How do you create a product that has people beating a path to your door to buy it? Most people think that you have to come up with something completely new and amazing, when all you really have to do is create the next "sliced bread".

That might sound like a daunting task but it's not. That's because all sliced bread is, really, is cut up bread! Somebody already invented the bread -- all you have to do is cut it.

Let me explain.

The definition of innovation is to take something that exists and find a way to change and improve it. So, in this instance, somebody took bread and sliced it. Since then we refer to great products, inventions and innovations as, "the next best thing since sliced bread"!

Let's look at a few examples of great innovations:

• Bottled water (remember to keep it simple)
• 2-ply toilet paper
• Laptops
• Lined paper
  

The list goes on and on forever but, the important thing to note, is that every one of these inventions is actually an innovation. In other words somebody looked at something that already exists and thought up a way to make it better, or, to make it apply in a different situation.

Start looking at the products that you offer and think of other ways people might use them. Think of other people who are not normally in your target market. Think of other cities, other countries, other continents.

For example, if you sell some sort of antirust spray, think how people at the coast might use it as opposed to how people use it further away from the coast.

As another example, if you sell home-security solutions, think how people in New York might use it compared to people in Johannesburg.

Keep thinking of all the different possibilities and eventually you'll come up with your own sliced bread!