Top 7 Ways to Live a Creative Business Life

Having a good business idea is the first step in developing a viable company. Having a creative mind will help you sustain it. Nurturing your creative side can take many forms. Here are the top seven ways to enjoy a creative business life:

1. Move yourself beyond the norm. Is everyone doing it? Don’t. Go against the stream, and see what happens. You may be surprised to find there are more fish upstream.
   
   

2. Be honest. Offer a pledge in your business. One of the best codes of honor I have ever seen comes from a Virginia-based PR firm, Four Leaf Public Relations. [http://www.fourleafpr.com/about.htm]. The company presidents message automatically instills trust in her customers. She manages expectations and provides guidelines upfront. Write a code of ethics, and stick to it.

   
   
   
3. Answer your correspondence. Some people believe being elusive makes you more desirable. If you want your customers to keep coming back, answer your e-mails and return your phone calls. Being elusive does not make you a good business person, just an absent one.
   
   
4. Network with people. I recently listened to Janet Legere, a master networker and contact list builder from Calgary, Canada. She suggested creative ways in which to touch people’s lives. When you receive an annoying e-mail, she suggests to offer your advice to the person by whom you’ve felt spammed. You will make a friend, increase your business contact list, and turn a negative situation into a positive one.
   
   
5. Seek opportunities where others see problems. One businesswoman I know actually had someone sign up for her business opportunity while she waited for her car to be repaired at the mechanics. She saw an opportunity where less creative thinkers would merely see a fender bender.
   
   
6. When you hear “no,’ say ‘next!’ Be a part of the solution. If a potential customer gives you the brush off, offer an alternative. If the answer is still ‘no,’ move on.
   
   
7. Start the day with a ‘yes.’ Skip negative self-talk, and surround yourself with supportive people.

Christine Louise Hohlbaum, American author of Diary of a Mother: Parenting Stories and Other Stuff, offers on-line courses in writing and marketing at http://get-me.to/bookPR. She has been featured in Boston Globe magazine, Pregnancy, Ladies Home Journal and more. When she isnt writing, leading seminars or wiping up her childrens messes, she prefers to frolic in the Bavarian countryside near Munich where she lives with her husband and two children. Visit her Web site: http://www.DiaryofaMother.com. Or her blog at [http://diaryofamother.blogs.com]