Brainstorming and Innovation

I remember taking a Critical Thinking course a while back and having a lesson where our teacher talked about "finding the pain and fixing it." He was an entrepreneur himself so took the lesson from a business standpoint. We talked about how "finding the pain" can be one of the best ways to provide a valuable service that can become a successful business. This week in class I had the chance to brainstorm and think about business ideas. At first I really struggled with this assignment, we had a list of questions to help spark our thinking and over time I was able to come up with a list of 20 simple business ideas and 20 "big ideas." It was a neat experience that helped me broaden my mind to the possibilities that are out there. Chances are not all of them would end up being successful, but they would offer experience and provide additional insights into what would ultimately be successful.

Innovation is something we encourage all employee's in our department to participate in. We have found that employees who are actively engaged in working hard each day are typically the ones who can point out when they see something that just isn't working quite right. The question is raised and then they, along with co-workers, have the opportunity to improve the process. As great as this sounds it is actually a huge struggle to get employees involved. Through reviewing HMM's information about creativity and brainstorming I have gained a few thoughts about what we can do differently.
1. We need to make the teams more official and provide the time needed to accommodate the thinking process.
2. We need to bring in other resources. I always strive to get a new employee involved as they will bring a fresh perspective, but in addition we need to bring in resources from other departments.
I enjoyed this reading because it helped me gain new insight into the innovation process and what I can begin doing differently.

$100.00 Challenge update
We have been working hard to find customers. We have one family that will be having a photo session next week, and hopefully a few more lined up. We are looking into other resources that are available for advertising. There is a Tooele Classifieds page through Facebook that only people in the Tooele area can join. We will plan to post an advertisement on there and see what happens!

Week 1: Blogs

My wife is an avid blogger, I've known there were blogs out there but this week we took the opportunity to go through around 30 different blogs that have been successful and provided excellent insight into the business/entrepreneurial world. Only two of the blogs were ones that were familiar to me to start out with, but now I have a good handful that I will plan to follow. The Harvard Business review has been a part of my reading library for over three years now. I began reading it while working as a financial intern and have continued reading it ever since. I also read a book written by Seth Godin a few years ago title "Small is the New Big". While I didn't know he had a blog I quickly turned to it and found it to be very useful. One of my personal challenges is getting distracted while reading, but with Seth's blog the articles are often give small pieces of insight and then allow the individual to continue thinking about the post.

I am excited for this class and for all the entrepreneur classes I will be taking. I'm not necessarily to a point in my life where I am ready to give up my day job but I would love to had a small side business or if all else learn the principles of being an entrepreneur and how they can help me in whatever my career path is.

$100.00 Challenge update - My wife and I (mainly my wife) has been doing photography for many years. Now that she is a stay at home mom we have talked quite extensively about expanding her love for photography into a business where she can earn a little money on the side. As much as she loves photography she doesn't care too much for the business and finance aspects that would be required to operate an actual photography business. In addition her goal isn't to make a living, she likes the idea of providing photo sessions for people that cannot afford to pay someone hundreds of dollars. She would spend between 1 and 2 hours with them and only provide minimal Photoshop enhancements. She would still charge, but at a much more affordable price. For now we are asking for $20 per session to allow her to build experience and also a reputation. Combining her photography skills and my business desires our goal is to start off with this challenge and to turn it into an actual business. The main challenge we are facing now is finding customers. She has taken pictures for friends and even the occasional stranger, but getting customers is our main challenge at this point in time.