Top 7 Brainstorming Ideas To Stop Your Business Stagnating

Let’s face it, we all tend to get stuck in doing things ‘the way they’ve always been done’, and creating products, or services, in a similarly conservative mode.

But there is another way.

Why not take a new look at your business. Take the opportunity to have regular creative thinking sessions in order to break the mould. Just one session could start off a new trend.

1. Wishful Thinking Technique
   
   By dreaming of your ideal situation or solution, you can often come up with something, which can have a similar effect, but in a more practical, and realistic way.
   
   
2. Random Word Technique
   
   This is the most basic and creative technique, where you use a random word to generate new ideas. By getting a random word and forcing yourself to use it to solve your problem, you are practically guaranteed to attack the problem from a different direction to normal.
   
   
3. False Rules Technique
   
   You take a rule, quote, idea or suggestion from somewhere else, and apply it to your own situation. It is known as a "false" rule because the rule has not been considered as valid before. By getting a false rule and forcing yourself to use it, you find yourself thinking about doing things in a different way than you would normally.
   
   
4. Analogy Technique
   
   You use an analogy or metaphor of your own situation to find out how similar situations are solved in other fields.
   Analogies are very good for discovering things you had not realized about your own situation and thus enable you to develop solutions based upon them.
   
   
5. Role Play Technique
   
   The best way of changing the way you see the world, is to see it from someone else's point of view. This technique allows you to change your perspective by getting you to be a different person and see how they would approach the problem
   
   
6. The 4 P's Approach
   
   This relies on looking at a problem from different perspectives within a business.
   
   The 4 Ps approach looks at problems from the following viewpoints:
   
   Product Perspective
   Is there something wrong with the product?
   
   Planning Perspective
   Are our business plans, or marketing plans at fault?
   
   Potential Perspective
   If we were to seriously increase our targets, how would we achieve these increases?
   
   People Perspective
   Why do people choose one product over another?
   
   
7. Absurd Combinations
   
   Take a product and think of an absurd way to make it work.
   
   You can apply the same process to combinations of diverse individuals, or organizations, who could work with you.
   
   Combining your different skills could create an original approach to the market.
   
   Nearly every new idea is a synthesis of other ideas. So a great way to generate ideas is to force combinational possibilities.

About the Author:

Bill Ritchie helps with developing home based businesses, startups, Internet Marketing Tips, plus writes the occasional article, and runs a useful, informative website at http://www.thehomebusinessprofessor.com