10 Types Of Creativity In Entrepreneurship (Uncovered)

What are the types of creativity in entrepreneurship? And what role does it play in entrepreneurship?

Creativity is about looking at things from different angles and using your creative genius to make things work more effectively than they currently do. These can come as a simple "lightbulb moment" or as a well-considered and creative strategic thought.

In this article, we will cover what creativity is, the role it plays in entrepreneurship, and the 10 types of creativity in entrepreneurship that will help you succeed in business.

 

What's Creativity, And What Role Does It Play In Entrepreneurship?

Creativity is defined as "the ability to create something that hasn’t existed before."

The most common definition of creativity is "a process by which people generate ideas, solutions, concepts, or works that are considered unusual, surprising, or original."

However, there are many other definitions of creativity out there. Some say that the creative process is simply making something new, while others define it as coming up with new ways of solving old problems.

Creativity in entrepreneurship sits somewhere between the two.

It could be coming up with a whole new rebrand and e-commerce website design to better align with your target audience, or it could be as simple as creatively seeking out a more effective and efficient method of fulfilling customer orders.

The role of creativity in entrepreneurship

The role that creativity plays in entrepreneurship is very important because it helps entrepreneurs and employees come up with unique business models, strategies, and processes that can help their businesses grow.

For example, if you were running a restaurant, you might want to find a way to make your customers feel more special and appreciated.

You could do this by offering free food on certain days of the week or by giving away a free dessert every time someone buys a large main meal.

You may also want to offer discounts for repeat customers. This is all part of the creative thinking that goes into entrepreneurship.

Now that you have an understanding of what creativity is and the role it plays in a business, we will take a look at the ten types of creativity in entrepreneurship.

The Different Types Of Creative Thinking

Arne Dietrich, associate professor of psychology and chair of social and behavioural sciences at the American University of Beirut, Lebanon, conducted research into the cognitive neuroscience of creativity. 

He has outlined that there are four kinds of creative types: deliberate and emotional, deliberate and cognitive, spontaneous and emotional, and spontaneous and cognitive.

Each person can be creative in different ways. What's more, some people may have a preference for one type over another.

For example, you might prefer to create using your emotions rather than your intellect. You may also find it easier to work with others through the use of emotions as opposed to your intellect.

Dietrich said that "creativity is not just about being able to think outside the box. "It's about having the ability to think inside the box."

1. Deliberate and emotional

Deliberate and emotional creativity use focused attention to form connections between information and emotions stored in the brain that occur in the conscious mind.

They typically show up in the generation of novel ideas, such as inventions, scientific discoveries, artistic creations, financial innovations, etc.

Some examples of job roles where deliberate and emotional creativity is often used include inventors, scientists, engineers, artists, architects, writers, composers, musicians, designers, filmmakers, photographers, etc.

Deliberate and emotional creative thinking is used during the processes of visionary thinking, problem-solving, and creative thinking.

2. Deliberate and cognitive

Deliberate and cognitive creativity uses focused attention and forms connections between information stored in memory, relies on the prefrontal cortex, and happens in the conscious mind.

People who engage in this type of creativity tend to be highly analytical and use logic to solve problems. They are good at analysing data and using facts to form conclusions.

This kind of creativity is often associated with professions like accounting, law, and medicine.

Deliberate and cognitive thinking is often used during business strategy creation, financial planning, and project execution.

3. Spontaneous and emotional

Spontaneous and emotional thinking involves acting without thinking about possible outcomes and is therefore something that happens in the unconscious mind.

It stems from the limbic system and is linked to feelings and emotions.

Creative people who tend toward this kind of thinking often have strong personalities and tend to be extroverts. They are less likely to follow rules and regulations and are commonly thought to be innovative and flexible thinkers.

Some of the tasks that spontaneous and emotional creativity is used for are interacting with disgruntled customers, teamwork, and communicating with others.

4. Spontaneous and cognitive

Spontaneous and cognitive thinking involves acting without thinking of possible outcomes and is therefore also found in the unconscious mind.

