Small business owners who devote time to rethink how they are providing solutions (products or services) to better meet the wants and the needs of their customers will usually stay ahead of the flow.

Without a doubt, there are a lot of entrepreneurs in the United States.

There are many definitions for what makes an entrepreneur or what entrepreneurship is.

One classic definition from more than 30 years ago comes from Harvard Business School professor Howard Stevenson, who suggested that entrepreneurship is “the pursuit of opportunity without regard to resources currently controlled.”

Other definitions focus on specific characteristics such as risk-taking, organizational skills, out of the box thinking, etc.

Stevenson’s definition is more process-focused and why it works well with innovation as innovation is also a process.

Entrepreneurs look for opportunities where something currently exists and how they can improve it or renew it.

This seeking of opportunities is all about innovation and changing the current status quo as discussed in last week’s column.

Small business owners who devote time to rethink how they are providing solutions (products or services) to better meet the wants and the needs of their customers will usually stay ahead of the flow.

These folks are not wasting their time worrying about:

• Yesterday events
• Today’s problems from yesterday’s events
• What they cannot control
• Their competition

No, these forward-thinking business leaders are using their limited time to think and plan how they can build a better mousetrap.

For example, after attending hundreds of webinars both free and paid, I realized most deliver 60 minutes of poor to good content that could be much better digested in 30 minutes of great content, thus saving crazy-busy sales professionals time and money.

Recently, I launched a new solution, “60 Minutes of Good Content into 30 Minutes of Great Content” webinars.

The focus is on the attendee – not on me bloviating about everything I have done – and content that is truly high quality and relevant.

As stated before, innovation is about changing something old into something new to meet the changing marketplace.

Webinars have been around for years, as have their predecessors – teleconferences. What has changed is the resource of time and time is in short supply.

If you are an entrepreneur, you may wish to consider scheduling some downtime to rethink your current solutions and determine how you innovate. The world is changing.

Remember, Wells Fargo started out in the transportation business. I have not seen any stagecoaches recently traveling the roads in Northwest Indiana.