Idea Sharing Builds Business

How Cross Pollination Gets Ideas Flowing

Cross pollination of ideas will make your business stronger. “Keeping your eyes open to sources for ideas is the first step,” writes Copyblogger Pamela Wilson, “Having a system for gathering and using these ideas is important, too. Really great ideas can be found where you least expect them.”

Wilson suggests the following starting points to get the ideas flowing:

• Read books, magazines, and sites outside your field.

• Talk to people from other industries about issues they face and how they have resolved them. Think about how you might apply these ideas at your company.

• Stay in touch with and learn from customer needs.

• Look at your competitors. Examine their mistakes and learn from them. Figure out where they are lacking, and generate ideas to fill that space.

• Examine past project failures to guide future actions.

Once you get the ideas flowing, keep them coming with these structural ideas:

• Create an informal board of directors and meet at least four times a year to talk about goals, struggles and ideas.

• Join a mastermind group. These are often offered by Chamber of Commerce groups and usually meet monthly to discuss ideas, encourage and inspire.

• Join a virtual community. The author suggests Third Tribe, as a good place to begin reaching out to like-minded people.

• Get a business coach. They have a lot of clients and are natural pollinators.

Creating an environment where ideas flow freely, will help you to weather the challenges of your marketplace.