Creative Juice

Everybody is born creative. The quality of creativity and innovation are shared by every person in this planet. We are amazed at somebody else's creativity, but what we didn’t know is that we, ourselves, have our own creative juices. The truth that many seem not to see is, everybody has the potential to be innovative and creative.

Creativity does not only apply to painting and drawing; hence, it applies to almost everything – yes, even to business which may be to some, is just about money, sales, costs and others. Entrepreneurship is an art in its own sense. Being an entrepreneur is also similar to being an artist. Like an artist, an entrepreneur has to extract all creative and innovative ideas in his mind to be able to come up with a unique and winning business venture.

Discussed during my entrepreneurship class at Asia Pacific College under Mr. Ramon Duremdes Jr. are several techniques that entrepreneurs could use to have those business ideas come out of our head. Techniques like focus groups, brainstorming and reverse brainstorming are good ways to share ideas with other people and obtain useful feedbacks. When ideas seem to just spring into our heads which have the tendency of being easily forgotten, it may be necessary to write down those ideas. The checklist, attribute listing and collective notebook methods could help in organizing our written ideas and thoughts.

The usual problem that many encounter when thinking of a business is, they want to create something new and immediately capture the whole crowd. Remember, “Think big. Start small.” What an entrepreneur needs are small yet brilliant ideas – something like adding a new twist on an already existing product or offering an old service in an interesting and exciting way. If we can’t think of new ventures, we can utilize old ones by spicing them up. We can check on the buyer utility map to find out utility spaces that potential product or service can fill in. Also, business models could help in specifying where a venture is situated in the value chain.

Creative thinking is plainly about thinking out of the box and a little of imagination. And indeed, entrepreneurs have to bring out the natural creativity trapped within. We have always had our creative selves; we just have to wake it up. If you want to do something creative and innovative, now is the chance to sit back, think it out and eventually make it a reality – because creativity without passion is nothing.

A Glimpse of The Entrepreneurial World

Being an entrepreneur is not as easy as many believe it to be. Even I, at first, thought that entrepreneurship is just something that anyone could enter in with ease. Opportunities may be everywhere but the challenge for the entrepreneur comes in choosing the right opportunity that will lead him to success. An opportunity may seem to be very appealing to venture in but in the end, may turn out to be inappropriate for the entrepreneur. That is why careful assessment of business opportunities and ideas is very much needed.

So, to be able to establish successfully a new business venture, an entrepreneur has to go through and be guided by the rigid stages of the entrepreneurial process. The first one is the identification and evaluation of opportunities. This is like the screening stage. An entrepreneur is surrounded by many promising opportunities and he has to examine each one of them to be able to make the right choice.

After choosing an opportunity, the entrepreneur must then define this opportunity in business terms – that is the second stage of the entrepreneurial process which is developing a business plan. Writing the business plan is very crucial because this will serve as the entrepreneur’s road map. If the road map is not correct, then the entrepreneur may be out, driving nowhere. A classic article by William A. Sahlman is a good guide in writing the plan.

Determining resources required is the third stage in the entrepreneurial process. Every business venture needs some particular resources to be able to push through. Required resources must be clearly identified and eventually be acquired at the lowest possible cost. But still, we have to put in mind quality because “Quality + Low Cost = Efficiency”.

And finally the last stage of the entrepreneurial process is the management of the enterprise. Managing a new entrepreneurial venture differs from that of an existing operation. An entrepreneur-manager is faced to a very different circumstance from a normal corporate manager. However, today, with the era of entrepreneurship flourishing, the entrepreneurial spirit and effort is now being brought in existing corporate structures. This is better known as “intrapreneurship”. Plain managers of corporations are now becoming intrapreneurs – who have the qualities of an entrepreneur but are just living within the corporate world.

Without knowledge of things I have mentioned earlier, being an entrepreneur will really be viewed to be an easy, carefree career path to enter in. First, it does not require a high academic qualification. Yes, this is true. As matter of fact, a number of the more successful entrepreneurs of the modern times are high school dropouts – to name a few are Robert Forman VI, founder of Continental Airlines; Rex David Thomas, founder of Wendy’s international restaurant chain and Carl Henry Linder, founder of American Financial, a diversified holding company. But looking closely at these entrepreneurs’ successes, I can say that to be a real successful entrepreneur, we have to have some qualities developed within ourselves which can make us successful in the venture we have chosen – qualities that may even be more important than a college diploma or a master’s degree. Entrepreneurs are those who are full of bright ideas, who dream great dreams and are not afraid of taking chances. They simply are full of energy and life to just remain playing the slow, predictable game of the corporate world. I mean to say that real entrepreneurs crave for independence and they would not just be contented with just agreeing and following whatever the boss of the corporation says. As my professor in my Entrepreneurship class, Mr. Ramon Duremdes Jr. said, “Think big. Start small.” – this is the mind set of a real entrepreneur.

Honestly, I am not the business-minded type. Often times I play it safe, afraid of pushing my luck. But in my mind, I dream great dreams. I know that deep within me is a part that makes me also an entrepreneur, which I can develop through time. And, who knows, maybe years after I graduate from Asia Pacific College, I will not just be a duly certified public accountant but also a proud entrepreneur. ☺☺