It also stems from the limbic system but is more closely linked to feelings.

Creative people with this kind of thinking tend to be introverted and are usually quiet and reserved. They are less likely to follow strict guidelines and are commonly seen as unconventional and innovative thinkers.

Idea generation, innovative solutions, and leadership are all tasks that use spontaneous and cognitive creative thinking.

Now that you have a clear understanding of the different types of creativity from a psychological perspective, when you have read the ten types of creativity in entrepreneurship below, you will have a far better grounded understanding of the different types of creativity in a business.

10 Types Of Creativity In Entrepreneurship

The creativity found in entrepreneurship can be split into 10 different types and used either together or individually, depending on the task at hand.

What's more, these ten types of creativity are not mutually exclusive; they're all needed for successful entrepreneurial growth in creative industries.

Without further ado, just jump straight into the eight types of creativity in entrepreneurship.

1. Conceptual creativity

Conceptual creativity refers to the ability to come up with ideas that are new and unique. This type of creativity originates from the right hemisphere of the brain, is closely related to imagination, and is often referred to as "out-of-the-box" thinking.

In order to create a conceptual idea, you first need to think outside the box, give yourself the time and space to let your mind go blank, and think of the best way to solve this problem without any constraints or potential blockers that may occur.

You must let your thoughts run free and not hold yourself back by thinking.

A great way to keep your mind clear and improve creativity is to use The Morning Mindset Journal, as journaling and distilling your thoughts reduce stress and the load on your brain, which increase creativity and productivity.

Conceptual thinking is often regarded as one of the more difficult elements of creativity as it requires a high level of divergent thinking and the ability to think freely without a large number of constructs on which to base the output creative ideas.

2. Visual creativity

Visual creativity is the capacity to see things differently, along with communicating this creativity through visual means.

It's the ability to look at something with fresh eyes and perceive it completely differently than someone else might, and then visually communicate that idea so others completely understand what is trying to be achieved.

As the saying goes, "a picture paints a thousand words." It is therefore vital to visually communicate your design intent, as it will generate the most clarity in all the individuals about what you are trying to achieve.

An artist, for example, is someone who uses artistic creativity to create visual art all the time.

3. Verbal creativity

Verbal creativity refers to the ability to come up with words or phrases that express concepts in a novel and original manner. It is closely tied to verbal fluency and language skills.

It's important to note that there is no single word that defines verbal creativity. Instead, the term encompasses many different forms of communication, including speech, writing, and poetry.

It is a hugely vital part of entrepreneurship, as communication is life's biggest failure. If you cannot effectively verbally communicate your ideas to others, you will never gain traction in the marketplace.

If you can't talk about what you're doing, how are you going to sell it? whether it's physically to customers, or selling it in terms of getting your team on board with an idea or initiative.

4. Logical creativity

Logical creativity is the ability to apply logic and reason to problems in order to find answers and solutions.

Aristotle was one of the first people to study logic, and he believed that logic was the foundation of all knowledge and reasoning.Logical creativity involves being able to break down complex issues into simple ones and comes from the left side of the brain.

Logical thinking is also associated with critical thinking, which helps us identify patterns and relationships between everything we encounter.

Without logical thinking, we wouldn't have been able to build computers, invent electricity, discover antibiotics, or even develop the internet.

As a result, logical creativity has become increasingly important in today's society.

5. Emotional creativity

Emotional creativity is the capacity to connect with another person emotionally.

It's the ability to empathise with other people and understand their points of view. If it wasn't for emotional creativity, a lot of our previous problems wouldn't have been solved.

People like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Elon Musk, and Mark Zuckerberg were known for having high levels of emotional intelligence.

They understood how to motivate and inspire people by connecting with them on a personal level. To develop emotional creativity, you should try to put yourself in the shoes of the other person. Try and feel what they would feel if they were in your situation.

The best way to do this is through role-playing.

However, it’s not always possible to play a character that is exactly like another person. So how can you make sure that you are still doing justice to the emotions of others?

