Would you believe something that you’d consider to be a limitation could actually unlock a whole new future for your business?
Many companies won’t look the same as they did post-pandemic, including yours. In order to avoid failures in business, many businesses are finding ways to adapt. You may decide to close down a physical store and sell more online. You may decide to supplement your online sales with pop-up shops. You may decide to totally change up your product or service offering.
I’ve used curative mental tools to help me unlock new ideas and solutions for my entire career. When COVID-19 hit, I wanted to help business owners solve problems in a step-by-step way via a series of exercises and worksheets in my new Moving Past Disaster program. That’s where the “limitations” exercise comes in.
For example, before I became a business coach, I was an art director for a large apparel-decorating company. One way that I constantly created new and innovative designs for clients was to invent some new limitations or constraints to keep ideas flowing.
I’d write words on index cards and keep them rubber-banded in a neat stack. Here are some of those words (and I had hundreds of them): transparent, circle, asymmetrical, orange, rough, shiny, glow and tall.
When I needed inspiration, I’d pull out two or three random cards and use these to filter my ideas for the project. If I didn’t like the word, I put it back and draw another one.
You can use this fun brain-bending exercise to brainstorm brand-new directions for your business. Ready? Here are a dozen for you to choose from:
- Time Limits
- Color
- Money
- Technology
- Size
- Number
- Alphabet Letter
- Increase or Decrease
- Surprise
- Physical Activity
- Visible or Invisible
So, how do limitations help my business?
Let’s drill down into a real-world example of a business strength: Your business has a large social media following. That’s great! How can we wake those customers up and inspire them to engage with you?
We’ll pick the Alphabet Letter limitation. Choose one letter of the alphabet and see how many ideas you can list to activate customers to engage with your business.
Randomly, I chose the letter “P.” Here are 10 quick new ideas I generated to increase social media engagement:
- Podcast: “You’ve gotta listen to our brand-new podcast where we interview our customers who’ve gone on to be hugely successful after taking our course.”
- Performance: “Check out our team acting out scenes from their favorite movies! Extra points if you can guess the movie!”
- Putting Green: “Check out our CEO putting a golf ball into a cup in his kitchen, because pandemic life!”
- Pickles: “Guess how many pickles we’ve stuffed in this gigantic jar to win a prize!”
- Pack: “What would you pack for your ultimate vacation?”
- Philanthropy: “Buy one and we’ll donate 3% to your favorite charity.”
- Picture: “Share a photo of yourself with our product (extra points if you’re on the beach!).”
- Partner: “Show off a photo of your personal or professional partner!”
- Perfect: “What’s your idea of the perfect day?”
- Poll: Answer a survey question: “What color should our new widget be?”
What to do next: Write down some of your company’s strengths and then see if you can use a limitation to drum up some new ideas that can elevate them to another level.
Here are some other key ways the limitations exercise can help your business.
1. Needs. Right now, your business has immediate needs that must be met. These are mandatory items that you have to solve to thrive. Using the ability to creatively play and a limitation, let’s drum up a different way of addressing these needs.
For example, one obvious need may be a financial injection of cash to help get your business going again. Cash is king, after all. Maybe your business has traditionally sold a physical product, in a retail setting and online.
Let’s play around with that and choose Color as the limitation. What color does your product most often come in? What if it was sold in a limited edition in hot pink or camoflauge? For what you do, what would be playful and different? Would there be a market for that?
Think about it: A few years ago, M&Ms challenged consumers to find a gray candy to win a million-dollar prize. Routinely, the candy giant changes colors and tweaks marketing messages to promote the candy with different ideas based on color. A new color can mean fun and innovative, even if you’re delivering the same product.
2. Wants. This is an item that’s on your wish list, but isn’t mandatory at the moment.
For example, it would be nice to have TV stations, newspapers and magazines detailing what’s happening with your company. However, without hiring a public relations firm and positioning your company in the press, that’s going to be on your company’s wants list, not your needs list.
But, let’s use that example with our playful limitations list. For this one, let’s pick Surprise.
The mainstream press is always on the lookout for things that are new and innovative. What are you doing that would surprise people? Is it making a difference in people’s lives? What everyday problem is it solving?
Couple that idea with what media outlets normally cover this aspect. Reach out to them and pitch your story! Send the info and a press release. Film a video explaining what you’re doing. If you want more news coverage you have to be newsworthy. Lock down your element of surprise.
3. Magic Wand. OK, so there must be a few things about your business that you wish were different.
For example, let’s say that due to the recent coronavirus event, your business has suffered because people don’t feel comfortable coming back to your space. You wish people felt comfortable again. Let’s choose the Visible or Invisible limitation and see where this takes us.
The coronavirus is invisible. Even with wearing face masks and gloves, people may not feel comfortable in your business as they don’t trust that they won’t get infected by the virus.
Trust is the issue.
What would make customers trust you more? Can you prove that you care with crews constantly cleaning? Are they wearing PPE equipment too? Can you check temperatures with forehead thermometers? What about limiting the number of people inside and the direction they travel?
Film your efforts and show them on your website and social media. The more visible that you show concern about your customer’s health and safety, the more trust you can develop.
The bottom line
Your business is facing its next normal. To be successful, you need to shape your new future. If you use a tried-and-true creative mental model, you can unlock a new direction for your business.
