Borrow ideas! You'll get the best business breakthroughs

Kathy Crockett Ideas are the lifeblood of any business, whether you're running a small home-based business or a large multi-national. So entrepreneurs are always on the lookout for places they can search for new business ideas.
It's smart to look for new ideas in totally unrelated industries, and the good news is this: When you explore other industries for new business ideas, it's called borrowing, not cheating.
Plenty of start-up business ideas, as well as new business breakthroughs, come from outside their industry. Did you know that one of the 'necessities' of modern life - the roll-on deodorant - was inspired by ballpoint pens?
Or that drive-through fast food windows were originally inspired by bank tellers? That simple business idea revolutionised the entire takeout industry!
And who would have guessed that the whole science of fibre optics came about because of aerospace research, not because of the telecommunications companies which now use the technology daily.
If an idea works well in one industry, who's to say it might not also work well in another, unrelated industry? Take Fedex, for instance. Fred Smith borrowed the company's revolutionary hub and spoke distribution system from the Federal Reserve bank.
You might not think an airline and a theme park would have so much in common, but British Airways talked to DisneyWorld when they were trying to solve queue problems.
These examples are instances of real business breakthroughs. The breakthroughs have come about because people have looked at totally unrelated industries and asked themselves three questions:
1. What makes this company successful?
2. What is the lesson or idea here for my own business?
3. How can I implement that lesson or idea?
When you borrow successful processes and unique selling points from other industries, you're simply doing what great thinkers have always done. You're broadening your mind, making yourself more receptive to new ideas and inputs. Looking, listening and thinking about a broad range of industries and businesses opens your mind to new possibilities for your own business.
"Adapt or adopt," recommends internet marketer Jay Abrahams in his series of enlightening teleseminars on Business Breathroughs. "Don't get boxed into traditional norms, and don't settle for mediocrity."
Any time you're trying to solve a problem, or come up with a new idea for your own business, it makes sense to figure out how other industries have solved similar difficulties.
In much the same way as Leonardo da Vinci designed musical pipes based on the structure of the human larynx, smart entrepreneurs are always stealing ideas from one place and making them work in another.
Pennsylvania-based Jonny Glow is a company which manufactures a glow-in-the-dark tape designed especially to fit around a toilet bowl. Believe it or not, clever marketing has made this unusual idea a must-have product for those who wish to avoid night-time mishaps in the bathroom. The product inventors spotted a new use for an existing tape… and they've cleaned up, literally.
The story of Jonny Glow features in my business brainstorming bible "227 Unusual Business Ideas" (http://www.227unusualbusinessideas.com)
So the next time you've got a business problem to solve, or you're searching for ways to get the jump on your competitors, take a good long look around you. Check out a few different industries and figure out what you can steal for your own business. When ideas are the lifeblood of 21st Century commerce, it really does make sense to borrow.
By Kathy Crockett
http://www.227UnusualBusinessIdeas.com
About the author:

Kathy Crockett is co-owner of 227 Unusual Business Ideas - the business brainstorming bible.
http://www.227unusualbusinessideas.com