Why Innovation Is Vital To Small Businesses
As a small business owner, you need many tools at your fingertips to make sure you are successful and thriving. Innovation is one of the most important tools you can use in your business. Yes, change is hard and potentially costly at times, but not being able to change can end up costing you much more in the long run.
Innovation keeps your business fresh
With all of the tech advances rapidly taking place, concepts and products can become stale fast. Innovating the way you keep abreast of these trends will help ensure that you’re tailoring your products and services accordingly, keeping you and your company relevant and prosperous.
Being innovative helps you stay connected to your customer base
Being able to change and adapt how you serve your customers will win you years of repeat business, as well as new customers through word of mouth. Innovation can help you understand how your customers shop, why they pick one company over another, when they want notifications, and how they want to engage with you. When you connect effectively, you both win!
You can use innovation to solve problems
Einstein is credited with saying “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again while expecting different results”. If you find you’re running into problems in your business, unexpected results, drops in sales – you can’t keep just doing the same old thing and expect things to change. You have to take a step back and figure out what needs to change, and then do it. If you use innovation wisely, you can also anticipate potential issues and prepare for them.
Innovation can make your company more efficient
Have you ever worked at a company that had policies or procedures that made you scratch your head and think to yourself ‘There has to be a better way’? This is the soul of innovation. There usually IS a better way! There’s no room for ‘this is how it’s always been done’ (unless it’s a dire safety concern) – there’s almost always a better way to do something. It doesn’t matter how many attempts it takes, you can and will find it.
Innovation makes your team stronger
When you work together as a team to grow and change your business, you show your employees that they matter to you and the company. If they’re the ones who deal with your customers on a day-to-day basis, then they will likely have the most useful insights about where things are going wrong and what could be done better. Also, making them a part of the change process, by ensuring they know what’s changing and why, can instill a sense of pride that will show in everything they do. A close-knit, effective team can be the most useful innovation of all.
Change can be scary, but don’t let that fear hold you back. Don’t let your mistakes and failures stop you from moving ahead, either. Learn and grow – that’s what innovation is all about.
Learn more about how to innovate in your business by exploring our Nationwide blog.
