Coming up with business ideas may not always seem straightforward, or you may be dissuaded by the belief that it’s all been done so many times before.

Yet, each year, we see that plenty of innovative ideas still find a way to emerge. But what if you took a different approach – one that blended two ideas together to create something new? Heck, if they can do it with the spork, there has to be a way that you can do it, too!

The Blend Strategy

The idea of taking two disparate industries and mixing together the best parts of each is a method I refer to as “The Blend Strategy.” Many successful companies, products and services have emerged from this type of strategy. Look around and you will probably be able to point them out. One prime example is Commerce Bank. Perhaps it was because Commerce Bank was founded in 1973 by Vernon Hill, a franchiser of fast-food restaurants. For whatever reason, he decided to try to incorporate the best of fast-food restaurants with the idea of banking.

Typically, fast-food restaurants are open all the time, provide quick service, offer games and treats for the kids, and keep people wanting to come back for more. By blending the two concepts together, Hill upped the ante in the banking world. He offered a bank that was open seven days a week, taking on the motto of “No Stupid Fees, No Stupid Hours.”

They also offered a “penny arcade” machine that counted coins (available both to customers and non-customers), and gave away lollipops and dog biscuits at the drive-thru window. And, just as fast-food restaurants give away inexpensive little trinkets, Commerce did the same with pencils, mugs and pens. In 2006 alone, the company gave away 28 million pens (about half of them seem to have found a home on my car’s floor mats)!

Finding the Angle

By combining the two, Hill created a successful bank that ended up being purchased by TD Bank in 2007 for $8.5 billion. And there are many other stories of companies that have combined the best of two businesses in order to create one really great one! Another example is Canadian-based Cirque du Soleil, which blended together the best of the acrobatic world with the best of circuses.

Today, the shows of Cirque du Soleil rack up more than $700 million in sales, seen by 10 million people each year. Another creative example of a company that has blended two concepts together is the drive-thru wedding chapel service in Las Vegas. While the company originally started so that handicapped people would have an easier time exchanging vows, they also tapped into the preferences of a fast-food nation.

Each year now, many people opt to exchange vows by passing through the “tunnel of love.” Those that love fast food can now also tie the knot through the drive-thru.

Using Your Imagination

So what you need to do is look around and see which two things can you take the best from, and blend them together in your business. Hey, if a guy who loves to ride his bike down the beach everyday can set up a mobile billboard ad on the back, anything is possible! You just need to start looking at things a little bit differently, so that you can take what people love about two businesses and bring those elements together to create one successful one.

Sure, the ideas of mixing peanut butter and jelly in the same jar or being able to plant used greeting cards to grow a garden have already been taken. But there are still legions of other great products, services, and business ideas out there, just waiting to be discovered and blended together!

No longer be a workaholic. Instead, become a productivity-aholic.