One of the most common struggles for any start-up business is answering the question how much should I charge. In my experience this is one of the best questions for a business owner to struggle through. The benefit to answering the “how much should I charge” question is that once you have answered it, you have understood your business and industry inside and out. This doesn’t happen overnight. In fact, it probably will take between one and three years.

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Fast Company has released their list of the most innovative business people of 2007. This is a must read series of articles. Everyone can learn from the examples set by these CEOs, scientists, and politicians who don’t just accept the status quo.

Who made the list? A few were surprises to me including Arnold Schwarzenegger. Others included the founder of Facebook, the founder of Wikipedia, leaders in environmental sustainability, and many top designers.

Check our the list of the most innovative business people of 2007 for yourself.

Innovation is no longer about the big one-off idea. Innovation is about strategy. New ideas are important, but too often businesses neglect their innovation strategy. Developing an innovation strategy is essential to the long term growth and sustainability of any organization.

At CE Studios I developed an Innovation Strategy Chart. The purpose of this model is to develop a strategy of innovation which creates future experiences.

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Have you ever heard someone say that ideas are a dime a dozen? Well this statement couldn’t be truer. Everyone has ideas, and in fact most people have good ideas. However, there is no such thing as a successful idea. You can have a successful product or successful business, but not a successful idea. Ideas are a dime a dozen.

You need to take an idea from concept, to proof-of-concept, to investment, to business, to successful business. That isn’t the easiest process and usually you don’t end up where you thought you would, but that is the process. All ideas must be though through, tested, and adapted over and over again.

The idea doesn’t bring success. Everyone knows that you can buy a dozen ideas for a dime.

The CBC carries a show called Dragon’s Den where inventors and entrepreneurs pitch their innovations to “big time” investors. As you would expect some ideas presented on the show are good and others are not. But one lesson everyone needs to learn is to test before you invest $85,000.

Entrepreneurs Lynden Salandy & Michelle King invented the Carry Comfort after discovering how un-hygienic public seats are. Carry Comfort is a hygienic seat cover for airplanes, buses, or other public seats. Now this is not the worst idea, as it has merit and solves a real issue. However, you must test before you invest!

Lynden was so convinced that the Carry Comfort would be a major success that he sold his house and invested his personal savings. He invested $85,000 with Carry Comfort and has zero sales!

Why will Carry Comfort never succeed?

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As Bill Watterson’s Calvin explains to Hobbes, “you can’t just turn on creativity like a faucet. You have to be in the right mood.” After Hobbes inquires as to what mood is the right mood, Calvin responds, “last-minute panic.”

Calvin is right; you can’t just turn on creativity. Creativity is actually achieved through a combination of consistent hard work and inspiration. Now I know by saying creativity is inspired that I just offended the half of my readers. However, there are two myths about creativity that I wish to dispel.

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When will the right time come for you to pitch your big idea to that big investor? If you are waiting for it to just happen, out of a random or chance meeting, then go and buy a lottery ticket. If you think that is the only way you will get a shot, you are mistaken.

Think about it from an investor’s point of view. They have a responsibility to invest the money that they are entrusted with wisely. Did you catch that? They have a responsibility to invest; it is their job to give money to people or organizations with great ideas. This bodes well for you getting an opportunity to pitch your idea.

All you have to do is get through the filters. Investors do not have time to entertain every single person with a crazy idea who wants to ask them for money. That is where filters come into play. Investors setup a series of filters to weed out poor investments from those that show greater potential. Most investors use a combination of filters; the bigger the investor the more filters you will run into. A word to the wise, do not try to undermine the filters; they are in place for good reasons. If you try to skip through, you will not get through. Instead work your way through the filters; remember the investor has a responsibility to invest their money.

Here is a list of some of the types of filters you may run into:

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What drives our innovation and design ideas? What shapes and molds them? What underlying intentions are present within our designs? Better yet, what intentions are missing from our designs? Just because we do not intend to destroy the environment doesn’t mean that we are excluded from doing so.

TED.com recently published a video of architect and designer William McDonough giving a presentation at the TED Conference 2005. In his presentation, William McDonough seeks to find out what our buildings and products would look like if designers intentionally took into account “All children, all species, for all time.” If you haven’t seen The wisdom of designing Cradle to Cradle, I suggest you watch it.

As designers and innovators we must consider our intentions and the consequences of missing intentions.

If you would like to learn more about William McDonough’s philosophy of “cradle to cradle” design, which bridge the needs of ecology and economics, you can read his book, Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things.