TH2003

Opportunities vs. Ideas

Idea is a thought that could possibly or impossibly meet the criteria of an opportunity. This is a crucial
starting point in entrepreneurship because most businesses fail even doing what is needed as they
produce something that is not capable of solving any problem or meeting any need. They don't have any
potential criteria for an opportunity to start with.

Let us say a particular individual thought of building new resorts or hotels. If this idea happened right
before the COVID-19 pandemic, he or she might have a problem then. This pandemic stops the operation
of many ventures, and tourism businesses were one of those. This case must be carefully evaluated in
introducing an idea, or such instance should be considered when planning.

Opportunity is the idea that people put into action. It is a collection of situations that give an observable
need for a new product, service, or business. For example, a person has an idea of creating new packages
for a travel agency that could possibly gather more potential markets. The entrepreneur then will put that
idea into action by creating an actual travel agency package. In this example, the idea needs to be analyzed
first before considering it as an opportunity to become a business. The analysis is important to ensure the
success of the business.

There are two (2) stimulations or ways to see development out of an idea to produce opportunity
(Barringer & Ireland, 2019):

• Externally stimulated – This stimulation is defined as seeing an opportunity after starting a

business. This happens through the researching and developing phases of the business. Ideas here
are formed while thoroughly studying an upcoming business or reinventing what's already
around.

This leads to either a new product being introduced, new services provided, or a new venture
related to what is already operating. Come to think of those new flavors being introduced by an
established coffee shop, new menus from different known restaurants, and new product lines or
upgraded services from hotels, airlines, or any businesses that are already existing – those are
part of the external stimulation.

• Internally stimulated – This stimulation happens upon seeing a problem or gap in a community,
and from there, an entrepreneur thinks of a product, or service, or business that will suffice the
said gap. It wasn't always about generating money or being known, and a business usually starts
with the idea that turns into an opportunity to give solutions to one community's problem. One
example of this internal stimulation is when the founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, and his
dorm mates desired to create a way to let Harvard Students connect easier and share photos all
together for campus and school-related purposes.

To fully identify an opportunity aside from these two (2) stimulations, an opportunity has four (4)
characteristics: Attractive, Timely, Durable, and Anchored in a product or service, or business that
creates or adds value for its buyer or consumer. (Barringer & Ireland, 2019)

An idea that is attractive, timely, durable, and anchored in a product or service or business that creates
or adds value for its buyer or end-user is considered an opportunity for an entrepreneur.

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• Attractiveness, in terms of opportunity is the ability of an idea to produce a product, service, or

business that will be appealing to the potential market. This characteristic tends to go with what
is trending and being patronized by a wide range of consumers. An opportunity needs to have an
advantage to a certain situation that can call the possible consumer's attention before turning it
into a venture.

• Timely is defined as the characteristics of an idea to support the need of a place by meeting the
demand of a product or service for whatever season it may serve. This means that an idea to be
considered an opportunity to become a business needs to meet the people's current needs and
demands and the market.

• Durable means the durability of an idea or its possibility. An idea to be considered an opportunity
may take some time to be developed or established but not impossible to do so. It also needs to
be able to go along with the changes or adapt to any possible advancement in a community. The
durability of an idea simply means how possible it is to be done and how well it will stay
established.

• Anchored in a product, or service, or business that adds value to the buyer or consumer means
that an idea to become an opportunity must highlight its ability to produce a product or service
beneficial to its end-user or consumer. Meaning, an idea without any purpose of solving a problem
or meeting a need is not considered an opportunity for a business. An entrepreneur must realize
which among the listed ideas is a leading opportunity to produce a product or service that will
satisfy buyer or consumer needs.

Identifying Trends, Gaps, and Opportunities

Aside from the discussed stimulations and characteristics, identifying opportunities can be situated by
observing trends, solving problems, and finding gaps in the market. (Barringer & Ireland, 2019)

• Observing trends - Change is constant in a developing world; that's why it is important for an
entrepreneur to constantly keep an eye on economic, social, and technological changes and
advances. It's relevant to adapt to the changes and be in line with all the aspects that can develop
in the future years.

