In the work culture of today, you require more from your employees than just good technical know-how. Yes, basic knowledge and competencies are important. These factors alone, though, won’t make your workers as effective as they can be. They need creativity and knowledge about how to leverage out-of-the-box thinking. What are some of the best ways to inspire and cultivate creativity among your employees? Read on for some effective practices.

1. Encourage Experimental Thinking

There’s a multiplicity of ways to be creative in any given situation. Encourage your new hires to think experimentally. Ask them questions and present scenarios that allow them to be creative in the way that suits them best. They’ll have the opportunity to flex a variety of creative muscles. It can be helpful to give them the goal you have in mind and let them find their own paths to reach the goal. 

2. Be Transparent About the Way You Think

Assess and evaluate your own thinking style. It can be helpful to look back at the way you’ve tackled previous projects, and get feedback from trusted coworkers and mentors. Once you know how you think, don’t hold your knowledge back from your employees. You’ll head off frustration and model an acceptance for different thinking styles. You might be a backward thinker who sets your goal and moves forward in definite steps, or a forward thinker who begins with a less defined idea and corrects as you go.

3. Make Room for Mistakes

Creativity and mistake-making go together. Too much focus on avoiding mistakes engenders fear, which paralyzes creativity. When your employees make mistakes, they’re allowed to fine-tune their problem-solving skills and learn how to circumvent similar situations in the future.

4. Focus on Process-Oriented Feedback

When providing feedback to your team, allow room for them to solve the problem; don’t immediately jump to the solution. Challenge your employees to think about what is the best course of action, and empower them to create their own constructive solutions.

5. Focus on Possibilities Rather Than Problems

Focusing on limitations, flaws, and problems is a limited way to approach an issue. It results in a shrinking-back posture and limits creativity. Instead, focus on the possibilities that are not being considered; provide ideas regarding what your employees can do. 

Creativity is non-linear, and your employees’ progress will be non-linear as well. Consider these suggestions to help spark your team’s innovative spirit. 

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Cut Out the Negative Reinforcement

People in positions of leadership will often stress the power of positive reinforcement. Pepping yourself up is a great way to line yourself up to get what you want. The same works in reverse, too, and it’s a major reason people fear public speaking. They keep telling themselves they’re bad at it!

Instead of saying “I can’t do this,” or “I’m a bad public speaker,” reinforce the positives: “I’m qualified to speak about this,” or “I know my stuff!” Speaking of that…

Know Your Stuff (and the Rest Will Follow)

One of people’s most common fears about public speaking is that they will “bomb,” losing their train of thought, embarrassing themselves in front of leadership, or fail to keep the audience engaged. Fortunately, there’s an easy cure for this: preparation! 

If you know the material you’re going to cover inside and out, it’s easy to speak about it authoritatively and confidently. If you’re covering an unfamiliar topic, take the time to research it. If you know what you’re talking about, it’s easy to talk about it. 

Practice Makes Perfect

Even members of organizations’ leadership who have a gift for public speaking will tell you that it’s crucial to rehearse! Delivering a presentation or speech is more than simply reading facts or referring to PowerPoint slides on a screen. Great speakers rehearse their scanning of the audience, triangulating their steps to stay active, and their exact motions and interaction with their slides or screens. Practice every nuance and it will be easy to dazzle your audience when it’s go-time!

Pursue Opportunities to Improve

Even the best professional speakers strive to better themselves. Seek out opportunities to improve, whether that means simply giving more speeches and presentations, or joining classes for professionals looking to enhance their speaking abilities. 

Public speaking is an integral part of most successful people’s job descriptions. Thinking of it in a positive light, knowing your material, practicing your performance, and striving to improve will help make you a master.

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Less Paperwork Equals Faster Turnaround

Since there is less paperwork than a conventional loan, stated income loans have a quick turn-around time. This is a serious consideration, particularly if you’re looking at commercial real estate where time is of the essence. Even if you have everything you need to take out a conventional loan, an alternative loan may be the difference between getting the property you want and losing it.

