A question to ask yourself each night is:

 What have you done to promote your business today?

Other valuable questions are: 

  • What did you learn today?
  • What new promotion did you hear about this week that you could adopt or adapt for your business?
  • What technique did you read about that could make your business more efficient?
  • What new website did you hear about that can help your business?

Rick Siegel, a master at retail selling, suggests creating an idea book.  This is something I have been doing for years but I have called it a swipe file.

You can use a file on your computer, buy a notebook just for the “idea file” purpose, or set up a folder in your filing system or even use all three methods.  Each and every time you read or hear something that you could use and adapt, add it to your “idea file”.

 I collect ads, from every kind of publication ranging from the daily newspaper, the Wall Street Journal and even AARP magazine, that trigger an ah-ha moment.  Looking through this file, ideas are generated for headlines, graphics, and even descriptions.  It’s like having more brains than my own working together to create effective marketing materials.

For example, an ad that I cut out of the Wall Street Journal several years ago was something about an investment company not being a cookie-cutter company.  I took the idea from my “swipe file” and created an ad with a graphic of a gingerbread man and the headline “Creative Gifts To Go is not a cookie-cutter gift business.”

Try an “idea file” for yourself.  I think you’ll be surprised at how helpful it can be