Creative Thinking can Lead to Business Success
February 13, 2021
Problem-solving to consider different ways of conducting business can be profitable, writes Peter Watson.
Creative thinking is alive and well with some entrepreneurs.
Two different stories but remarkably similar. Both are about a tech start-up working on a new app.
One characteristic of many start-ups is they are low on cash. Yet they need a broad cross-section of services, so the challenge is how to pay for those services.
Some of those services are provided by entrepreneurs running their own business. They need to be paid.
This story is about an entrepreneur providing public relations.
If a potential new client cannot afford you, but yet the public relations firm has some extra capacity to assist that client then what do you do?
In this case the work is being done but instead of negotiating a fee they decided to offer the public relations firm a small part of their start-up tech firm. This was a win-win and very creative solution.
Public relations firms basically sell their time and talent. A firm that had additional costs, for example, a manufacturing company that needed to buy materials would not likely be as flexible to make such an arrangement.
To oversimplify this, you could consider the public relations firm in the short-term working for free. But they had extra capacity so we can understand how that was acceptable.
In the future as these firms get established and create significant value, the public relations firm will participate because it is a shareholder. Depending on the success of these two tech firms the future payment has the potential of being very significant.
Business, like life itself, involves a lot of problem-solving.
The public relations entrepreneur was able to participate in the challenging but rewarding work of helping launch two tech companies with a new app.
The tech company acquired a shareholder who acts as a partner, so both firms are united in their efforts to launch a successful business.
Two thumbs up for creative thinking.
Peter Watson, of Watson Investments MBA, CFP®, R.F.P., CIM®, FCSI offers a weekly financial planning column, Dollars & Sense. He can be contacted through www.watsoninvestments.com
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