No Income Verification Equals Less Stress

Let’s face it, getting a loan can be stressful under the best of circumstances, but throw in being self-employed with inconsistent income or income from many different sources, and it takes the stress to a whole new level. A no income verification loan is perfect for these situations since there is nothing to verify, allowing you to breathe easier as you avoid trying to quantify your income. That said, you will still need to provide bank statements detailing two to four months to establish your ability to repay the loan.

Higher Risk Equals Higher Down Payments

There is a high-risk factor in making loans without verifying income, so loans based on your reported income require a minimum 30% down payment. That is significant compared to what you would need for a traditional loan.

High Risk Equals High Rates

Again, a loan with self-reported income is a high risk for the lender, and you will pay for the risk they’re taking in the form of higher rates. And don’t think that just because you’re paying higher rates and a higher down payment you won’t need a decent credit score. The lender may not be verifying your income, but they will want to see your payment history.

If you are a gig worker or self-employed with an income that is difficult to demonstrate, you aren’t out in the cold when it comes to getting a loan. If you have the credit score to appease the lenders and cash on hand to cover at least 30% down, check out a stated income loan before you write off that purchase as unattainable.

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Vehicle Repair

Environmentally friendly vehicles are quickly growing in popularity. While most people think of expensive electric cars, the field also includes things like bicycles, e-bikes, and scooters, all of which have their own demands and requirements for repair and maintenance. Starting your own specialist repair shop, especially for less capital-intensive vehicles like bicycles, can be a great way to get your business started into ecologically friendly territory.

Alternative Energy

Starting your own power company is a big ask for a new business, but luckily demand is growing for more personal solutions to cleaner energy. Home solar panels are in demand throughout the country as a way for homeowners and landlords to offset their electricity consumption, and a company that specializes in these systems will quickly find orders for installation and maintenance as solar becomes more ubiquitous. Similarly, home wind turbines are also growing as an industry, which means companies supplying and installing them will find orders coming in, too.

Landscaping and Building

Whether it’s installing better installation to prevent wasted heat or planting trees to provide natural cooling shade, the way buildings are constructed and land is arranged is prime territory for an eco-friendly business to be able to make its mark on other businesses and even people’s homes. A wide variety of techniques, some specialized to ecologically minded firms, are necessary to make construction work in ways that are less damaging to the environment, and being able to bring that to the table, especially if new policies are passed making them a requirement, will make your firm even more valuable.

New Technologies

In addition to already existing markets, you can look for new technologies and ideas for ecologically friendly businesses and practices. For example, new smart technologies to improve efficiency are being developed every day, and you can be one of the firms to provide those technologies. Even outside of smart devices, new techniques that you can use to make your business more environmentally friendly can be taught to other companies via consulting contracts.

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When To Use a Credit Line

Business credit cards often have high interest rates and conventional loans need to be negotiated in advance and require knowledge of the total amount needed. So, for large unexpected or unpredictable expenses, credit lines become a useful option. Typically, these will have lower rates of interest than those charged on a credit card. While they usually have higher rates than those on negotiated loans, they also allow for greater flexibility, including the ability to pay off the balance and borrow again so long as you remain below the ceiling. This also means that credit line payments aren’t tied to a fixed schedule, so expenditures can be paid off sooner if extra funds become available.

When Not To Use a Credit Line

Conversely, there exist times when lines of credit may not be the best option. Large singular expenditures, such as upgrading production equipment or opening a new location, are better served with a conventional long-term loan, both for the lower interest rates and for the regularity of payments. At the other end of the spectrum, small day-to-day expenses such as office supplies may be handled better by using a credit card. Their small, often incidental nature means that they can be accommodated within the company budget if planned properly. Credit lines also are not a substitute for cash, so be wary of using them as a substitute for revenues when expanding production, especially if the incoming funds are not guaranteed.

The Bottom Line

Like all forms of financing, credit lines are another tool in the savvy business owner’s toolbox. While they are not a one size fits all solution, they can make for a valuable resource. They bring a powerful combination of relatively low interest, flexible spending, and the ability to pay down the balance as desired that can be instrumental in the often unpredictable world of business.

