It’s my belief all entrepreneurs are completely and totally creative! Entrepreneurs create value where there was previously no value perceived. Now that’s creativity!

When I use the word “creative”, I am not meaning activity exclusively tied to artistic endeavors.  Everything there is, at first, was created in the formless imagination before it became a physical reality. Your business is a creative sandbox for you to play in–that’s why I like to use the term creative business. Naturally as an entrepreneur you are creating everyday to grow your business. You’re creating innovative products or services that add more value to people. You realize that you must create value for others first before new opportunity will come to you in the form of more paying customers.

There are two parts to value creation: the inner formless idea in your creative imagination, and its physical manifestation in reality.  If you can create something in your mind, you can experience it in the physical. Your creative imagination is the source of all value innovation in your business.

Using your creative imagination is critical to your growth and success.

Your creative imagination is visual.
When you “see” an idea in your mind’s eye, it is as if you are watching a movie on the screen of your mind.  Your creative imagination is the place where you form mental pictures of things and circumstances that you have not yet experienced. Your ability to develop the skill of using your creative imagination is the most important attribute for creating value for people.  Of course, you need to have a compelling vision of what you want to create in your business. When you visualize an idea, what you are really doing is accessing the rich resources of your sub-conscious mind. When you believe an idea is possible – you will see it!

Daydreaming is a powerful tool for innovation.
To be effective at tapping into the creative power of your sub-conscious, you must create a space in your conscious mind. There are many techniques for doing this, but the one I find most useful is daydreaming. Let your mind go–play aimlessly with your ideas without self-judgment. Let an idea take its own form in your mind without you trying to force it into form, or aligning its value to conventional wisdom. Play! If you can allow yourself time to daydream, you’ll be inspired and feel as though you’re being guided to see opportunity where others may not.

Intuition is the white hot center of your creative power.
Intuition can best be described as your inner wisdom and understanding unrelated to experience or reasoning.  Intuition can be compared to a “sixth sense”, an ability to know instinctively what course of action is best to embark on.  Intuition is the guide of your creative imagination. Can you learn to more effectively use your intuitive powers? Absolutely! Intuition is not a special talent or gift that only the lucky few possess.

Before you can use your natural intuitive gift for innovation, you have to trust it!  This might explain why some people seem to attract more opportunity than others. These are the people who trust their gut and simply go with it. If you want to tap into game changing ideas for creating value for people, you have to trust your intuition.  Think about this– your intuition led you to choose to be an entrepreneur right?  Apple founder, Steve Jobs describes the process of innovation as “putting a dent in the universe”. Your intuition will lead your creative imagination to your best ideas–just get out of your own way and let it be so.

Creative ideas don’t have to be original or perfect. Nothing impedes progress more than the pursuit of perfection.

Many entrepreneurs put undue pressure on themselves to develop original ideas. In my experience, there is nothing new under the sun. Every ground-breaking innovation that ever was came as a result of what came before it.  For example, someone invented windshield wipers because people wanted to drive their car in the rain. Then a few years later, someone had the idea that intermittent wiper blades would be a better solution. Many times useful ideas are incremental.  You don’t have to create a revolution to create value.

Many entrepreneurs also worry needlessly that they haven’t perfected their ideas. No idea is ever perfect. When you have an idea, go ahead and build a prototype or two, tinker with it and experiment with what works, make refinements as necessary, but by all means get it out there!  You can always improve on a good idea. Let the market help you improve it. Originality and perfection, in my opinion, are overrated and often get in the way of innovation and value creation.

Here are some suggestions you may want to daydream about in your creative imagination:

Identify opportunities in the market that you have not noticed before.

Discover profitable niche markets where your capabilities can serve people better.

Discover innovative ways to position yourself and your company as the recognized expert and specialist in your particular field.

Discover new customer applications for your products or services.

Create a distinctive brand identity and packaging for your products and services that differentiate you from your competitors.

Create compelling marketing ideas to dramatize the use of your product or service.

Provide innovative solutions to problems your customers experience by approaching them from an entirely new and different perspective.

Collaboration is required component for innovation. Thinking about challenges and opportunities to grow your business from different points of view is absolutely necessary. “Six Thinking Hats” developed by Edward de Bono, is a powerful tool for masterminding a problem or opportunity. For those who may not know, de Bono is regarded by many to be the leading global authority in the field of creative thinking and the direct teaching of thinking as a skill.

I use the Thinking Hats technique at PULL. It 's a useful tool to open us up when we are seeking to validate ideas with our clients. When diverse people are all thinking in the same room at the same time, there can be tension and a tendency to go with the strongest voices in the room. Six Thinking Hats is a powerful tool because it inspires transparent and inclusive parallel thinking. Next time you have a problem solving session with yourself or with a group of masterminds, try using the Six Thinking Hats to improve the quality of your thinking and decision-making that will follow. Each “Thinking Hat” is a metaphor for a different style of thinking:

White Hat:
With this thinking hat, you focus on the raw information at hand. It’s about the facts and nothing but the facts. Look at the data and see what you can learn from it. Look for gaps in your knowledge, and either try to fill them or take account of them. This is where you analyze past trends, and try to extrapolate from historical data.

Red Hat:
Wearing the red hat, you look at the decision using intuition, gut reaction, and emotion. What are you afraid of? Also try to think about how other people will react emotionally, and try to understand the intuitive responses of people who do not fully know your reasoning.

Black Hat:
Black hat thinking is cautious and defensive. It’s our common tendency to be the devil’s advocate, pointing out the flaws and why an idea won’t work. This is important because it highlights the weak points in a plan or course of action. It allows you to eliminate them, alter your approach, or prepare contingency plans to counter problems that arise down the road. Black Hat thinking helps you spot fatal flaws and risks before you embark on a course of action. Black Hat thinking is one of the real benefits of this technique, as many people tend to think too positively and under-estimate complexity, leaving them under-prepared for difficulties.

Yellow Hat:
The yellow hat helps you to think positively. It is the optimistic viewpoint that helps you to see all the benefits of an idea and the value in it, and spot the opportunities that arise from it. Yellow Hat thinking helps you to keep going when everything looks dark and difficult.

Green Hat:
The Green Hat stands for creativity. This is where you can develop unbridled creative solutions to a problem. It is a freewheeling way of thinking, in which there is little criticism of ideas. Green hat thinking is about possibility and potential with no limits and no logic.

Blue Hat:
The Blue Hat stands for process control. This is the hat worn by whom ever is facilitating your discussion. When ideas are running dry, or there a blocks in your process, the Blue Hat referees and can decide to move the conversation into any other thinking hat mode that keeps the thinking alive and moving.

Try this technique out. We have a good deal of fun every time we use it. Share your results with us here.

In the idea economy, the value entrepreneurs provide lies not in their physical products or services, but in intangible assets such as their brand, reputation, network and intellectual property. These assets form the white hot center of competitive advantage.