Recycle or Pull Home Business Ideas from Your Files

Rico Mossesgeld wrote an interesting post, Why You Should Never Throw Away Your Ideas,  on Contract Worker that got me thinking. 

“No matter how silly or irrevelant an idea is, we should save it, because we never know when such an idea proves to be the catalyst for something great.”

He suggests some ways to save your ideas and gives an example of an Apple Mac ad.  Saving and recycling can be true of advertising/promotion ideas, design ideas, customer relations, time saving techniques…any number of ideas that apply to your business but don’t seem practical or workable at the moment.

As a writer, I find old stories/articles I’ve written I can slant for a different market or time period.  I also keep a notebook and folders of story ideas for future use.  Some I may never use, but others will spark the idea for a new project, even years later.

My daughter, a fabric artist, keeps a sketch book where she jots down ideas for her work, along with saving photos that will stimulate her imagination. 

If your business involves cooking and recipes, keep a notebook or computer logbook where you jot down ideas and info. 

Are you in a business where you must do considerable advertising…put down ideas for promotions.  These can be ones that impress you that you could adapt for yourself, or those “bolt out of the blue” ideas that we get by ourselves.  If you do advertising and promotion for clients, the same could apply.

Hopefully this post and the one Rico wrote will get you thinking about jotting down your ideas, looking through old ideas, and recycling those you may have used but can tweek for present and future use.