Every business's start is important, and it is a call for disaster to not know what the next step
should be. Some businesses are made for success; however, they forget that business is an
unending process. They end up not adapting to change nor developing new to boost up their
businesses. Entrepreneurs must keep in mind that even the usual market they used to serve can
be of a different need and wants as time goes by. Being the first mover in an industry doesn't
guarantee a lifetime advantage. Nokia's CEO admitted that they don't do anything, and they lost.
And, in doing nothing, a business can collapse. This can be possible in tourism and hospitality
businesses.

An entrepreneur must be wise in the process of starting and continuing his/her business.
Unexpected advancement is not for the complacent businessman.

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• Solving problems - Entrepreneurs don't sit and stare when a problem occurs. They acknowledge
it, and the next thing they do is to find the best solution possible. Numerous companies started
from people who see the problem and realized that the solution to that problem could be a
business opportunity. (Barringer & Ireland, 2019).

An entrepreneur's first moves whenever they see a problem or a need is to think of the best way
to solve it. The creation of Google started with two (2) students' desire to solve the need for
getting ideas for a certain topic from different websites or links. The more extracted links, the
better. This problem-solving skill didn't only suffice the need of finding a website, and this is now
a useful tool all over the world that generates different services useful for everyone who'll be
needing information, may it be school, work, or household-related, anything with an internet
connection is a one-click away possible answer.

• Finding gaps in the market place - Part of making the most of every situation is finding the gaps
in the marketplace. It is important to know that when producing or developing something to fulfill
a need or meet a want, an entrepreneur is aware of the gaps, where they are coming from, and
to whom the meeting of those gaps will make sense beneficial. Examples of these are those
existing ventures producing new product lines or flavors from their existing ones, recreating
current services, or developing an old one to meet all kinds of consumer's needs.

Another way of finding the gap and doing a business out of it is to develop existing products or
services by creating new categories for a different target market (Barringer & Ireland, 2019). An
example of the business created to fill a gap in the marketplace is Anytime Fitness and 24-Hour
Fitness to facilitate 24-hours fitness centers that will accommodate people who aren't working
with usual working hours.

Here are some of the factors that can contribute to finding the gaps to discover opportunities
(Osorno and Bajao, 2020):

 Markets - Analyzing the potential consumer and the competitors within the market an
entrepreneur wanted to serve is an important factor in discovering opportunities. This
will let him see what the gaps are needed to be met through the prices and quality of
products or services offered in the market.
 Individual interests - Analyzing the common interest of the people or community where
the business will possibly be built is another factor. As everyone differs so as the interest,
the demand may vary as there are into clothes but not much into food, there are some
into travel, but others for the known products in the destination.
 Capital - The business process needs financing. Being able to know the common issues
with this would be beneficial. This can let an entrepreneur see whether the funding he is
capable of will suffice the need of the business he'll put up to and can meet the gap he
wants to fulfill.
 Skills - Common mistake of some starting entrepreneurs is that they put up a business
because it is widely in demand without considering if their skills will meet the said
business. From this, one must attest what skills they need to develop and improve to
make their venture successful.

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 Suppliers of inputs - The lack of materials or production of a product, service, and/or

business is a way for an entrepreneur to know the next step. He must look or find ways
how those desired business ideas will eventually be an existing venture.
 Technology - As the world continues to develop, so as technological advancement. An
entrepreneur must analyze the further needs to create something valuable enough to be
patronized by people, thus meeting the needs or wants. In today's generation, people are
really giving much attention to great inventions that promote innovation and convenient
life

The entrepreneurs must be able to identify every trend, problem, and gap. They must acknowledge
everything related to it and make ways to utilize it in creating opportunities. Analyzing these three (3)
ways should always point out seeing success in a possible business venture.

