Think of your company as Play-Doh. Not only for the obvious way a business can be molded into anything you dream of like Play-doh can for kids, but also for a very different reason.

You see, Play-Doh was actually invented by accident. In the 1930s, Noah McVicker worked for his family’s soap company called Kutol Products. There, he made a new kind of wallpaper cleaner that looked like putty. Not only was it excellent for cleaning wallpaper, teachers found a way to use the wallpaper cleaner at school for making art and craft projects. McVicker took advantage of this new opportunity and pivoted to a more widespread audience, advertised the product in a different way and established a brand that is still well known today. 

Now that’s innovation. 

In a recent webinar, Patrick Bryant, founder of Code + Trust and a serial entrepreneur, discussed the ability to find your win and find ways to keep your business alive through uncertain and challenging times such as these.

Here are a few steps that he discussed to get there:

Dive into the services and product lines that you are currently offering

What’s working and what’s not? Now is the time to beef up what you are doing well and pivot away or cut the ones that just don’t make sense anymore.

The ones that are working are what you focus on, but there is also room for opportunity here.  

Have you been thinking about an idea or pitch that you weren’t sure would work or not? Now is the time to try. You know more about your industry than the average person and you should take advantage of it. You are seeing changes before many of us are and you have an idea of what the future needs of your industry will be. See if you can, possibly, create what hasn’t been invented yet, identify what needs to be refined or investigate what is lowering the productivity of your industry. 

Switch Channels

Once you’ve identified what is working and what isn’t, see how you can pivot your suppliers or goods. Take time to look at the market in general and your specific industry to learn as much as you need to know to make the appropriate decisions. 

Patrick encouraged us to identify opportunities and sleep on it. During the dream state, your brain will begin to unravel some solutions for you that are revealed from the challenges swirling in your brain. When you wake up, start your day in quiet place and allow time for innovation to happen. 

From there, move forward so that you can begin to invent. 

Invent 

What are the desperate needs of your clients and what can you do to meet those needs and solve their problems?

Take the solutions that your brain has conjured up and take a chance! Invent a product or service that fills a need and adds to your bottom line.

Innovate and Advertise

Next, get your product out there so your clients know it exists and give people the opportunity to see, feel and offer their feedback.

This step also provides you the opportunity to see how you currently advertise and make adjustments based on the current environment and where your product could get the most attention.

Funding

Inventing new and innovative products and services is fun and exciting, but I’m sure you are thinking about how to fund all of it.

As many of you know, PPP Funding is available and offers opportunities to bring back furloughed employees and provide them new opportunities to stay employed. What innovations can you be getting your employees to focus on? Just because they didn’t do it before the pandemic, doesn’t mean they can’t do it now.

Another funding method that Patrick mentioned is the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) loan and grant. This is designed to provide economic relief to businesses that are currently experiencing a temporary loss of revenue.

Loan forbearance is also a great opportunity if you have one or more residential properties. You can put the property into loan forbearance for 180 days during the CARES Act. If you are going through a difficult time, this is a great opportunity to take a little bit of the pressure off. 

Play-Doh gave many of us a lot of memories as a child, but it also leaves us with three sweet reminders: 

Take a leap and create.

Take full advantage of the space you are in.

Don’t hesitate to start over with something new if your first plan doesn’t work.

Watch the full webinar with Patrick Bryant here: https://vimeo.com/421104929