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Search for SBA Loans

The Small Business Association has a wide variety of loans any small business can apply for, and the terms and rates tend to be more versatile than conventional loans. For example, if you are a new business or do not have the best credit score, financial institutions are less likely to want to provide funds. However, SBA loans are government-backed, which means the lender is guaranteed a certain percentage of the loan regardless of whether you default, thus decreasing the risk for lenders and making funding more accessible to small businesses. Not every lender will offer an SBA loan, so check with the SBA website to see what’s available to you.

Assemble the Necessary Documentation

Because SBA loans are federally regulated, more preparation and documentation is generally required for approval. First and foremost, you’ll need extensive financial statements dating back several years. Income, debts, and assets that could be used as collateral will all be part of your submission. You may also have to submit your personal financial statements, including your own credit score and bank statements. Lenders want to see that both the business and the management is low-risk.

Prepare for Your Interview

Typically, an interview is part of an SBA loan application. Lenders will want to see how you plan to use your small business loan in the form of a business plan. All business plans will be different for each company, but typically, they’ll have the following:

• A business overview, including industry history
• Descriptions of your goods and services
• Operations overview, including resumes of important staff
• Marketing strategies
• Financial statements and plans

Be specific, and whenever possible, use numerical data. Having all the necessary components and being prepared for your interview helps expedite the approval process. Sometimes, SBA loans can take up to 120 days to receive approval, but if you need funding sooner than that, having all documentation at-the-ready will help.

The right funding can help save your business or even boost it to new heights. Shop around for SBA-backed loans to keep your company as you envisioned it to be.

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Go Above and Beyond

What does your business offer, and what are you doing that sets you apart from other businesses that offer the same goods or services? It may simply be that you go above and beyond for your clientele. Whether it’s breaking protocol or offering a personalized experience, businesses that attend to every customer’s needs are more likely to secure the sale. You may have certain operative procedures in place, but these procedures shouldn’t prohibit you from helping customers to your fullest extent. Often, strict guidelines such as inflexible payment plans or highly specific discount eligibility can keep workers from offering customers the simplest of fixes. Allow reasonable leeway for employees to help satisfy a customer’s request. In the end, it’s all about making it easy for the customer. People generally choose the most efficient option, and if they hit a roadblock with your company, they’ll take their business elsewhere. 

Understand What Your Customers Need

Many customers look for a positive experience when they purchase any product or service, and being attentive to customers increases the likelihood that they’ll buy from you again. In fact, they may choose a service of lesser quality if they know it’s affordable and they’ll be treated right. Take the time to make your customers feel special and wanted. When in doubt, simply ask them what they need or what their ideal shopping experience looks like. The more you know your customer base, the easier it will be for you to anticipate what they need, and the more efficiently you’ll be able to serve them in the future.

Gather Feedback

The mere act of taking suggestions from customers shows that you are open to criticism. Taking it a step further and implementing any changes based on customer critiques shows that you truly care about what your customers think. Encourage constructive criticism, and even touch base with customers after you have changed your policies based on their grievances. This will make the customer feel valued, making them want to return to your business.

Take the time to assess your customer base. Customers are who pay your bills, so investing in quality customer service will ensure your business flourishes.

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Remember Why You Found Your Entrepreneurial Passion in the First Place

If you’ve been trying to start up a new business for some time but haven’t had much luck, you may be feeling down and wondering why you tried to become an entrepreneur in the first place. In these situations, it’s important to think back to the passion that originally inspired you to pursue your own ventures. Remember your initial motivation to spark up your passion again.

