THINKING YOUR WAY INTO INNOVATION

So you came up with a great new product or service only to find out that six months after you started your business someone else came up with a similar idea for the same target market. In fact, the cost was almost identical to yours.

What to do? The choices are many and may include closing your business or going toe to toe with your new competitor. I don’t believe that either of these two choices are the only options or the correct ones. The most frequent choice is to take on the competitor and fight on the basis of cost, or service or quality or any number of other adjectives describing the same product/service. With a little luck, you may be able to survive and even grow your business, but what other options are there?

We have found that most products can be easily modified or applied to uses other than the original designed intent. Along the same lines, perhaps your product or service can serve another target market that has not been exposed to your use of your product or service, providing yet another benefit.

This is not your Tuesday Challenge but as you work on your business plan for 2017, spend a few quality hours thinking of other uses for, and other target markets, and other benefits that the basic design of your product or service can provide with a little modification.

As you create your new and innovative list to introduce in 2017, you will not only rejuvenate yourself but you will get into the habit of keeping an open mind and always being on the look-out for new innovative ways to outperform your competition.