Happy business owners tend to come up with more ideas. Practicing creating every day to come up with something good.

We all have the ability to create ideas, but most people don't know how to tap into them. Creativity is based on cognitive processes we all share.

We usually think of poetry or art when the topic of creativity comes up. These things are great, but most people won't make a lot of money with them. An entrepreneur also needs to learn to be more creative to come up with new business ideas, new products and new revenue streams.

One way to become more creative and come up with new ideas is to immerse yourself in a topic. Know the topic inside and out by studying everything you can find about it. Do this on a daily basis.

Study the past. Visit museums and learn from those who created before you. Sometimes you can use that knowledge to come up with new twists on old ideas. Go to art galleries, lectures, libraries, flea markets, seminars, etc. Learn to look at everything with the idea of creating something new from the past. History is a great teacher. Notice the trends throughout time to help you figure out what will be coming next. Look at how inventors and innovators have come up with better ways to do something?

You can sometimes get ideas from looking in the Yellow Pages to see what niche business needs to be created. How can you use your knowledge and skills to create a business that doesn't yet exist? Think about ways you can take an existing business and make it better? What are people talking about, worried about, excited about? Even more important, try to look into the future and figure out what they will be talking about a year from now, five years from now, ten years from now. Get in on the curve before anyone else. Once it's in the collective conscience it may be too late. Be an innovator and spot the trends before everyone else.

Get out and interact with people. Listen to the other side of an argument. Find out how the rest of the world thinks. Let the market tell you what people want and make it for them. Do some research to find out what kind of things people don't want. Get their true opinion.

The goal is to start stretching your brain. Put all of your research together to create new business ideas.

Copyright (c) 2010 Julie Austin