Innovation is the backbone of any business's development. Without it, there would be nothing to differentiate one business from another, which could seriously damage the amount of competition in the industry and reduce the overall number of opportunities for profits. One way to help your business stay on the razor edge of innovation is to create a working environment that encourages the generating and sharing of ideas to help the business become as successful as possible. There are a number of ways to achieve this. For example, open plan offices are often touted as being a great way to remove barriers between employees, which in turn encourages the discussion and development of ideas and concepts. This could be as simple as removing the cubicle partitions between peoples' working environments and fostering one big space for you and your staff to work within. Furthermore, having a lot of natural light streaming into the room will further improve the creative flow. Another way to help creativity grow in your business is to make smaller administrative tasks as easy as possible. By minimising the amount of time spent on tasks like accounting and inventory, you free your employees up to ponder ways to help improve your business. For example, the CashManager range of software from Accomplish can help to streamline your cashflow management, giving you and your employees a simple way to keep your finances in check. Finally, it's important to remember that you need to maintain a dialogue between yourself and your employees. This means not being too critical of seemingly silly ideas, but giving people the opportunity to properly explain their idea. Often this will lead to a brainstorming session that will either manage to make the idea workable, or provide someone else with the spark for another, better idea. Taking these tips on board can help you to make your business marketable and profitable.