First of all, when playing or thinking as a character, you must be 100% certain about who you are portraying.

You need to know everything about them. This means knowing their personality traits, habits, likes, dislikes, and what makes them tick.

6. Tactical creativity

Tactical creativity is the ability to solve problems quickly and tactically.

It's your ability to come up with quick and efficient ways to get things done that strategically gives you an advantage over your competitors.

Tactical creativity requires you to break down projects into smaller elements and work on them to solve the problem as quickly and efficiently as possible while ensuring you come off in a better position than your competitors.

When working on a project tactically, you should always ask yourself, "How could I improve upon this?" "What will happen if I don't take action now?" and "What impact will this have over my competitors?"

An example of when tactical creativity is used would be during the creation of a marketing strategy or when your planning out your week to increase efficiency and balance.

A great tool to help achieve great life and work balance is The Weekly Planner Pad, which helps to proactively organise your week to achieve key goals in all areas of your life.

7. Intrapersonal creativity

Intrapersonal creativity is the ability to be self-aware and recognise your internal dialogue to help solve a problem and create a solution.

It's about listening to your internal thoughts and feelings to help you best solve the problem and also understand how you will feel when the problem is solved. In its most basic form, it's all about looking inward.

For example, you would use your intrapersonal creativity to solve a problem, such as feeling overwhelmed before a business meeting, as no one else is feeling those exact thoughts or emotions and only you can decide what will help fix it.

One way to reduce your feelings of overwhelm and calm your mind is to do a 5-minute meditation or use The Morning Mindset Journal to help get all of your thoughts out on paper, and let you focus on the job at hand.

By giving yourself some quiet time, you will be able to focus internally on what you need to do to help yourself and creatively solve your problem.

8. Extrapersonal creativity

Extrapersonal creativity in entrepreneurship is a highly valuable tool, as it helps you expand your horizons by looking outward.

It's the ability and willingness to step out of your internal dialogue and investigate what is going on in everyone else's words. Doing so enables you to see new, deeper viewpoints and helps generate ideas that you otherwise might not have considered.

This type of creativity helps you build strong relationships with others, which is important because it helps you find solutions to problems more easily and creates more meaningful positive change, whether in the workplace, with your target market, or in society as a whole.

You can achieve extrapersonal creativity by talking to different employees, talking to customers, conducting surveys, and reading your product reviews.

They all help give you a better understanding of how you can creatively solve other people's problems with a powerful and valuable solution.

9. Strategic creativity

Strategic creativity is the ability to creatively plan ahead and anticipate future events. It's the ability not only to predict but also to influence outcomes.

It helps your organisation make better decisions during the creative process based on facts and analysis rather than emotions or hunches.

Strategic creativity is largely used in the process of developing business and marketing plans to help you strategize for future endeavours, which in turn aims to give you a competitive advantage.

For example, strategic planning is a vital part of any business's leadership; however, to ensure you have an advantage over your competitors, it must be done in a creative manner.

By looking for different and more impactful ways of doing business activities will help to grow sales and market share.

If you would like some help on getting strategic goals, look no further than our comprehensive article on goal setting. 

10. Innovative creativity

Innovative creativity is the ability to innovate and create new, efficient solutions to problems either in your business or in the marketplace by using your creative mind.

It's the capacity to generate innovative ideas that no one has ever thought of before and, when faced with a problem, to find solutions to that problem that nobody has considered. Additionally, it's the ability to implement those solutions in reality.

Arguably, the most valuable type of creativity is innovative creativity.

This is because it is creating solutions to problems that people haven't yet worked out how to solve. Therefore, if you are the first to solve it in that particular way, and can legally protect your way of solving it, along with there being a strong need and demand for it,

You will be able to serve a lot of people and make a lot of money.

In summary, there is quite a range of different types of creativity in entrepreneurship, and more often than not, there's more than one particular type working at any one time to help output creative solutions. Everyone will find working creatively easier in different ways.

Some will find visual creativity easier than verbal creativity, and so on.

All that matters is that you get the end result that you're looking for.

