How to ignite great ideas – 1939 style

Creativity is a capricious, off-the-cuff beast, isn’t it? Well, not according to some. As US business website Inc. points out, forming ideas has been compared to car assembly lines for more than 70 years.

So how can you create a methodical process for sparking great ideas? Inc. has the five essential steps, straight from a 1939 ad man.

Another good habit to get into is a little more modern – social media. While many businesses now have sophisticated social media strategies, start-ups can still benefit by keeping it simple.

Here are the basic, daily social media routines you should be getting into, from seeking out new followers to responding to mentions.

“I wasn’t just tired. I wasn’t just experiencing malaise. I was really stressed out,” business owner Ellen Barnard tells Entrepreneur.com. “I had an ah-ha moment where I thought, ‘If I can get rid of some of this stress, I can be more productive’.”

So Barnard joined a knitting class. Problem solved. Here are some more conventional tips from Entrepreneur.com on how to bust your start-up stress.

Some business bosses like to keep a clean desk, while others sneak in the odd nip of whiskey while overseeing a sprawling mess of books, notes and rubbish. Here’s what the desks of 39 successful people look like.

Finally, Forbes recently released its list of Australia’s 50 richest people. No prizes for guessing who came in at number one (although the first name may be a bit of an initial puzzle to you).