If you put your mind to this kind of problem solving chances are your business will do just fine despite the economic downturn.

Background

The business sells lobsters but faced with the challenges that beset most start-up business the owners approach was to distinguish them from the competition. They decided to bring prospective customers close to the niche experience of catching their own lobsters through virtual reality, using the Internet

They came up with this ingenious plan of selling the rights to the lobster traps (just like selling the rights to a product or asset) to customers who can experience catching and eating their own lobsters, without physically laying traps and doing the hard work.

This is their first year and they are on track to generate $1.5m in sales. They are leaving a wake behind them of clueless people.

The owners are not part of the Internet Marketing crowd, but they have used the Internet to build a distinctive brand. I teach this to my small business clients.

The business is owned by two brothers and one of them used the business a case study while attending business school.

Everyone told them the business would fail but they ignored conventional wisdom.

I just love this story because it is so typical of the challenges faced by most start-up businesses and yet it demonstrates with a little of out of the box thinking, any business can set themselves apart from the competition and go on to be successful.

Read the script of this inspirational small business interview and take notes. Keep the notes in your bedside cabinet and read it last thing at night and in the morning, before you start work. Meditate on it for a while and soon you’ll begin to hatch innovative business ideas of your own.

Go get it!