Techniques for Gathering Ideas

As previously discussed, an idea can either be an opportunity or not. But a lot of people tend to develop
more ideas before seeing an opportunity because collecting ideas is the best way to come up with the one
that can really be an opportunity.
There are three (3) main ways entrepreneurs use to gather ideas: brainstorming, focus group, and library
and internet research (Barringer & Ireland, 2019).

• Brainstorming - Brainstorming is the way of generating several new ideas about a specific topic. There
are two (2) approaches to brainstorming. The first is the informal that comes up from an individual
through writing all the interesting business ideas, and the other one is formal that incorporates a
group of people with a facilitator. This formal brainstorming comes with four (4) specified rules
(Barringer & Ireland, 2019):

 Criticism is prohibited - This rule prohibits any chuckles, raised eyebrows, or any facial
expression that will show being skeptical or doubtful.
 Freewheeling - This rule is allowing every idea to be welcomed regardless of rules or
restraints. This means everyone can share his/her idea even if it seems unserious, weird, or
petty as it may lead to a good opportunity that can possibly solve a problem or meet a need.
 The brainstorming is fast-phased. This rule restricts formal brainstorming to get the essence
of a shared idea instead of writing everything perfectly. This is also an important rule as this
maximizes the time of the whole brainstorming process.
 Leapfrogging is the rule that let the facilitator acknowledge one idea and move to another
quickly. This is called leapfrogging as it allows the jumping from one idea to another, enabling
more ideas to be gathered and see the best opportunity possible that can be used.

Brainstorming for some classrooms set-up is a way of collating ideas for a topic to be discussed during
a group presentation or even during thesis making. In business, it serves the same purpose, to gather
ideas that will turn into an opportunity to create and develop products and services that will improve
means of living.

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• Focus Group - The focus group discussion emphasizes the concept of the statement that the same
birds with the same feathers flock together as this is the collaboration of five (5) to 10 people sharing
a familiar understanding of a particular topic.

The focus group is happening with a trained moderator to refine the idea processed from the
brainstorming. His main goal is to keep the group "focused" while generating active discussions
(Barringer & Ireland, 2019).

Focus group discussion varies on how well the moderator asks questions and keep the discussion
going. It can be a set-up in a bakeshop that serves widely known cheesecake by inviting five (5) or
more customers. It can start with a question about the main thing that consumers hate about their
cheesecake. In this scenario, one of them may answer that they are only selling New York
Cheesecake. Another one may add that though it is always appealing and sumptuous, it would be
great if there are various choices like Blueberry, Strawberry, Chocolate, or Mango Cheesecake. The
moderator will continue the discussion with a follow-up question about who will buy the said
varieties of cheesecake if available. If five (5) or more raised their hands during the discussion, it
could be considered as a great opportunity to build a new product line available for the consumers.
If there is a need to validate this, the focus group discussion can also be facilitated with another
group, asking the same questions.

Focus group discussions are making room to know the opportunities that can be used to produce
something. It tends to refine a broad idea of business to a specific and simpler one, meeting the need
to produce a thing that will help people nowadays.

• Library and Internet Research - The third but most common way of generating new ideas is to do
library and internet research. Before, people go from library to library to gather or get a pile of books
to develop one idea. Nowadays, life is easier. Doing internet research makes it easy for people to be
directed to pages, articles, or blogs to give people numerous possible ideas. But if a person wants to
go the traditional way, he can do it by dropping by any library he believes will give him the book he
needs. This can be done easier by explaining to the librarian the topic/s he wants to research and ask
for advice regarding what book is suitable for it.

No matter what way the entrepreneur finds the best to gather an idea, the purpose of doing so must lead
to building something that is of gain.

References
Ahmer (2019). Why Nokia failed. Retrieved on 10 August 2020 from https://www.doersempire.com/why-
Nokia-failed.
Bajao, G. T. & Osorno, R. D. (2020). Entrepreneurship in tourism and hospitality. Goodfellow.
Barringer, B. R., & Ireland, R. D. (2019). Entrepreneurship: Successfully launching new ventures (6th ed.
Global ed.). Pearson.

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