Leverage Your Business Success – Freely "Borrow" Ideas
In school we’re told, “Keep your eyes on your own paper or I’ll send you to the Principal’s office”. That’s because as school children we understood that borrowing test answers from others is considered cheating.
In the business world it’s called a joint venture. Can’t write a book by yourself? Work with a co-author or ghost writer. Like to fix up houses but don’t like selling them? Get a real estate agent or partner. Love to cook but can’t stand the administrative work of owning a restaurant? Work with someone who does.
Joint Ventures make the world go round. Donald Trump uses them. Robert Kiyosaki uses them. I use them, and you should too. They are a way of teaming up and sharing talents and resources.
Another way to legally borrow resources is to create your own variation on the appropriate theme. In other words, your business idea doesn’t have to be completely unique. Yet some unique aspect of it can turn it into a whole new business. For example, Dominos Pizza wasn’t the first Pizza restaurant or even Pizza delivery service. Yet their promise “Fresh hot Pizza delivered in 30 minutes or less” distinguished them from the competition and made them millions of dollars in the process.
What unique touch can you add to an existing idea? Maybe it’s a special ingredient in a recipe; or a way of improving an existing service or making it more convenient or faster. One of my early clients had a great idea. He realized how inconvenient it can be for busy business people to deal with their dry cleaning needs. So, he started a business that picked up and delivered dry cleaning from the office complexes in the area. He didn’t own the dry cleaning facility; he just owned the van that pickup up and delivered the clothes to the dry cleaner’s customers.
So start looking at existing businesses and put your imagination to work developing ideas that would improve or add to the products or services they offer. Even if you ultimately take your business in a completely different direction, this process will tap into the right (creative) side of your brain and ideas will begin to flow.
Once you start training your mind to "think outside the box" and come up with new twists on "old ideas, you'll find that it gets easier and easier. Here's one way to get your creative juices flowing:
Take out a piece of paper – yes paper, not a computer screen – and write the starter or "seed" idea in the center of the page. This is the idea you're going to borrow – your launching point.
Next, write down any word or idea that flashes into your mind. Do NOT "edit" or evaluate at this stage. Just brainstorm and let the ideas flow freely. You may find that it helps to talk out loud, because hearing and writing will spark even more brilliant ideas than just writing will.
When you have an "AHA!" moment or a gut feeling that you've found your unique twist, take action on it right away. Be sure to save that paper so you can implement other ideas as well.
Your brain is powerful. Put it to good use!