Frequently Asked Questions

These are some of the most commonly asked questions about creativity in entrepreneurship:

What are some examples of creativity in the business world?

A business without creativity is arguably likely to fail, as it will simply be doing what everyone else is doing and therefore providing no greater value than anyone else, which will result in no or low sales, and no sales equal no business.

Here are some examples of how entrepreneurial titans have used creativity in the business world to produce massive impact and value for us all:

Apple Products

Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple Inc., used his creativity to provide an unbelievable amount of value and impact to the world, so much so that his contribution to society has changed the world forever.

If it wasn't for his creativity in the business world, Steve Jobs and the Apple team wouldn’t have been able to come up with a product like the iPhone, which is arguably one of the most popular products on earth today.

Without Steve Jobs and Apple, there would be no iPad, MacBook Air, iCloud, or Apple TV.

These are just a few examples of how creativity was used to develop products that most of society would now struggle to survive without.

Paypal, Tesla, The Boring Company, and SpaceX

Elon Musk, the founder of Paypal, Tesla, and SpaceX, has without a doubt used his creativity and massive future thinking to add huge value to the world and to help move human society and race forward.

Elon Musk's creative vision has changed the financial sector forever.

He have kicked the automotive industry into sustainable action by providing electric means of transportation, is changing the way people travel around the cities of the future, and aims to put humans on Mars.

Without consistent creativity, none of this would be possible.

Virgin Group

Sir Richard Branson is the founder of Virgin Group, a multinational conglomerate company that provides casinos, cruises, flights, fibre optics, hotels, mobile phones, gyms, music, and the list goes on!

Take a look at their website; it's pretty damn impressive what you can do with a bit of consistency, willpower, and creativity.

Branson is the epitome of creatively providing value to millions of people in almost a million different ways.

By creatively diversifying his business in the leisure space, he has reduced his risk while massively increasing his impact and brand awareness.

Alibaba and Aliexpress

Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba and AliExpress, creatively solved the problem of millions of manufacturers having difficulty connecting with customers who require their products.

He identified the problem and creatively developed a great solution that provided value to millions of people and businesses across the face of the earth.

He provided an online marketplace where Chinese manufacturers can display their products and services, and both Chinese and international customers can view, chat about, and purchase their products and services.

Amazon

Jeff Bezos is our final creative and entrepreneurial titan. You will get the picture now that creativity is a key element in solving problems and providing value to consumers.

From the early days of being the best online book store, where you could purchase almost any book, through to the modern day, where you can buy almost any product you wish and have it delivered the same day or by 1 pm the next day.

Jeff has tirelessly and creatively identified and solved the problems of consumers, resulting in a business that is a household name today.

If creativity wasn't at play, it is highly likely that Jeff's little bookstore would never have turned into the monster that it is today.

What are some different types of creative entrepreneurs?

There are three different types of entrepreneurs. All entrepreneurs are inherently creative people; however, the difference is the basis of what they're trying to achieve: wealth, status, value, and impact.

Wealth

The first type of entrepreneur is one who wants to create wealth for themselves and their family.

They want to make money by creating something new and selling it to others, with an emphasis on making money. This is the most common type of entrepreneur; however, it is actually what is stopping you from growing a huge business like Amazon.

Yes, Jeff Bezos will have everything set up to generate money, as we all need money to put food on the table and have a roof over our heads. However, through the act of first providing immense value, vast amounts of wealth followed.

Status

The second type of entrepreneur is someone who wants to increase their social standing. They want to become famous, be recognised, and gain recognition for their work or the impact they are creating.

This perspective largely originates from not receiving the recognition as a child that they felt they desired. They are striving to be recognised for their work, which, when recognized, makes them feel complete.

It can certainly make you successful to a certain extent and make you push to work harder and achieve more.

However, as it is an external factor that you cannot control, you are always at risk of people not liking what you are doing and therefore not having the status you so desire.

Value

We all have various problems; therefore, as an entrepreneur, if you can provide great value to people through the means of a product or a service or both that solves their problem, then people will pay you for this so they can make their problem go away.

