Ice cream was invented in 2000 B.C., yet it was 3,900 years later before the ice cream cone was invented!

Meat was on this Earth before man and bread was first baked in 2600 B.C. yet, it took another 4,300 years before the sandwich!

The modern flush toilet was invented in 1775 by Alexander Cummings (although the “idea” of flushing your waste away dates back to at least circa 31st century BC) but it wasn’t until 1857 that Joseph Gayetty invented the modern commercially available toilet paper in the United States. So many products that we take for granted that were simple enough, yet no one had thought of them until much later.

We are surrounded each and every day by an incredible number of simple, yet truly GREAT solutions and ideas. Each has the potential to change your life. The problem is even though they are right there in front of you, you cannot see them.

As a serial entrepreneur and someone that has invested in literally hundreds of businesses, I hope to find a way to teach everyone that reads my page and my blog, how to go through their life with their “eyes wide open” to the tremendous opportunities that surround us everyday.

“Eyes wide open” is a term that I began using many, many years ago first with my venture capital friends and colleague in Menlo Park, CA and then with my Santa Monica team members as a way of encouraging them to not only see beyond the obvious, but many times to actually see the obvious.

So many times, even the most seasoned venture capitalists would over complicate a business or opportunity when many times, it was the simplicity of the idea, that was it’s true genius. Take eBay for example, wasn’t eBay really nothing more than an electronic garage sale?

Even the most successful entrepreneurs and business owners try to complicate the uncomplicated.

Throw in a double whammy recession like we are experiencing now, and oh my! You’d be amazed at how difficult folks are making it to turn their businesses around. I asked an acquaintance  of mine, whose business is currently struggling to meet payroll after a very disappointing quarter, just how many ways he thought there were to increase his business.

And he came back with “I don’t know, a couple hundred, maybe even a thousand?”

The simple answer?

There are only three ways to increase your business.

Three.

That’s it.

1. Increase the number of clients, patients or customers.
2. Increase the average transaction (order) size per client, patient or customer.
3. Increase the frequency of times clients, patients or customers do business with you.

Focus on small incremental increases in each of these three areas and you will obtain exponential growth.

In ANY economy.