needs to be solved that is in
alignment with your core principles in your core values
the third concept is
trying to identify what is that that's already inconvenience ng either your
customers or consumers within
your industry and if you think about those three things it's quite likely
you're going to come across something anything that uh... is still within some
realm of what you're doing now but it's going to make your extra money
through the key to innovating in solving somebody else's problem
as you begin down that path and you start increasing your sales and
increasing your costs within your accounting you need to make sure you
isolate those sales separate from everything else as well as the cost
think of it has its own separate project heck it's own severed business make sure
you come for that separate ways that you know whether or not you making any money
uh...
so if your business is just surviving
month then a month out
think about innovating think about what else it is you could be doing
and hopefully to find some some success along those lines
back in the very health
please give me a call a shoot me an email
love the talk it over with you Im Joe with Ashgrove