20 percent time -- or "Never forget the gopher flies"

One way that companies like Google and 3M encourage more innovation and creativity from their employees is by offering them 15 percent or 20 percent time. The best way to explain this might be to share this quote from the 3M Website:

To foster creativity, 3M encourages technical staff members to spend up to 15 percent of their time on projects of their own choosing. Also known as the "bootlegging" policy, the 15 percent rule has been the catalyst for some of 3M's most famous products, such as Scotch Tape and — of course — Post-it® Notes.

Google implemented the same concept early on (making it 20 percent). This resulted in the creation of such Google services as Google News, Gmail, Froogle, and more. As stated on their site:

We offer our engineers “20-percent time” so that they’re free to work on what they’re really passionate about. Google Suggest, AdSense for Content, and Orkut are among the many products of this perk.

I believe this concept could work for almost any company. Giving the employees access to company resources plus time each week to dedicate to their own ideas and projects, for the benefit of the company, can lead to a flood of new ways for your to grow. And it gives employees a chance to shake out the cobwebs and stretch creative muscles in new and interesting ways.

If you're a small business owner just trying to keep soup and saltines on the table, don't fret. Giving yourself fifteen or twenty percent time can actually help you be less busy while making more profits. Start by blocking out a few hours a day, or a day a week, for exploring new ideas, doing research, trying out new software, etc. Treat this like paid time. It's sacred. It's blocked out for a reason, so it's not the time to check e-mail or work on other projects.

Once you have your time set aside, don't limit yourself. Explore every crazy idea that comes into that sweet, sweet melon on your shoulders. Mmm ... melon ... <>. Just let the ideas flow and see where they take you. Call someone you think might have the skills to write that program you dreamed up. Write a letter to a grant committees to do that study on the Southwestern gopher fly. Talk to a few experts in the field of lost dental retainer retrieval about your new concept. Whatever the idea, use your 20 percent time to explore it without guilt or pressure. It might just lead to new and bigger opportunities to grow your business and maybe fatten your wallet.