You can spend thousands of dollars paying pros to deliver slick advertising slogans. You can pay web site designer generous fees for original designs. But how many small business owners have that kind of budget? The alternative is to use an extremely valuable piece of apparatus which right now is as close to you as close can be. What? Your brain!

The human brain is a constant source of amazement to scientists. Each of 10 billion neurons has a possibility of making connections to number of 1 with 28 zeros after it. So total number of connections which can be made through electro-chemical processes is pretty well limitless. Regular thought patterns form channels in mind, much like a path formed through frequent pedestrian traffic across a field. This has benefits. We don't have to deliberate about every minor decision every day. However, there is a danger! If our thinking falls into ruts when considering important areas of our lives and business, our creativity is stifled.

The good news is this: You do not have to be a genius to come up with creative ideas, break out of rut and start thinking "outside box". You just need to kick start your brain by providing outside stimuli to get it to think in ways it hasn't before. This can be accomplished by associating totally unrelated subjects together and observing what reactions come from fusion!

This method, applied to our business can be a fertile source of ideas. Let's do a little exercise to illustrate. Supposing you need fresh ideas, words, phrases, for an advertising campaign.

Choose any word at random. For exercise we will use word FROG. Even better, get a picture of one. Now start writing furiously on a clear sheet of paper anything and everything that comes into your mind to do with frogs.

Here goes:

green, slimy, jump, legs, leap, croak, tad poles, metamorphosis, reeds, water, bull, tree, wide-mouth, eyes, smell, slippery, cold, kermit, spawn, eggs, jelly.

Take one of those words and explore further if you wish:

Legs - long, jointed, tasty, delicacy, spring, fold.

Mind Mapping is an excellent tool for this kind of exercise. Review mind mapping handbook here: (Book review: http://www.vitalstop.com/br-mindmap.htm)