When you get to the heart of it, most great business ideas set out to solve a problem: make sick people better, sell more widgets, make better widgets, etc.

VCRs brought the cineplex into the living room, and Blockbuster Video made a fortune by allowing people to rent a flick for a few of bucks. Cost prevented ordinary consumers from owning vast libraries of the newest releases, so Blockbuster solved the problem by sharing the titles with its members. Now the Internet is delivering “videos” faster, more conveniently, and more efficiently then even driving up to the closest video store. Despite adding more features to its stores, Blockbuster is solving fewer and fewer people’s problems.

The Internet has disrupted other information delivery “solutions” providers like newspapers, music stores, and bookstores. The “problem” that consumers need access to information has not changed. It is just that the Internet solves that problem more efficiently.

Whether your business involves information delivery or widget manufacturing, customer’s problems are always changing, and solutions to their problems are always improving. While it’s tempting to sometimes try to make obsolete delivery methods more “featured” or widgets more efficient, sometimes you have to go to the heart of the matter and ask, “what problem does my business solve today?”