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Tips and stories to add value to you and your organisation

Combinations Create Newness

21 March 2016

Have you ever been stuck for a new idea? Or needed a new product and you just can’t think of what to create?

I know I have, and I remember feeling frustrated when I needed to write a ‘newsletter’ and couldn’t think of any news that I particularly wanted to share. Newsletters are great for issue 1, when have a stock of stories to tell and they can soon run into sand when by issue 10 we have burned through the archives and can be left gasping to fill a sheet with ‘exciting new projects’ that we hope our clients are eagerly waiting to gulp down.

Faced with a blank sheet of paper a few months ago I was chatting to my sales PA and commented that I always find the time to write my blog each week. If only I could use that as a newsletter, I wailed. Then it occurred to me; why not, I write my blog and I never falter with that, so instead of a newsletter we could set up a blog digest, containing the last four posts. And so ‘Rich Revisited’ was born and at the end of every month it gets emailed to my database, often with a juicy offer or two at the top to help nudge new sales opportunities into life.

I had a similar success with a careers programme and my ILM accreditation. The ILM tends to focus on leadership and coaching courses (Transactional Analysis for Leaders has turned into a popular 3-day course, do write for more details) and I also teach people career and job-hunting skills, often on a 1-to-1 basis. Two years ago I was chatting to a client who wanted to do something more interesting for her delegates than simply teach then how to write a CV and an idea was sparked – we could write an ILM accredited careers skills course. So we did and last year we proudly issued certificates to 20 students who sailed through the content.

So, this week take a moment to look into your store cupboard of products, services and ways of doing business. What two items could you combine to generate a new product or service? It’s amazing to think that 1 plus 1 can equal 20 new students …and with a little bit of creativity we have added a new string to our business bow!

Go for it!

Next week: Marketing Matters