An upbeat and informative look at the people who are making the world a better place - despite the economic meltdown - through innovation, their stories and their strategies

As we start the new year, I want to share some insight regarding our recent Innovative Business Contest.  Below is a partial list - think of it as a first post on the subject - concerning what we liked about WiSpots, why we selected them as the winner and what we hope others can learn from their selection.

1. They are a BUSINESS and their technology is in the BUSINESS stage of its cycle. Sometimes a great concept or technology is so undeveloped that it is still just a concept with the hopes of becoming a business. WiSpots has successfully navigated that rocky road of moving from concept to business.  This particular passage is where so many great concepts die a brutal death.

2. They have focus. We see so many “business opportunities” that are all over the map with respect to what they hope to do and achieve.  The reality is that people need simplicity.  It is a time-starved world and virtually every potential user of nearly every industry is suffering from information overload.  Overcoming that attention deficit is as important as the nature of the innovation itself, if the innovation is going to be used.  We liked how WiSpots demonstrated its focus.

3. They have competitors. I discuss more about the value of this characteristic in the 20-Point Strategic Inspection video and eBook. But suffice it to say that this is more important that most people realize when trying to identify a truly innovative business.  Mistake #1 many people make in defining an innovative business is trying to find one that has no competitors.  Never trust a business with no competitors. [click to continue...]

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There is a lot to cover this week at InnovativeEconomy.com, so I want to highlight what is to come:

First, a quick note in case you haven’t seen my guest post on Yaro Starak’s blog, www.entrepreneurs-journey.com. It is an honor for me that Yaro has published a post I wrote for him, as I have benefited greatly from being a student in two of his programs. I’m excited to share some insight from my own expertise in innovation with fellow bloggers. You can see the post here.

1. Request We Received: When we released The Coming Economic Boom For Bloggers™ we received a lot of feedback that people wanted to better understand the business side of IPR and how to approach it from a blogger’s perspective. Simultaneously, we were receiving feedback from innovators that they were trying to figure out how to incorporate blogging and social media into their business plans.

Our Answer: Create a complementary program and tie the two together. The new program is also a coaching program and it is called, Uncover Hidden Capital Toolkit and Coaching Program.™ It is a 12-week program where students receive videos from me each week, along a new eBook or report I write each week to help them build a business around IPR. I have also created a 20-Point Strategic Inspection eBook and video to complement that program.

This week, we are creating all new videos, among other things, for The Coming Economic Boom For Bloggers™ and we are combining the content with Uncover Hidden Capital Toolkit and Coaching Program™, and putting it all in the same place. This will help bloggers become better at the IPR business and help innovators become better at blogging.

While we complete the transition, there is a special pricing offer with a 30-day, 100% hassle-free money back guarantee located at www.YourProductMade.com. When the transition is complete later this week, the pricing and terms will change substantially.

2. The First Edition of the InnovativeEconomy.com Newsletter is now available. I outline the problems and challenges I’m going to address on the blog in the weeks ahead. I strongly encourage you to sign up for the newsletter so you can see what is in store for you - and perhaps of value not only to you but also people you know and may want to help by providing it to them.

3. Later this week, I will discuss in greater detail why we chose wiSpots to be the winner of our Innovative Business Contest, plus start releasing other info outlined in the InnovativeEconomy.com Newsletter.

This is going to be a busy week and a busy month, with frequent posting, so stay tuned!

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Today, I have the honor of announcing the winner of our first-ever Innovative Business Contest.  We had hoped to reach a conclusion before the holidays but it became apparent from our entries that we needed to give each candidate the attention they deserved in the evaluation process.

If you haven’t yet reviewed the list of contestants, I hope you will take a moment to do so.  It is really encouraging to see great minds like these working to build a better world for all of us.  I also hope you will bookmark their respective sites and follow their progress.  There are some very promising innovations emerging through these contestants.

But, as frustrating as it may be, we can only have one winner. 

May I have the envelope, please?

(sounds of envelope opening)

And the winner for the first Innovative Business Contest from InnovativeEconomy.com is…..

[click to continue...]

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