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Creative Business Questions Can Get You Passed A Tight Budget
It doesn't matter who you are, every entrepreneur has the same obstacle to overcome in the beginning. To get past the obstacle of having a tight budget to begin with you really have to learn how to market yourself creatively by asking yourself some simple creative questions.
Questions like:
1) How could I...
A different question to get started with:
2) Who could assist me with This is a great question. Who could assist me with
Here's another one:
3) Who do I know that would exchange for ?
What about this one:
4) How can I do this faster, with less effort, cheaper? Could I do this for free?
Here's another one:
5) Could I substitute 'X' for 'Y'? What could I substitute to get 'ABC' instead of 'XYZ'? Just think of whatever you wanted to do, how could you substitute for 'XYZ'?
Here's another one that I love. This really puts you in the shoes of unique and different people.
6) If I was so-and-so, how would I solve this problem?
A good example: How would my mentor solve this problem? How would my four year-old daughter solve this problem? It's a great question because it forces you to think from a different perspective.
I've answered these business questions myself and it has allowed doors to open in every direction, propelling my career to new heights and success to be and continued to be achieved.
Let me give you a small example about how I used this creative way of questioning.
As soon as I graduated University I decided that I wanted to become a professional speaker instead of working within a corporation. My focus was college and high school students, which I still do talks for on occasion, to teach them the importance of creativity. Creativity had helped me rise from being a University failure in my first year to graduating with straight A's, and being names Most outstanding Male. The transformation that occurred between my first and fourth year I owe to learning the skill of creative thinking.
Even though I had decided that this is what I wanted to do, I had no idea about becoming a professional speaker, or if I could turn it into a profitable business.
I went to and joined an organization called CAPS, which is The Canadian Association for Professional Speakers.
At one of my first meetings I attended I approached a gentleman there who was doing very well with his speaking career about what I needed to do to get to his level. He replied by saying. "It's very simple, Stu. I'll give you three things to do, once you have those finished, come back and I'll give you some more." "The first thing you need to do is surround yourself with people who are in the same industry as yourself. Join CAPS, it will help your business grow." I said, "Okay." So I shelled out the $200 to join the CAPS organization. It was a squeeze for me. In fact, I specifically remember asking if I could put it on payments, which I did. I joined the CAPS organization.
He continued saying, "The second thing you have to do is get to the CAPS National Conference" At this point I thought to myself, 'How am I going to do that? The conference that year was being held on the other side of Canada. With the seminar being pretty expensive itself, plus traveling costs, it was really expensive. I had no money, so everything at that point was expensive for me
This is where I started asking myself some creative questions. I needed to find a solution. I started thinking about what I had, or could do, that someone else might want and need.
What I had at the time was time itself. I wasn't speaking very often because I had just started my speaking business, so I had some time on my hands.
I started to then rack my brain about how I could use that time to benefit someone else. By asking myself that question I came up with a campaign called, 'Helt Stu Be Like You.' This is how I used that creative idea to my advantage. I went to the largest chapter of CAPS in my province, which consisted of about 75 people and asked for 30 seconds in front of the whole group.
No one had asked for this before. I asked a question that got everyone's hands in the air. It was, "How many of your, at one point, started off as a speaker with no experience?" I said, "Great. How many of you have attended the CAPS national conference before?" And about 75% of the room had their hands up in the air. I continued, "Of those who have been able to attend the conference, how many of you believe it would be beneficial for a new speaker, with no experience to be able to go?" Everyone kept their hands up.
I said, "Great. Because I am somebody with zero speaking experience that you just said needs to get out to that CAPS national conference."
But then I gave them my situation. I said, "I have a problem though. I don't have any money. The one thing I do have though is time. That is why I have created a campaign called, 'Help Stu Be Like You.' Basically I am willing to make an exchange and I'm hoping you will too." I passed out 8x6 black and white flyers I had printed off at home on 8-1/2x11 sheets to save costs. I made sure everyone in the audience got one.
I said, "Here's what I'm willing to do. I'm willing to do all the dirty work that you speakers don't like doing or don't have time to do. I will make sales calls for you. I will write sales letters for you. I will lick stamps for you. I will cut your grass. I'll even wipe your baby's bottom, if that's what you want me to do, for a financial contribution of your choice."
I could see some of them in the audience were just licking their chops thinking, "Oh my goodness. This is awesome. I'm going to get cheap labor."
"All of the money I earn through your financial contributions will be used directly towards enabling me to get out to the CAPS national conference. I will do anything you don't like doing in exchange for a financial contribution."
I finished explaining my campaign and immediately a gentleman at the back of the room stood up. He said, "Stu, I will pay for your entrance fee to the seminar." Just like that, half of my costs were taken care of!
Immediately following that, another gentleman stood up and he said, "Stu, and I will pay for the cost to get you out there." Boom, boom. Eighty-five percent of all of my expenses were taken care of just like that.
My friends, it's all about being creative. That one creative solution got me out to that conference. It turned out to be a big story because all kinds of people heard about it there and I even had an article published in the national publication. Always remember to explore your creativity and may ideas come to you when you need them the most.
Keep your eye out for more!
Article Source: OrganizingWeb.net
About the Author
Would you like all your online marketing questions answered by someone who has been behind the scenes for some of the biggest marketers online today? On top of written and video responses you also get frequent live help. All you have to do is ask for small business support!More recent articles in Electronics Category
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