Entrepreneurs and business owners have to strategize and plan ahead for their business on the go a lot of the times. Ideas could come at any time to us. It could be whilst commuting to and from a meeting, whilst grocery shopping or anything else that we might be doing and it’s important to capture these ideas for later when we have time to come back to them.

Mind mapping is a great tool to help capture these thoughts graphically, quickly and clearly. There are a lot of both online and offline mind mapping tools available that are either free or paid. One in particular that stands out is Mindmeister.

Since Mindmeister is an online tool, users can create, manage and share mind maps online and access them anytime, from anywhere. In brainstorming mode, fellow MindMeisters from around the world or in different rooms can simultaneously work on the same mind map and see each other’s changes as they happen. This is great if you have a team working on the same project!

Mindmeister offers both free and paid versions and allows you to create your mind maps online giving you the ability to access your thoughts anytime and from anywhere. They even have an iPhone version of it.

Some of the features of Mindmeister include:

Free Version

• Have up to 3 mind maps
• Share and collaborate mind maps
• Import maps from Freemind and MindManager
• Export maps as image in PDF/RTF
• Publish maps to blogs and websites

For the Premium Version – $4/month

• You get all the features of the free version above plus
• Instead of 3 mind maps you get unlimited mind maps
• Export maps to Freemind and MindManager
• Add file attachments  to topics
• Create and edit maps offline
• Full SSL encryption
• Search in maps
• Advertising free, logo free exports

The also offer two other paid versions for Business and Academic for $6 and $15 per month respectively with additional features. You can learn more about Mindmeister by clicking here.

Matching Yahoo’s local ad unit model, Google is finally rolling out its own version of short ad listings for local businesses. These Local Listing Ads will contain only basic information about a business, such as contact info and a link, and will display in regular search results pages as well as Google Maps listings.

The ads are not intended to compete with Google AdWords and will be more or less self-serve for business owners.

To participate though, businesses need to first be listed and verified in Google’s Local Business Center. The ads will be free of creative (artwork and images), with results also linking to Google’s version of Yelp, Place Pages.

Formal pricing has not been released, but it’s believed to start around $20 per month and possibly go as high as $200, with the first month being free. Pricing may also vary depending on what market a business is in.

Currently, the program is only being tested in San Francisco and San Diego.