Are you a creative person? How important is creativity in entrepreneurship?
Many business experts believe creativity is very important in entrepreneurship and building a successful business. That’s great if you already fit into traditionally creative areas such as being a musician, designer, artist, or writer.
But what if you don’t see yourself as a creative person? Maybe you think you’re just a “numbers person” who’s good at math. Or maybe you like to fix what’s broken such as laptops and other products.
The good news is that everyone is creative. Creativity simply means coming up with a new idea and/or finding a new way to make an existing product or idea better.
Here are three ways you can develop your creativity to build a successful business.
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Do something different.
It’s a good idea to watch other entrepreneurs and companies in your industry. Notice what they’re doing right. And, more important, pay special attention to what they’re doing wrong.
For example, you could look at bad reviews for a few businesses offering products or services similar to yours. Do you notice similar words in these reviews such as multiple comments on poor customer service, or customers unsatisfied with a product’s quality, or any other issues?
If so, you can now show how important creativity is in entrepreneurship. Think about how you can make a better product or service that avoids the mistakes made by similar businesses.
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Learn from your own mistakes.
It’s good to learn from other people’s mistakes. But what if you’re the one who made a business mistake?
Creativity in entrepreneurship requires trying new ideas, testing them, and improving upon them. Or, as legendary writer Maya Angelou said …
“Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.”
All entrepreneurs make mistakes while building their businesses. The key to being a creative and successful young entrepreneur is to learn from your own mistakes to make your business better.
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Be open to what’s possible.
Being open-minded is another business strategy that shows how important creativity is in entrepreneurship. Learning about how your industry works can transform you from being a newbie entrepreneur to an expert, and even potentially an influencer in your business’ niche.
But sometimes being an expert can make you biased and blind to new possibilities and opportunities for your business.
Phones are a good example of how creativity is important in entrepreneurship and business. During most of the 20th century (the 1900s), people believed phones could be used for only verbal communication. Other devices (including letters, books, newspapers, and eventually computers) had to be used if you wanted someone to read information.
Developing text messages during the 1990s and early 2000s was one of the first big steps toward changing previous thoughts about what phones could do. Many of us now use our smartphones as the main way we see information and share information with others.
Just because something seems “impossible” today, doesn’t mean it can’t become possible in the future. And this type of change might happen sooner than you think.
Final Thoughts on how important creativity is in entrepreneurship
Creativity is very important in entrepreneurship. Everyone is creative. But creativity requires practice, which means:
- Creating something new or doing something in a different way.
- Learning from your own mistakes.
- Being open to new ideas and possibilities.
So whether you use a paintbrush, calculate numbers, or use other tools, all young entrepreneurs can use their creativity to build successful businesses.
Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash
