Why is opportunity spotting important?

Today I was sitting here, thinking that my sabbatical is almost coming to an end – I have only about a month left of twelve-month study leave. I was also considering that we are still halfway through paying off our debt. And that it will take spotting opportunities and acting on them to take us to the finish line.

And, yes, I do realise how lucky I am to work at a university that still grants study leave. Looking at my plan and what I have really achieved it struck me that my main achievements didn’t have much to do with my plan and a lot to do with serendipity. Also, although my talents, skills and knowledge were absolutely necessary for some of these to come off, they are by far not sufficient. These achievements needed opportunities, my ability to recognise these and the courage to ride with them.

This made me curious; so I started looking for cases that illustrate this and remembering ones that I already had spotted. This is some of what I managed to find.

Spotting opportunities #1: The ‘Marxist Old Lady’

This is when things started getting hard. Mrs Ning was getting so obsessed with playing games that she was bad-tempered and withdrawn. Her daughter started thinking that if her mother is to be spending so much time on the computer, she may as well do something more productive than play games all the time. This is how the idea of starting an online business was born; but there was a problem: Mrs Ning was a very proud and long time member of the Communist Party. Eventually, she managed to reconcile her political and business values and today has a thriving online business selling snacks and health food all over China.

When she started her online business Mrs Ning was over 60 and her knowledge of both business and the internet left much to be desired.

Spotting opportunities #2: Betty and Beryl

Nothing exceptional until I tell you that Betty is 90 and Beryl is 86 years old. Or young!  Or that they were talent-spotted in a shopping centre several years ago and had never done anything like radio shows before; gosh they had never been on the radio before and I bet they even call it ‘the wireless’.

Spotting opportunities #3: The ‘Untouchable’ Multi-millionaire

Her first break was that she had a supportive father – when he visited her and saw her plight he simply took her back. This is highly unusual in Indian culture; so back in the village people saw Kalpana as a failure. She learned to tailor and tried to ignore the situation until….

…it just got too much and she tried to take her own life. After that Kalpana decided to live her life and ‘do something big and then die’. She left for Mumbai to stay with an uncle and started a tailoring business which she gradually grew. Eventually, she was asked to take over a company that was massively in debt – Kamani Tubes. She did and today Kamani Tubes is a business worth more than $100m.

What do these women share?

These women share four important things:

• They have achieved something extraordinary.
• They had the chips stacked against them.
• They were offered an opportunity and they recognised it.
• They had the courage to take these opportunities and be extraordinary.

What is my point, then?

As a civilisation, we have developed a multitude of techniques for planning, management and selection. As individuals we spend a considerable proportion of our lives planning, managing and disciplining ourselves or being planned, managed and disciplined.

What seems potentially more productive is to learn the art of spotting opportunities and to develop the courage to use them.

An opportunity is a chance to take advantage of a situation. It can relate to several situations in career, sports, business, etc. It is what makes the difference between real leaders, winners, and quitters.

A business opportunity is the chance to take advantage of an occurrence in the market for business gain. It is what makes some businesses succeed while others fail.

What Is A Business Opportunity?

A business opportunity, also called bizopp, is the chance to take advantage of an occurrence in the market to begin a business.

It involves some kind of favourable condition which exists in the market.

A business opportunity is what makes some businesses succeed while others fail. Leaders are successful because they see opportunities before other people spot them, make plans then build business models to capitalise on that opportunities.

A good example of a business opportunity in the market today is e-books. Amazon was one of the first companies in the online bookselling business who initiated an e-book reader that made it possible to read books by means of a digital device that looks more or less like a tablet pc.

Importance Of A Business Opportunity

In business, an opportunity is a key to success. Without it, a business cannot begin, expand, or succeed.

The main purpose of an opportunity is to serve as the basis for any action that results in profit and business growth.

Opportunities allow businesses to create and implement ideas and innovations and improve their performance.

Only those who spot opportunities early can take the best advantage of them and capitalise on them.

Here are some reasons why a business opportunity is important:

• The chance to build a business: A business opportunity can be an existing unsolved problem in the market or a new problem arising from current trends, which is the chance to build a business.
• The chance to avoid failure: A business is likely to fail without opportunities. This is because they are essential for implementing ideas and innovations that can make a business successful. They allow businesses to take the right decision at the right time.
• The chance to grow: Opportunities allow businesses to create and implement ideas and innovations. It is also a chance to improve performance by solving existing problems better, providing a more refined value proposition to the target market, and building a more efficient business model.
• The chance to maximise profits: A business opportunity involves favourable conditions that can be used to increase profits. These conditions include but are not limited to the availability of resources, the existence of market demand, and the presence of favourable competition. The goal is to find solutions that can potentially maximise profits while solving problems.

Characteristics Of A Good Business Opportunity

Business opportunities are the core of every successful business. They help in identifying problems and in creating solutions that can potentially help businesses grow.

