The art of identifying a business opportunity and knowing when to act on it can change your life as an entrepreneur, unleashing creative ideas, personal wealth, and numerous benefits to consumers. It’s often the way people who want to be entrepreneurs get their first big break.
Problems can be found anywhere and everywhere. They abound. As an entrepreneur, your job is to find the best new business ideas.
Every successful business you know has done this. And the better their solution, the longer they have been in business; and, of course, the longer they have been in business, they better they tend to do.
Solution providers aren’t restricted to race, class, age, gender, or education. There are numerous business ideas for women, many ideas for minority groups to discover, and many possibilities for retirees to propose. It’s not who you are that matters; it’s what you can do that does.
So how do you find these new business opportunities? One simple process is to notice problems, assume a position as a solution provider, be quick to move, build your team, and take decisive action.
5 Quick Ways to Find New Business Opportunities
1. Notice Problems
While it’s easy to spot a problem, the idea that it’s also an opportunity can show up as a complete surprise to you.
The inefficacy of a centralized banking system has been problematic for centuries, but a few smart people saw that the use of a peer-to-peer network would make it possible to create a transaction verification system without the need for a third party to manage the exchange of goods and services for payment.
Today, cryptocurrency is promising to make local and international financial transactions quick, easy, painless, and cost-effective.
Dig into any problems that you notice and see if you can come up with a solution. If you act quickly, you can create value for the community when you launch a business that provides the solution.
2. Assume A Position as A Solution Provider
Because problems are often unexpected, they cause extensive damage, many losses, and numerous related problems. As a result, those afflicted by the problem can’t see their way to any possible solution.
If you can position yourself as a thought leader, proposing tentative solutions, you’ll be able to make a positive intervention. But before you say a word, you need to prepare and plan your presentation. You will need to leverage your knowledge, skills, and experience to present the solution in a way that will be widely accepted.
So, it’s not just about finding the solution, but timing how you will disclose it to those who are wrestling with the issue. Your solution won’t always be welcomed immediately by vested interests, who will see you as a threat.
3. Be Quick
A problem can sweep through an industry without warning, leaving behind a trail of confusion and destruction. This is why you must recognize that every solution only has a small window of time before it can be successfully implemented.
In other words, you have to be quick. Yet, at the same time, you don’t want to rush in as this will lead to the poor execution of your solution. Rushing it can be a big mistake.
When Steve Jobs proposed the iPhone, he acted quickly in taking it to market, but before he did, he meticulously explained all the benefits of owning a handheld phone that also worked like a computer. Without that careful preparation, the public would have been overwhelmed by the sophistication of his technical solution to our telecommunication problem.
4. Build Your Team.
It doesn’t matter how indefatigable and talented you are, the bigger the problem you’re tackling, the harder it is to offer the solution all on your own.
The idea of doing everything on your own doesn’t work in any business. You’ll need to assemble the right team, people who understand the opportunity that your solution provides. Working with the right people can help you meet all your business goals in a timely way.
Related: 5 Original Activities for Team Building and Bonding
5. Take Decisive Action
Thinking about a problem and coming up with a solution and sharing your solution aloud isn’t enough, you also have to take decisive action to engineer the solution. You will need to refine your idea, test it, and introduce it in a way that people can use. Ideas alone aren’t enough to change the world. Action is necessary, too.
In conclusion, the fastest way to succeed as an entrepreneur is to find the solution to a problem and then build a business around your proposed solution. You must translate your abstract ideas into some type of practical product or service that those who have the problem can put to immediate use.
Author: Jane Brown
