News

• I'm pleased to say that we have added a graphic designer to our team, so if you need some artwork done by someone with a flair for design and a good understanding of small business, give us a call.
• For those of you looking to promote your business to families visit www.fbafamilyexpo.com.au for more information about the Family Business Australia Family Expo at the National Zoo & Aquarium

Tip: Need some innovation inspiration?

I've come across this great website called Idea-a-day where people can post ideas about innovations or things they wish someone would invent. You can subscribe and each day you are emailed an idea for the day. For example, an idea mailed in by Chas Bayfield suggests erecting meeting posts in the city centre marked one o'clock, two o'clock etc. That way you can eliminate confusion and people waiting at the wrong spot by stipulating a meeting at say the two o'clock post at 2pm.

Tool: Differentiation through innovation

Instead of spending your marketing budget on costly PR or ad campaigns, spend time incorporating innovations that make your product or service "remark"able. In other words, something your customers feel the urge to "remark" about or tell others about. Once word-of-mouth marketing takes place you won't need the expensive ad campaigns. Can you add something "remark"able to your product or service? Seth Godin's technique below can help.

Technique: Seth Godin's Edgecraft

Marketing guru, Seth Godin describes a new approach to brainstorming in his book "Free Prize Inside: The Next Big Marketing Idea". Very briefly the technique involves 3 steps:

1. Look at products and services completely unrelated to your industry
2. Work out who is leading by being remarkable
3. Have a look at what edge they went to to achieve that, for example did they focus on one element by leaving it out e.g. Betty Crocker cake mixes take out the first few steps in baking a cake. Or did they make an invisible service visible e.g. labelling food organic. By labelling something it draws your attention to it
4. Apply that to you own business

For other brainstorming methods visit http://bizthoughts.mikelee.org/brainstorming-business-ideas.html.