Jim's Marketing Blog

Marketing tips and ideas to help you grow your business

  • Home
  • About
    • About Jim Connolly
    • My top marketing tips for 2025. Yours now, for free!
    • Privacy Policy
    • How I use cookies
    • Contact
    • Disclosure
  • Hire me
    • Let’s Grow Your Business
    • Pick My Brain for the results you need!

What do you think?

By Jim Connolly | July 9, 2011

I took the picture above earlier this week, when I stopped off at a local coffee shop for a think.

People often tell me it’s weird that I dedicate time each day just for creative thinking. I find it even weirder that most people wait until they have a problem, before they start looking for ideas and answers.

Problems turned into gold dust

How many times have you heard someone tell you that as a result of a problem they had, they came up with an idea or a new product, which was a huge success?  Well, just imagine the progress that can be made when you get into that same mindset, for a period of time every week and NOT just when there’s a problem.

Usually, business owners will wait for a problem to motivate them to get creative.  As a marketing guy, I see it all the time, when a business owner starts frantically marketing their services, because they lose a major client and are trying to replace all that lost income.

32 Questions to get you started!

The best way to get the answers you need is to ask yourself the right questions.  To help  you with this, here are 32 great questions you can ask yourself, which I use on a regular basis to generate more valuable ideas than I can even use.

What are you waiting for?

The small business owners I work with enjoy far more sales, attract better clients and grow amazing businesses.
If you want the same, here’s exactly how it happens.

FREE marketing tips & advice

Get my best marketing tips, advice and ideas delivered direct to your inbox. Just add your email below.
I respect your privacy.

Hi! I'm Jim Connolly and I help small business owners to increase sales, boost their profits and build amazing businesses. Read more here.

Featured by

marketing advice, marketing help

Site sponsor

packaging consultancy

Categories

  • Blogging (406)
  • Business development (478)
  • Copywriting (303)
  • Email marketing & mail shots (186)
  • General marketing (1,664)
  • Professional development (534)
  • Social media marketing (355)

Hosting provider

20i hosting

Search

Recent posts

  • It works better than advertising June 2, 2025
  • It’s the most valuable question in sales! May 27, 2025
  • Grab. Focus. Urgency: How to vastly increase your sales May 20, 2025
  • Attract. Don’t sell May 14, 2025
  • Marketing gold: The follow-up May 10, 2025
  • How to make more sales, in uncertain times May 8, 2025
  • 17 Tips to help you grow a stronger business May 6, 2025
  • How to increase your prices May 2, 2025
  • Your economy April 27, 2025
  • From rags to riches? April 26, 2025
  • Tiny tweaks. Huge wins April 21, 2025
  • Working in. Working on April 15, 2025
  • How to own your competitors. It’s easier than you think April 12, 2025
  • Four questions that helped a subscriber boost sales by 68% April 8, 2025
  • Ignore the uninterested April 7, 2025
  • Does your business pass the coffee shop test? April 6, 2025
  • It’s back to normal for you and your business April 5, 2025
  • Marketing 101: Vigorous, written marketing April 2, 2025
  • The horrible truth about marketing April 1, 2025
  • I have no clients. Seriously. Not even one! March 26, 2025
  • Home
  • About
  • Hire me

Copyright © 2025 Jim Connolly