Dream Big and Set Concrete Goals for Yourself and Your Business

Without both big dreams and concrete goals, your business ideas could flounder or have a hard time getting off the ground. To help keep yourself on track, write down a list of business goals and:

• Be specific and concrete
• Set time frames or time limits
• Include partner accountability where necessary
• Be realistic for their scope and size
• Include back-up plans

Make the Most of Every Workday and Try New Productivity hacks

Lastly, make the most of every day you spend working on your business plans. If you struggle with keeping productive during the workday, you may want to:

• Spend some time meditating or clearing your head every morning to mentally prepare for the day
• Schedule in breaks during the day to keep your energy levels steady and avoid burnout
• Get up and stretch once every hour to feel reenergized and rejuvenated
• Avoid multitasking so you can focus on each to-do item at a time and get it done more efficiently
• Put away your phone during the workday and set up site blockers on your work laptop to avoid distractions
• Keep a spreadsheet of your to-do list and your goals for each workday and track your progress

Although you may not always feel as though you’re at the top of your professional game, keeping yourself motivated and focusing on your long-term business goals can make all the difference when it comes to achieving your entrepreneurial dreams. With these motivation tips, you can stay on track and continue pursuing your goals.

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Pros of Seeking Short-Term Financing

Short-term loans were designed because even new companies can qualify for business financing. When a traditional lender offers a loan, they are looking for a specific amount of annual revenue and financial history. With a short-term loan, newer businesses can work on building their history from the ground up and do it with very little annual revenue.

Businesses need to be operational to start earning money, and short-term financing can get them up and running in as little as a few hours. This quick approval process, compared to the sometimes month’s long process of traditional vendors, gets the business running in a fraction of the time. With the digital process of applying, borrowers can avoid the hassle of managing paper documents and in-person meetings for approval.

Part of the financial history that applies to seeking a traditional loan is an excellent credit rating. Short-term lenders appeal to businesses with less than fair credit ratings because they don’t require a substantial history of borrowing money.

Cons of Seeking Short-Term Financing

Having less than optimal credit will cost a business in the long run if it is not turning a profit and paying off its loan. Business financing acquired through short-term means comes with higher rates known as factor rates. Unlike interest, factor rates are consistent through the lifetime of the loan and will require the business owner to pay more money each pay period.

Late payments will be more detrimental to a business with short-term financing as opposed to more traditional loans because of the accelerated payment schedule. Business owners can expect to make payments weekly in comparison to monthly or bi-monthly payments with traditional lending options. If a business defaults on the short-term debt, it may face repercussions that don’t apply in traditional lending scenarios.

Taking out a traditional loan is complicated for small businesses that do not have the revenue and credit history required. Short-term loans, while riskier at times, can provide the necessary financing to get a small business off the ground and turning a profit until they are ready to progress to long-term traditional methods of financing.

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Invest in Your Employees

Your workers are the human capital that keeps your company moving, and just like machinery and financial capital, people work best when you invest in them. One such investment is to keep training materials at hand and have ample opportunity for employees to cross-train for more positions, expanding their skillset in the process. This not only allows you to see who will seek out new skills on their own but also helps to prepare for unexpected absences or sudden departures since now more people are trained for each position. If your company relies on college-educated employees, sponsoring courses can entice people to expand their educational goals a bit, which can benefit you as your workers become more knowledgeable.

Trust Your Employees

Workers don’t like feeling like they have someone always watching over them. Giving your employees a bit of freedom to handle their tasks on their own judgment can encourage them to come up with new and novel ideas. Furthermore, most people like being able to come to their own creative solutions to an otherwise difficult problem, something that sitting over their shoulder or giving a strictly followed list of bullet points doesn’t exactly incentivize. Obviously, some discretion will be required, as depending on your customers or your area of business, uniformity and close inspection may be important. Even within those guidelines, though, giving employees some freedom can go a long way to improving your company’s corporate culture.

Listen to Your Employees

You may be the manager, but your subordinates are still trained professionals. They will have suggestions and ideas that can be used to improve the company, your product, or customer relations. It’s important that your employees know that you will listen to their ideas, even if they don’t get implemented. Much like giving employees the liberty to try new training or ideas, letting them know their input is valued helps to motivate workers to keep experimenting, which in turn leads to a stronger product and a more loyal workforce.

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