Business ideas are everywhere if you know how to recognize them. Often they simply go unrecognized because the thing that you are looking for and isn’t there, will often represent an opportunity for someone wanting a business even if that someone isn’t you.
Recognizing a potential small business opportunity is fifty percent of finding a small business. Not all opportunities will be for you as a person, or on further investigation, be a viable business proposition, but all you need is the one thing that meets all the criteria.
Business is all about “supply and demand”. If you are looking for a business to supply you with something that you are after at a time that you are after it, but there is nowhere that you can buy it, then that is an opportunity for a business. Whether it would be a viable (or prosperous) business needs further investigation, but it does represent an opportunity. This is how a person wanting a small business will start their evaluation process.
How do you evaluate a small business opportunity?
There is no point in starting a business unless you plan on making some money. After all, no one likes to work for nothing. As the bible says “the laborer is worthy of his hire…”
The way to evaluate a small business is through using tried and true accounting for small business principles. Over the millennium, there are criteria that have to be present if a small business is to survive by making an income. These solid accounting practices have to be followed in order to assess the potential and then to keep track of the progress of the enterprise towards the end goal.
The first thing any business needs is a goal and a plan on how to achieve it.. If you don’t have an end goal in mind and are frequently reminded of it, then the business will either sink into oblivion or grow like “Topsy’s House”. This is not beneficial for long term business success and there is no point in becoming another failed small business statistic. There are already too many of them.
If you haven’t recognized a business opportunity by finding something that is missing and needed, then there are many other opportunities waiting for you to investigate.
If this is investigation is something that interests you, then I would suggest a beginning to be a self-assessment. In this case, you will need to do a S.W.O.T analysis on yourself first.
SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.
You need to be realistic about all your strengths. No modesty, no ego but assessing what your strengths really are. We all have some even if we don’t always or frequently use them.
Weaknesses are part of being human. They are not often acknowledged but believe me, they are present. If you refuse to accept yours, ask an honest friend.
Opportunities are what the above two will reveal about you and how well you use this self-assessment.
Threats are what is represented by not doing anything at all once you have done this self-assessment. The downside to doing nothing can be bottomless depending on your circumstances.
The beginning of recognizing any small business idea is in knowing yourself first.
