But what about customers? Customers can hurt your bottom line. For instance, a couple walks into your furniture store and there are children bouncing off the couches, jumping on the beds, yelling and screaming. Many of us have been in this situation. Though the furniture store might have slightly better prices or a more friendly staff, those kid are so annoying that they tip the scale — in essence, the selling advantage is outweighed by the kids with oblivious parents.

Those kids are hurting your bottom line by pushing prospective customers out the door. The challenge many business face is finding the guts to say no. Saying no to customers that hurt your bottom line can be just as cost-saving as firing Larry from IT. With this holiday shopping season in full swing, consider saying “no,” or “you have to leave” to disruptive customers — who knows, it could help your bottom line.

Here is the newly released video:

The newspaper industry could take a few notes on the potential of such a new product design. This tablet-like device allows content producers to develop a branded experience that users cannot get anywhere else. Getting ahead of the curve like SI is how other publishers can compete. Once the device is launched, you have a product that cannot be duplicated and therefore, can be monetized.

Although this new product innovation will not alter the fate of many newspapers, it will give them a leg-up in a game they are losing. Finding new ways of delivering a product unique to your brand and market is how newspapers and magazines can survive.

This new Wolfram feature illustrates step-by-step how you get from A to B. If you look a layer deeper, it’s about transparency. Instead of saying, “you’re fired” and leaving it at that, explaining how you arrived at your decision is critical.

Some bloggers make it their job to write about how they grow their user base. Darren Rose from ProBlogger does just that. He blogs about how newsletters and other online marketing initiatives have helped him increase his ad revenues.

How can you peel back the layers and show people how you got from A to B? Is it a blog where you review airlines from your business trips or is it helping your non-digitally savvy users fix their computer problems by showing them how to do it? It doesn’t have to be complicated or overly involved. Just telling people how to get from point A to point B is essential in helping people grow — whether it’s how to delete browser cookies to increase your processing speed or getting to 1,000 visitors to your website.

The process parallels what happens in the real world. A company announces a call to entry (to maybe 8-10 agencies), then after the first round of mock-ups, the company creates a shortlist (of about 2-3 companies). Based on the final entries, the company awards the best agency with the project. Essentially, 99Designs has replicated the real-world process in the digital space. In doing so they have created an efficient and effective business model.

Business ideas are born in many different ways. Some entrepreneurs deliberately think of problems to solve while others are “struck by lightening” so to speak. To get you thinking (consciously and / or subconsciously) about creating business ideas for the web, consider those processes that happen in the real-world. For instance, Wikipedia is just the digital answer to an encyclopedia. Or, eBay is just an online auction house and Amazon is your local Barnes & Noble. All of these ideas already exist, it’s just re-applying them to the digital space.

So what real-world services have not been already championed online? Consider buying groceries. What if you could order your groceries like you could a pizza — just using the web. It would be the Amazon of groceries. Have a central warehouse where all of the food is stored, then keep an online database of your stock that is then reflected on the website (so customers are not ordering something that is not there), then charge a small fee for delivery. It’s quite simple, really. However, there is not a clear leader in the market for online grocery buying. Opportunity? Maybe. You’d need to do some market research before you implement, but it could work.

For some, brilliant business ideas come naturally while others take time to develop. There are strategies for creating and developing business ideas — particularly since the explosion of the web. Just like 99Designs, consider those services that are widespread in the real world then see how you can apply them to the digital space.

The computer looks like an innovation from the Beyond Year 2000 show on the Discover Channel. You might put it up there with the floating car and the augmented reality goggles. However, we need to go to such creative heights if we are ever to get even halfway there. The more we stretch, the further we can go.

Think Star Trek: the first mobile phone, personal computer, memory disc and Blue Tooth headset were once impossible dreams on the sci-fi show. Now they are everyday realities. Instead of thinking what was possible, the creators of Star Trek just imagined — no holds barred.

How would your product or service be different if there were no limits? In other words, what is the most perfect version of your product? Once you have this in mind, start to think about how to make it possible. While you might not reach your vision immediately, set yourself on a path that gets you there.

To avoid the death of my new Majesty Palms, I searched online how to save them. Thoroughly water once a week and cut-off anything that is dying. This helps the plant focus on providing nutrients to the healthy portions of the plant. So that morning I removed nearly half of each plant. The next day, I repeated. Now, only a quarter of the plant that I purchased was still standing. I’m happy to say, now two weeks later, the plant is flourishing.

As we consider new ways to maximize our dollars, take example from the Majesty Palm and severe dying assets. By doing so, you can focus your efforts on those portions of your company that have potential to grow new shoots.

The JumpSnap tries to create a problem (tripping over jumprope) to solve (a ropeless jumprope), whereas the Shake Weight tries to solve a problem (lifting weights) but taking the wrong approach (making a suggestive product). Yes, some people do not like going to lift weights at the gym. However, create a product that makes you look like an idiot is no way to solve it. Shake Weight users have to tightly grasp a weight that throbs in their hand… is that something you want to pass on to your equally lazy friend? As a joke, maybe.

Though the Shake Weight might actually work, it is embarrassing to use. Consequently, people do not want to spread the message about the product — killing any potential for positive buzz.

Take a look at how your product makes your users feel. If they’re conflicted — “wow it works, but I feel stupid doing it” — you probably shot yourself in the foot. With video networking sites such as YouTube, if you look stupid, then it is stupid. Therefore, not only does your product have to solve a problem, it needs to make the people using it feel good, not embarrassed.

Wayne Rooney typifies the key characteristics of successful entrepreneurs:

Be a decisive person – You need to be able to make decisions based on your entrepreneurial vision.
Make quick decisions – Just as Wayne Rooney makes split-second moves to avoid the oncoming tires, entrepreneurs need to think on their feet.
Navigate through obstacles — Whether it’s financing, customer acquisitions or finding time to take a break, entrepreneurs have to navigate through seemingly countless obstacles. It’s essential to have that vision to guide you.

The video below illustrates how crowdsourcing can make fantastic video. However, it’s not just anyone that could create such a video. Whereas Wikipedia empowers everyone to be an expert, the video below suggests an alternative to crowdsourcing — called select-sourcing. Select-sourcing calls on a team of experts to create something the masses could not. While 5% of everyone could deliver a usable, genuinely brilliant idea, the rate of return is considerably greater with a team of experts.

As we experiment more and more with crowdsourcing, this low rate of return from the greater audience will become more apparent. Simply asking everyone to create brilliant ideas is nearly impossible to accomplish. But if you select-source, you’re more likely to create a fantastic pool of ideas.

The gated community approach is not effective, however, for most information. The web has made information ubiquitous and free. This principle of the web has directly led to the downfall of newspapers. Even online news sites have learned they cannot charge for something that is free elsewhere. So why is Rupert Murdoch trying to create a gated community with his sites?

In the interview below, Murdoch suggests hiding his pages from Google so he can monetize them through other search engines, such as Yahoo or Bing. Murdoch believes his information is so sought-after that search engines would pay to index them. In an era where information is ubiquitous, the media mogul thinks he can create a gated community around his information.

Murdoch has failed to see how the times have changed. The web is a completely different media environment that abides by a completely different set of rules. Murdoch cannot wrap his head around these new principles and consequently, could jeopardize his media empire.