Here are some characteristics of a good opportunity:

• Clarity: Good opportunities are clear, well defined, and straightforward. They allow businesses to accurately and completely identify problems and create solutions that can maximise their potential.
• Relevance: Good opportunities are relevant to the scenario in which they exist. They provide added value to customers, markets, and industries. This means they do not only represent potential but also relevance for solving existing problems or creating added value for others.
• Feasibility: Good opportunities are realistic and feasible. They help businesses achieve their goals while making them more efficient, productive, and profitable.
• Profitable: A good opportunity is capable of providing returns on investment. It is able to achieve its objectives while capitalising on the available resources, strategies, and assets more efficiently.
• Scalable: A good opportunity is scalable. This means it can be expanded to a big or a wide scale. It can extend to various markets and industries while maximising the results of investments in terms of time, human resources, and money.

Types Of Business Opportunities

There are different types of business opportunities, each one serves as the basis for important decisions that help businesses succeed. Here are some examples:

1. New market opportunity: A new market opportunity involves an untapped market, which gives businesses the chance to create and implement ideas and innovations without facing much competition.
2. Untapped resource opportunity: An untapped resource opportunity is a type of business opportunity that involves underutilised or unexploited resources that can be used to create added value.
3. Repressed demand opportunity: A repressed demand opportunity capitalises on existing demands that the current offerings don’t cater to. For example, Uber capitalised on a repressed demand for an on-demand cab system in the existing cab industry.
4. Technology opportunity: A technology opportunity is a type of business opportunity that allows businesses to introduce new technologies that can be used in existing markets.
5. Competitive opportunity: A competitive opportunity allows businesses to introduce new products or services that can provide more value than their competitors while solving the problems of the target market better.
6. Strategic partnership opportunity: A strategic partnership opportunity involves the chance to collaborate with businesses from complementary industries, allowing them to access new resources, strengthen their product offerings, and increase their competitive advantage.

How To Identify A Business Opportunity?

Opportunity identification is an important part of business development and growth. It allows companies to make the right decisions that will help them achieve their goals.

Here’s the business opportunity identification process:

The Customer Research Stage

The first step is to research customers and their problems by asking questions related to the customer’s needs, goals, and expectations.

This involves collecting, organising, and analysing information about customers’ behaviour as well as their needs.

The past and present trends of the target market must also be identified to help businesses better understand customer preferences.

The objective is to identify potential business opportunities that can help the business create value for its customers.

Problem Hypothesis Stage

In this stage, businesses search for problems by identifying issues and concerns from customer feedback and other sources of market research. The first step is to define the problem.

Once that has been done, businesses need to search for the root cause of the problem and explore possible solutions. The goal is to formulate a well-focused hypothesis that can be tested with market research.

Product Hypothesis Stage

Businesses should determine what kind of product or service will solve customers’ problems or address their needs. The product or service should target specific customers based on the information gathered during the customer research stage.

Market Hypothesis Stage

The market hypothesis stage involves testing certain key assumptions about the business opportunity with customers to determine the demand for a particular product or service in the real world, and how it solves problems in the specified market.

It also involves doing in-depth research to identify existing players in the targeted market, and determining customer expectations for the product or service.

Product Development Stage

Once a business opportunity is confirmed, the next step is to develop a product or service that will solve the problem.

The product or service should be designed and tested using various methods to ensure its viability and effectiveness.

Businesses need to consider their target market, competitive threats, and business models as they develop the product or service.

Business Opportunity Examples

Business opportunities are everywhere, and it is important for businesses to identify and tap into them. For example, Uber found a business opportunity in the unorganised transportation industry by introducing an on-demand cab system.

There are also many other examples of great business opportunities:

• Airbnb: Airbnb introduced the concept of sharing economy by allowing people to rent out their homes as an alternative to hotels or motels. This is a perfect example of a new market opportunity because hotels were the only service providers for this kind of accommodation before Airbnb came along.
• GoPro: GoPro is a new camera brand that saw an opportunity to introduce a unique product in the market where smartphone cameras and existing digital cameras were already popular. It catered to a repressed demand of capturing high-definition videos of sports activities, something traditional cameras were not capable of doing.
• TikTok: TikTok saw an opportunity in the music and video streaming market by introducing a unique take that allows users to create 15-second videos set to music. It found a repressed demand of getting recognised and untapped technology of user-generated video content.
• Crate and Barrel: Crate and Barrel saw an opportunity to introduce a unique concept in the furniture industry by selling ready-to-assemble furniture. This is different from other players in the market who only sold expensive, high-quality pieces of furniture.

Business Opportunity Vs Business Idea

A business opportunity is different from a business idea; the latter is based on the former.

Business opportunities are identified when companies find issues or problems in existing markets, untapped needs, untapped technologies, customer feedback, market research and other sources of information.

Business ideas are typically created through creative thinking by entrepreneurs who try to capitalise on business opportunities by exploring ways to solve certain problems.

Go On, Tell Us What You Think!

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A startup consultant, digital marketer, traveller, and philomath. Aashish has worked with over 20 startups and successfully helped them ideate, raise money, and succeed. When not working, he can be found hiking, camping, and stargazing.