Yesterday I mentioned that some of the more creative entrepreneurs I've encountered are those selling stuff on the side of the road. That word --- creative --- or creativity --- seems to scare entrepreneurs nearly to death.

I get letters: "I'm just not creative." "I'm just not creative enough." "My business is failing because I'm just not creative." YIKES!

For starters, if you think you aren't creative enough, you're probably selling yourself way too short and I've never said that you had to be creative or clever to market your business.

Without belaboring the point here again, I'll just remind you that there are some very basic business building strategies you can employ to market your business and they don't require any creativity. But you do have to do them.

Being creative is a skill you can hone just like anything else. You just have to start by being more aware of what's going on around you. Start paying attention to all the advertising you see. Listen out for the marketing message in what other's are doing. Notice how you are feeling when a certain ad catches your attention.

Then borrow those ideas and adapt them to your own needs. See a postcard that grabs you? Is there an idea there that you can develop for your own business?

Those of us "in the business" so-to-speak, keep what we call swipe files. This is a file where we keep all the cool, creative, and exciting (and sometimes the really bad ones, too) ads, newsletters, postcards, and other marketing pieces we find that might spark an idea later.

You can start your own swipe file to give you inspiration for future marketing projects.

But also, and more importantly, start paying attention to your own ideas and WRITE THEM DOWN. You probably have dozens of great ideas for your business every single day. But if you don't write them down, those ideas will be lost to you forever. Someone else will get that vibe and run with it instead.