Entrepreneurs are often associated with the creation of ground-breaking ideas or brand new inventions.
Sometimes, however, all it takes is for an existing product to be modified to better fit the demands of the consumer for a person to start up a successful company.
An example of this was recently featured on the CNN Money website in an article entitled 'Grills! Grills! Grills! A Serial entrepreneur tries to make disposable grills friendly for foodies and the environment'.
Yep, you've guessed it, the existing product is a disposable BBQ and the alteration for the benefit of the consumer is its recyclability. It's as simple as that.
The product is called EZ Grill and is the brainchild of an English-born, BBQ-mad man called Phillip Swan.
Testament to the rewards of taking an existing idea and making beneficial changes is the featuring of the EZ Grill on the pages of CNN Money.
Already a hit across the US and stocked in thousands of stores, the product will now more than likely go on to even greater successes thanks to the online PR received from the coverage in the national press.
The idea for the product came when Mr Swan was back in England having a BBQ at his best friend's house.
Tasked with cooking the food and with about 20 guests to feed, he was a little surprised when his friend brought out a collection of disposable grills.
His shock was only heightened by the fact that his buddy has a top-of-the-range stand-alone home BBQ.
Recalling the event, Mr Swan said: "I basically used his $3,000 stainless-steel grill as a stand for the disposable ones."
His consternation led him to the internet and some market research. Disposables take up more than half of the charcoal grill market in Australia, the UK and other countries in Europe and the Middle East.
While the product was globally popular it didn't fit well with the increasing desire to be environmentally friendly. This was the bit that needed changing.
Mr Swan's EZ Grill's charcoal is made from agricultural by-products such as rice and wheat husks and is totally recyclable.
What's more, it can cook for up to an hour and a half and comes in two different sizes.
So, for the BBQ purists that regard the use of gas over charcoal to be as noisome as the food that is subsequently produced, but are fed up of cleaning out charcoal BBQs every weekend, this really is an invention well worth your attention.
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