Re-energize Your Small-Business Creativity Tip of the Day

Just the very nature of being a small business owner makes 

you creative. 

 

You come up with marketing plans and 

strategies and evolve product ideas from OK to amazing. 

 

But, just like anyone in a creative field, from time to time you hit a slump. 

And especially as we’re coming off the holiday break, where we’ve been indulging in good food, family fun and lots of merriment, the creative juices may want to stay in hibernation mode until spring.

Here are a few tips to get the creativity flowing to kick off 2016.

Clean your office. Sure, it doesn’t sound like much fun, but experts agree that a cluttered space clutters the mind. So sweep the cobwebs from both and see what hits you.

Take a walk. Just because your office is made of four walls and a floor doesn’t mean it’s always the place you’ll find inspiration. Take in a little scenery, whether it’s a bustling city street or deep in the woods; it can help you reflect, forget and create.

Keep a journal. How many ideas have we all lost because we simply didn’t write them down? Great ideas come to us at the most unexpected moments. Travel with a pad and pen or have an app to record your thoughts. You never know when one of those fleeting ideas could become your next big thing

2015 EQUITIES OUTLOOK 2014 has been another great year for US equities and a mixed one for Europe. As of early December, the S&P 500 was up 13% year to date, Nasdaq 100 up 22% and Dow Jones was 9% higher. In contrast, Germany’s DAX index was ‘only’ up 7% while Britain’s FTSE was literally flat year to date. Despite the geopolitical tensions in Ukraine and the Middle East and the slump in oil prices, investors’ appetite for equities has been strong as global central banks stick to their accommodative monetary policies. Some of the themes from 2014 are likely to remain in place in 2015 for stocks, especially the support from central banks. The ECB for example may move to expand its asset purchases program to include government debt as it fights deflationary threats from falling oil prices and weaker wage growth. This could be a boon to German stocks in particular. The US is again likely to lead the global economic recovery while the weaker commodity prices could alleviate the pressure on emerging markets. But weaker oil and metal prices could also mean the FTSE, a commodity-heavy index, could underperform once again. As monetary policy in the US is heading towards the path of normalization, we envisage only moderate further gains for US stocks, at least compared to recent years. But from a technical point of view, the major US indices are still not in the parabolic phase of the bubble, assuming one is forming. So, there could be further sharp gains to come before the bubble potentially bursts, perhaps toward the end of 2015. DAX Could Outperform in 2015 Although we think that the economic outlook for the Eurozone is fairly bleak for 2015, we think Germany will lead growth in the Eurozone and we are therefore bullish on the DAX. After consistent falls in the German Ifo Business Climate index throughout 2014, there was an upward surprise in the November reading. Though one month’s worth of data may not be a game changer, we think the Ifo will continue to improve in 2015. The lower oil prices will likely help lower the production costs for German manufacturers and builders, which could in turn boost their bottom lines. Traders should watch the “Business Expectations” sub-index of the Ifo very closely this year as it tends to lead the