To get past the obstacle of having a tight budget to begin with you really have to learn how to market yourself creatively by asking yourself some simple creative questions.

Questions like:

1) How can I

A different question to get started with:

2) Who could help me with I love that one. Who could help me with

How about:

3) Who do I know that would exchange for ?

Here's another one:

4) Could I do this cheaper? or How would I be able to do this faster? or Could I do it with less effort? or Is there a way to do this for free? That question will really get your creative juices going.

Here's another one:

5) Could I substitute 'X' for 'Y'? What could I substitute to get 'ABC' instead of 'XYZ'? Just think of whatever you wanted to do, how could you substitute for 'XYZ'?

Here's another one that I love. This really puts you in the shoes of unique and different people.

6) How would solve this problem?

Here are some examples: How would my mother solve this problem? How would my competitor solve this problem? The great thing about this question is it forces you to think from different perspectives.

I've answered these business questions myself and it has allowed doors to open in every direction, propelling my career to new heights and success to be and continued to be achieved.

Let me give you a small example about how I used this creative way of questioning.

As soon as I graduated University I decided that I wanted to become a professional speaker instead of working within a corporation. My focus was college and high school students, which I still do talks for on occasion, to teach them the importance of creativity. Creativity had helped me rise from being a University failure in my first year to graduating with straight A's, and being names Most outstanding Male. The transformation that occurred between my first and fourth year I owe to learning the skill of creative thinking.

Being a professional speaker and building a profitable speaking business was two things I didn't know anything about though.

The first thing I did was join the local chapter of CAPS, The Canadian Association for Professional Speakers.

At one of my first meetings I attended I approached a gentleman there who was doing very well with his speaking career about what I needed to do to get to his level. He replied by saying. "It's very simple, Stu. I'll give you three things to do, once you have those finished, come back and I'll give you some more."

"Number one," he began, "You should join CAPS. By surrounding yourself with like minded people in your industry it will help your business grow."

So I shelled out the $200 to join the CAPS organization. It was a squeeze for me. In fact, I specifically remember asking if I could put it on payments, which I did. I joined the CAPS organization.

The second thing he said I had to do was, "Get out to the CAPS National Conference." As much as I wanted to go, it was on the other side of Canada, which meant more costs on top of the relatively expensive conference fee. At this point everything was expensive for me as I had no money. To get there I would have to pay for my flight, accommodations and everything else.

I needed to find a creative solution. Here's what I did. I asked myself some creative questions. What I started to do was look at what I had that, perhaps, somebody might need and want.

What I had at the time was time itself. I wasn't speaking very often because I had just started my speaking business, so I had some time on my hands.

I started to then rack my brain about how I could use that time to benefit someone else. By asking myself that question I came up with a campaign called, 'Helt Stu Be Like You.'

But here was the concept and here's what happened. I approached the biggest chapter of the CAPS organization in my province and I asked for 30 seconds in front of the whole group. There were about 75 of them.

No one had asked for this before. I asked a question that got everyone's hands in the air. It was, "How many of your, at one point, started off as a speaker with no experience?"

The next question I asked was, "Out of all of you who have your hand up, how many of you have been to the CAPS national conference?" About 75% of the room kept their hands up.

I continued, "Of those who have been able to attend the conference, how many of you believe it would be beneficial for a new speaker, with no experience to be able to go?" Everyone kept their hands up.

"Great, I am someone who needs to get out to the CAPS national conference because I have zero speaking experience!"

Then I said, "But here's the problem. I don't have any money. But what I do have is time. Here's the exchange I'm willing to make and hope that you are willing to make as well. I've created a campaign called Help Stu Be Like You." And I handed out these little flyers, black and white. Basically what I did was I printed two 8x6 flyers on an 8-1/2 x 11 sheet to save costs, and I just cut it right down the middle and I gave everybody in the audience one.

I continued to explain what my campaign was about, "This is what I am willing to do. I will do everything you as speakers don't like doing or don't have the time to do. Whatever it is, licking stamps, calling clients, writing sales letters. If you need me to I will come to your house and cut your lawn. All I'm asking in return for my time is a financial contribution of your choice."

Surveying the audience at this point, I could tell some people's minds were racing with all the odd jobs they could get me to do for cheap.

"All of the money I earn through your financial contributions will be used directly towards enabling me to get out to the CAPS national conference. I will do anything you don't like doing in exchange for a financial contribution."

As soon as I finished explaining it, a gentleman at the back of the room stood up, and he said, "Stu, I will pay for your entrance fee to the seminar." Boom. Just like that. Half of my costs basically taken care of.

Immediately following that, another gentleman stood up and he said, "Stu, and I will pay for the cost to get you out there." Boom, boom. Eighty-five percent of all of my expenses were taken care of just like that.

That is what being creative can enable you to do.

That one creative solution got me out to that conference. It turned out to be a big story because all kinds of people heard about it there and I even had an article published in the national publication.

Ideas will come to you when you explore the possibilities of creativity!

Stay posted for more!