From the Director of the Illinois Small Business Development Center

I'm often amazed and sometimes amused at the business ideas clients propose to us. You name it, we've heard it. Restaurants that change their menu every month based on randomly drawn recipes. Croquet played on a miniature golf course with real turf grass. A new drink made from coffee combined with orange juice (and drunk as either). Concepts only a business novice could create.

But we listen and ask questions, hoping to uncover a diamond in the rough among all that, well, rough. Sometimes I have to remind myself to not be so jaded - maybe this idea could work. Or maybe not (in the case of coffee combined with orange juice).

Recently while thinking of one of our local small business clients I felt stuck for a solution to a problem. Suddenly I realized that I was approaching the problem in my usual manner, looking at it from my habitual perspective. What if I looked at it with a beginners mind? Instead of jumping to conclusions of what would or wouldn't work, I tried to see the possibilities as entrepreneurs often do. An unusual solution I hadn't conceived of before occurred to me - and worked.

So as we begin a new year, I invite you to try looking for the possibilities in your business opportunities and challenges. Who knows? Maybe you'll stumble upon a diamond among all that rough.