Print Solutions Magazine - June 2008: 433 East Monroe

"Creative thinking distinguishes entrepreneurs from those who just go through the motions."

The Top 100 Distributors rankings always get me thinking about why some companies seem to grow with ease while others struggle to succeed. Talking to distributors nearly every day, I know there’s no single answer. Sometimes the problem is structural—not enough capital, product diversification or employee talent, for instance. Sometimes the problems are personal—not enough imagination, flexibility or willingness to change.

Both sets of problems can ruin a company, but I think the latter attitudes are more significant. A lack of flexibility and imagination prevents business owners from exploring new ways of financing their business, adopting new product lines they aren’t comfortable selling and managing people with critical technology-based skill sets.

For example, one small business owner might complain about the time and money it takes to learn about and execute a marketing plan. Or he doesn’t think it’s necessary to have one. The other, on a shoestring budget, finds a book sale in his local area and buys used copies of sales, marketing and strategy bestsellers up for grabs. I went to one sale recently and bought a copy of Guerrilla Publicity: Hundreds of Sure-Fire Tactics to Get Maximum Sales for Minimum Dollars for $3. Even if you just found one good idea from a book like this, wouldn’t it be worth it?

A willingness to make decisions and put them into action also matters. Just buying a book and finding a good idea doesn’t mean anything. Ideas often aren’t implemented because companies neither designate someone to do them nor find creative ways to motivate that person. Consider the act of sending press releases. Once you’ve made a template, it’s easy to make changes when you need to, but someone still has to gather company news and make the changes. So think about making someone responsible for generating press releases. It could be almost anyone in the office. Maybe you pay them a little more, or maybe you give them $5 for every press release that gets published, with a maximum limit of $100.

Creative thinking distinguishes entrepreneurs from those who just go through the motions. And there is no correlation between a size of a company and its attitudes. Some of the smallest distributors on the Top 100 are more entrepreneurial than the largest companies and vice versa. It depends on how willing company leaders are to take risks.

Entrepreneurs Think Creatively