Chapter 20
Tap into Your Think Tank
Twenty Ways to Generate Ideas That Will Boost Your Business
In today's business world, your ideas are what set you apart from your competition. Here's how to get your creative juices flowing so that you can outthink and outearn your competition.
The lightbulb. Bubble wrap. The Post-It. The iPod. The Snuggie. Facebook. Twitter. These inventions, products, and businesses all started with an idea. An idea that to anyone other than its creator(s) may have seemed like an insane thing to invest much time, money, or effort in bringing to fruition. But for the masterminds behind these great ideas, the risk paid off, and so too can your next great idea.
Now, you may be thinking, I am not going to come up with today's equivalent of the lightbulb. That's fine. You don't have to. Great ideas come in many shapes and sizes—whether it's something as small as a new logo for your business or something as big as rolling out a brand-new product. What's important is that you give your best ideas a shot at life.
Great ideas are like gold. Everybody hopes to find them buried under the floorboards in their house. But just like finding gold, you often need a treasure map. In fiscally constrained times such as these, ideas are what matter most. Businesses live and die from the ideas they come up with. Great ideas get attention and bring people through the doors. The tricky part is figuring out how to find them.
So what does a great idea look like in practice? ...
