Zen and the art of figuring out what's the next big thing

One of my fave things about Startup Journal are the profiles they do on all sorts of businesses that really have got it goin' on. Today's entry is just what I'm talkin' about.

The article profiles two new NYC businesses that are tapping into both the luxury market and the whole "green" thing going on today. There is a a cooler than thou laundry service, Slate NYC and an environmentally friendly house cleaning service called ZENhome Cleaning.

This is such a great reminder that there are SOOO many ideas out there waiting to be hatched for needs/markets/products that are not currently being met. I know many people like to go for the "tried and true" when thinking about business ideas, but I have to say, I think its really all about coming up with a new angle...rethinking a stale idea...or coming up with a solution where no one else has. That is, of course, exactly what I tried to do with Paper Bride and is still something I think about everytime I come up with a new idea.

Someone said to me the other day, "you guys should do birthday cards." Birthday Cards!? I mean, sure birthday cards are great, but there isn't a whole lot of ground to break in the arena of the birthday card. And that is, by no means, a snub for any of you who might make birthday cards--some of you might have even gotten rich making birthday cards. But I'm all about standing out in a crowd...and the smaller the crowd, the easier it is to stand out. word.