If the systems are set up correctly, they can be very scalable, and if they are marketed correctly to the right people in the right place, they can also help thousands if not millions of people solve their problems.

If you think of the most successful entrepreneurs in the world, their wealth has been gained through creating value as opposed to chasing the financial reward.

The financial reward should always come after the value that you provide to people, and the financial number is an indicator of how much value you provide in the world.

Impact

This type of entrepreneur is one who strives to improve society, create positive change, and make the world better than it was before.

These entrepreneurs often do things like start charities, create social enterprises, or even create businesses that aim to make the world a better place.

In fact, many of the greatest entrepreneurs in history have had this goal in mind.

For example, Elon Musk is known for his vision of improving the world through technology. He started SpaceX and Tesla Motors, two companies that aim to improve the lives of everyone around the world.

He has also created Neuralink, a company that aims to merge human brains with computers, whether you deem it positively or negatively in terms of technological advancements—all things that aim to have a huge impact on humanity.

To sum up, there are many different types of creative entrepreneurs, and there is certainly no right or wrong type that you could be; in fact, you can be a blend of multiple types.

It is highly useful to know what type you are, as without this, you don't really know where you're going, what you're trying to achieve, and why you're doing it all in the first place.

How to stay creative as an entrepreneur

Ensuring you stay creative as an entrepreneur is vital, especially if you want to keep growing your business and developing as an individual.

You need to ensure that you are constantly learning new skills and keeping yourself updated with the latest trends. This way, you can remain relevant and continue to grow as an entrepreneur.

There are many ways to stay a creative entrepreneur; here are some points that will hopefully be helpful to you:

1. Be open-minded

Being open-minded to different ways of doing things is important because it helps you learn from others and adapt to changing environments.

2. Don't get too attached to ideas

Ensure that you don't get too attached to any particular idea too early on, as this will only hold you back, prevent you from being creative, and shut down any possibility of any other ideas that might be better than the one you are currently holding onto.

3. Stay humble

Don't ever forget that you are just another person in the world, so never feel like you are above anyone else. By doing this, you will stay open to different ways of thinking and different perspectives that will help you overcome problems more creatively.

4. Keep learning

When you think you know it all, you stop learning. It's not about knowing everything, but rather about continuously learning and adapting to the environment around you.

By adapting to and learning from the environment around you, you will in turn become a more creative and successful entrepreneur.

If you haven't learnt it already, meditation is a must have tool to help control your mind and thoughts. Have a read of our 'How to Meditate Guide'.

5. Take risks

Taking risks is essential when it comes to staying creative as an entrepreneur. You should always try out new things and take calculated risks. If something doesn't work out, you can easily change directions and move on.

This will allow you to stay flexible and adaptable to changes in the market.

6. Follow your passion

If you follow your passion, then you will find that you will naturally be more creative and innovative. When you are passionate about something, you will automatically start thinking outside the box and come up with unique and creative solutions to problems.

7. Learn from your mistakes

Mistakes are inevitable; however, they shouldn't define who you are. Instead, use them as opportunities to learn and grow. By making mistakes, you will gain valuable experience, which will ultimately make you a more effective and creative entrepreneur.

8. Have fun

Having fun is also very important for staying creative as an entrepreneur, as it keeps you motivated and positive. This will help you to avoid burnout and depression, both of which will have a negative impact on your creativity.

In summary, by staying as competitive as possible, you are far more likely to have an advantage in a competitive market, due to your ability to come up with innovative ideas and ways of solving problems.

Conclusion

In conclusion, having read this article, I hope you have a better understanding of the different types of creativity in entrepreneurship, what creativity is, and the role it plays in entrepreneurship.

You will be able to go forward in your creative entrepreneurial endeavours and produce highly valuable output that will lead to both business and personal success and growth.

Entrepreneurial creativity is a powerful tool, so use it with all your might!

I would love to hear what you think about this topic, so please leave me a comment below!

Thanks for reading.