I always love to intro a new guest blogger to Small Business Owner, and today is no exception. Please extend a warm welcome to Bambi Gordon, co-owner of a number of businesses including Regional Events Australia, The Brew, and her ‘baby’ The Woo.

You know how it goes.  3am. Pondering the big questions of life, like whether to have fruit or toast for breakfast, when the internal light-bulb goes ping and you have a ‘Great Idea’.

Maybe you’re just hanging with your partner and the dog arguing over whether to watch Two & A Half Men or just kill yourself now, and one of you comes up with a Great Idea.

Or you’ve been corralled into a small room with water, Minties, whiteboard and co-workers to apply the trade-marked secret steps of “creative problem solving” and mind maps to come up with a…Great Idea.

Great Ideas are a highly valued commodity and are widely considered to be the holy grail of marketing.

Unfortunately they are usually also a huge pile of doggy doo – a total waste of energy, resources and time – which in a small business can spell disaster.

You can usually recognise a Great Idea by the following criteria:

• The boss (or partner, courier, girl at the cafe) really likes them because they are ‘clever’ or ‘funky’ or ‘different’ – which of course they are blatantly not. 

• They are perceived to be cost effective because they involve giving away stuff – in particular stuff that you get other businesses to give you like a bottle of wine, some form of gift basket or a week’s accommodation at a time-share resort.

• Great Ideas have magnetism.  Once you have the initial Great Idea it usually attracts lot of other great ideas to it (usually the ones that got knocked back at last month’s planning meeting).

• Your Great Ideas often looks very much like whatever else is big in the news at the moment – like putting ‘I’ in front of a new product even if it’s not digital

• Seasonal and recurring themes are usually big in the World of the Great Idea …. Like, it’s our birthday but you get the gift. Free box of easter eggs with every car tyre sold.

Most importantly of all – Great Ideas are rarely strategic; which means they are NOT in fact a GREAT idea at all but just another directionless, ad hoc tactic that may or may not work to market your business.

Imagination, creativity, and inspiration are valuable resources for the business owner. But when it comes to marketing, step back from the white board and immerse yourself in the foundation of your business – your marketing strategy. 

Focus narrowly upon your customers; who are they, what do you want to say to them and how do you want to say it.  If a Great Idea comes along that directly addresses those questions, it really is Great.

Want to share some rubbish you’ve seen lately that was masquerading as a ‘great idea’?

Bambi Gordon, Up The Front @ The Woo

Today we’re lucky to have a post from Joanna Maxwell, owner of WorkInColour. Joanna specialises in helping people tap into their creative side and also coaches those looking for a change in career. In today’s tough times, standing out from the pack is more important than ever – so let’s get those creative juices flowing!

I’ve been a fan of Tony Buzan’s Mind Mapping technique for at least 15 years. I use it most days for one thing or another. I plan workshops, map out articles to write, prepare my class notes – and daydream possibilities for fixing up the back yard.

Mind mapping has become so much part of how I think that I had really begun to take it for granted. Whereas I used to teach it to every group and most of the individual clients I came across, over the last year or two I had started to think it was as obvious and unnecessary as trying to teach someone how to make a shopping list….

So, for a while I got slack about it. (I even started to wonder if this Tony Buzan fellow was really worth all the fuss – after all, anyone could have invented shopping lists.)

But then a few weeks ago I went to the Happiness Conference in Sydney and heard Tony Buzan give a keynote. I also went to his post-conference workshop and was awestruck all over again with his presentation and examples of the uses for this simple technique. It only seems obvious because it mimics the way we think, the way the brain actually works. That’s the power of it, and its elegance.

Mind mapping allows you to tap into your left and right brains at the same time – to use images and association, logic and intuition, big picture and fine detail all at once. It’s a bit like making a street map to your destination.

(And it’s fun.)

So, starting with my corporate workshop in Melbourne on Wednesday, mind mapping is back on my agenda.

Here are some tips:

• Put an image in the centre for the main idea – add a word or phrase.
• Use a colour to draw a branch out from the centre…add a word that relates to an aspect of your project.
• One word or concept per branch, each branch connecting to the central image.
• Add sub branches around the main ones.
• Let your imagination go – you can always edit later.
• Use pictures to prompt your memory.
• Lots of colour is great.

Check out Buzan’s website for ideas, a gallery of maps and more inspiration: http://www.buzanworld.com/Mind_Maps.htm

Joanna Maxwell, Owner, WorkInColour