Profitability Ninja | Dr. Ivan Misner®

Last week I posted the first part of a series of guest blogs sharing the article “Creativity vs. ‘Innovativity'” by Frank DeRaffele. Below is the continuation of where the article left off last week.

“Creativity vs. ‘Innovativity'” by Frank J. DeRaffele Jr. ( . . . Continued — CLICK here to read Part 1)

So how do we save ourselves from this Ninja? Enter the Samurai of Innovation. This Innovative Samurai (dressed in white, by the way) cuts through the creativity and reveals Innovative Thought, Innovative Ideas, Innovative Profitability.

Innovation is the good twin of creativity. Innovation is creativity with focused and applied business value. It knows how to see, analyze, evaluate, measure, and decide if this creative thought is able to become Business Innovation or if it will stay as Creative Waste.

As creativity is both a strength and a weakness to us as small business entrepreneurs, we must learn and develop the skill of how to take our creative thoughts and see if they can become innovative bottom line value.

A creative thought may be a wonderful idea but it has no direct relation to a solution. Not that it is not of value, because it may have great value, but it may not be of value NOW. When it is not of direct value, we open the gate for our Profitability Ninja to enter. The question is, how do we define value? In its most simple form, we can answer this question by asking — Does this creative idea relate directly to a current problem that we have and will it help us solve the problem in the way we would like?

For example, let’s say you own a retail store. You measure your success by the number of transactions you do on a daily basis and by the dollar volume of each transaction. Currently you are very happy with the number of transactions but you would like to increase your average dollar per transaction. Most customers that purchase from you spend an average of $55.00 (USD) per transaction. You would really like to get that number up to $65.00 (USD) per transaction. This means we need to look at up-selling, cross-selling, and the packaging of products. As you start to think about this, you come across an idea of a great new way to do a direct mail piece to a new target market. You know that if this new direct mail piece works, you will attract a new client base to your store. This new client base is exciting because you haven’t focused on new target markets for quite a while and by expanding into . . . WAIT A MINUTE! What does this have to do with increasing your average dollar per transaction?! The answer is . . . NOTHING.

What just happened here? Yes, it was the Profitability Ninja. He snuck in and started you thinking down a new path. He got you to come up with a great new idea and while getting excited about that idea, he made you forget that your real problem is Average $/Transaction . . . NOT Number of Transactions. Do you see what I mean? This new idea may not be a bad idea–in fact, it may be a good idea . . . however, it is not helping to solve the current problem at hand. By not keeping your focus on Direct Resolutions to your problem, your profits will go into the red.

Come back next week to read the final installment of Franks article, “Creativity vs. ‘Innovativity,” and learn how to recognize ‘innovativity’ to maximize benefits from creativity and help your business soar. As always, if you have a comment to share, I’d love to read it so please leave your thoughts in the comment section.

My friend Frank DeRaffele Jr., whom is also one of the co-authors of my upcoming book Business Networking and Sex, shared with me a great article he recently wrote called “Creativity vs. ‘Innovativity'” and I’d like to share it with all of you who read this blog.

Frank makes some very interesting points about the importance of balancing creativity and innovation in regard to small business and I think small business owners and entrepreneurs everywhere will benefit from reading this article. Since the article is quite lengthy, I’m going to divide it into a few different guest blogs so, if you like what you read in the remainder of this blog entry, be sure to stay tuned for the follow up guest blogs featuring Frank’s article.

“Creativity vs. ‘Innovativity'” by Frank J. DeRaffele Jr.

As Small Business Entrepreneurs (SBEs), one of our greatest strengths is our creativity. Coming up with new ideas . . . ALL THE TIME. However, one of our greatest weaknesses is our creativity. Coming up with new ideas . . . ALL THE TIME. For most of us, we have too many ideas, too often. Oh, the paradox! We tend to like the new idea, the new concept, the new Ah-ha! The problem with this creativity and these great ideas is that we tend to be great out of the gate but lose power on the follow through. I am not saying that we should not be creative. I am not saying that creativity is a bad thing. I AM saying that creativity can be a time stealer, distraction, justification, and crutch.

Ninja vs. Samurai

Most of us SBEs love the freedom that we have to come up with new ideas and then implement them as quickly or as slowly as we like. We love the fact that if and when we get bored with this new idea or we feel it is not panning out as we hoped, we can just drop it and move on. After all, we have no one to answer to. “I can do what I want, when I want to, and no one can tell me otherwise” we think to ourselves. This is true. Very true. In fact, TOO TRUE. This freedom we have ends up becoming our Profitability Ninja. This Ninja disguises himself as strength and confidence, happiness and joy. Yet, behind his mask is the true assassin. The Ninja who will kill our profits. He begins to steal our profits and we don’t notice it. We may not notice it for weeks, months, or years. We mostly don’t notice it because either he is too close to us or we just refuse to see him.

This Ninja steals by keeping us focused on new projects that really haven’t been well thought out. Investing time, energy, man hours, relationships, and money, with little to no return. This is when the Dark Ninja turns into the Red Ninja. We are metaphorically bleeding. We are now going from profitability to loss (Black Ink to Red Ink).

So how do we save ourselves from this Ninja? Enter the Samurai of Innovation . . .

Come back next week to read more of Frank’s article and learn about the “Samurai of Innovation.” In the meantime, if you have any comments to share about this first article installment, please feel free to share them here.