Recognising and Exploiting Business Opportunities

Entrepreneur opportunity is a situation where entrepreneur take action to make profit. It is a situation in
which new goods, services, raw materials and organizing methods can be introduced and sold at greater
than the cost of production.
The entrepreneur need to be able to recognise and exploit the market opportunity to start their
new business or lunch a new product.
Facebook, Uber, Alibaba, Jumia, Konga, O pay, Wazobia radio, etc are example of how new
opportunities are recognised and exploited to create new successful business.
Facebook realised and discovered the opportunity to use digital platform that connect people
around and create a market.
The most important ability of an entrepreneur is identifying and selecting opportunities in the
environment.
Business opportunity is the initiator of business venture and it consist of a series of circumstances
in the market that enable turning a business idea into business venture.

Four Ways to Identify Business Opportunities

I. Listen to your potential client and past leads: Listen to their needs, wants, challenges and
frustration within the industry. What did they like or hate using similar product, this will help us
find the opportunity to develop or improve.
II. Listen to your customer: when you are talking to the customer listen to what they are saying
about your industry. Note their frequently asked questions, experiences, feedback or complaint.
These customers’ information will help you identify key opportunities to expand.
III. Look at your competitors: Do a competitive analysis to see what other startups are doing or
what they are not doing, or what makes customer go to them over you. Analysing your
competitor will help identify key business opportunities to expand your market reach.
IV. Look at the industry trends and insight: Subscribe to industry publications, join relevant
associations, set google alerts for key industry terms and news, follow other industry experts on
social media. Educate yourself on the latest techniques and trends

Characteristics of a good opportunity

Low capital requirement: A good business opportunity should be cheap to finance. Access to capital is a
major impediment to entrepreneurship so entrepreneurs should focus on ideas that are cheap capital
suppliers are reluctant to finance. Capital suppliers are reluctant to finance new business.
Passionate. A good business opportunity is one that aligns with individual passion. One must have
internal motivation towards building a bright future for the business.
Matches individual skills: Individuals capability are the key determinant of the fitness of the business. A
good opportunity must align with the entrepreneurial skill.
Growth: It is paramount to ensure the feasibility of an opportunity before committing resources so
growing the business is the principal goal of an entrepreneur.
Reflect environmental realities: A business opportunity should be relevant to the prevailing
environment. The business environment is dynamic so entrepreneurs should understand how changes in
the environment affect customers’ needs and business operation.

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Differences between Opportunity and Idea
An opportunity is an idea that passed the test of planning, opportunities are ideas, circumstance or
situation that can lead to a desirable and viable business. It has potential, you can implement it.
Ideas are inspiration consisting of hard work and brain storming. An idea is a connection between two or
more pieces of information which only turns into an opportunity while opportunities are ideas that will
result in a successful business. Business opportunities are based on ideas but most business ideas do not
represent authentic business opportunities. A business idea is just a conception or thought without an
actual plan while an opportunity is an idea with a plan.

Conducting Internal and External Analysis

Conducting an internal analysis requires extensive knowledge of the interwokings of the company eg.
resources, assets and processes. Internal analysis help the company decision makers accurately identify
areas of growth to form a practical business plan.

Reasons to Conduct Internal Analysis

To identify company strength: that is the quality of employees, availability of necessary resources.
Strength help business to increase their overall success and viability.
To identify structural weaknesses: this may be features like lack of effective training, old or out of date
technology, poor interdepartmental communication.
To identify opportunities: that is areas of growth e.g introducing new product.
Viability in the market place: internal analysis helps in finding a specific niche within the larger market
to set the business apart from the competitor.

How to Conduct Internal Analysis

Set your objective: by establishing goal or reason for performing an analysis for example, find new
creative business opportunity, decrease internal expenses.
Choice of frame work: decide which internal frame work you wish to use. Some are better at identifying
deficiencies while others focus on development of the company. Select one that you need.
Conduct research: gather information from internal source regarding resources, competencies and area
of growth, employee interviews or review of companies financial sand assessment of physical equipment.
Follow the frame work: use the selected framework to analyse the data. For example, if you are using
SWOT analysis create four (4) separate list using each of the SWOT elements as heading.
Set your priorities: compare your findings with original objective.
Apply the findings: take the findings and implement the plan to meet objective.

External Analysis
The trends that needed to be scanned externally are embedded in the five (5) environmental factors.
Social factors
This include the characteristics of the population, its income and its value. Changes in each of these can
have a dramatic impact on firm’s operational strategy.

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Economic forces
These relate to the income, expenditures and resources that affect the cost of operating a business and a
household. Another way of looking at the economic forces is to consider the two aspect of them- a macro
economic and a micro economic perspective of individual income. Macroeconomic conditions reflect the
state of the national economy, weather inflationary or recessionary or in a boom. Microeconomic trends
in terms of consumer income, have implications for marketing since having a product that meets the
needs of a consumers may be of little or no significance to them if they are unable to buy it. Hence a
consumer’s ability to buy a product is related to his or her income which has gross, disposable and
discretionary components. Almost in all cases, income impacts on a consumer’s degree of effective
demand for any firm’s goods or services.
Technological forces
This refers to invention and innovation and their impact on firm’s future. Their impact is pervasive since
technology brings about new products in the market place apart from increasing the rate of obsolescence
of a firm’s plant and equipment.
Competitive forces
This refers to the alternative firms that could provide a product to satisfy a specific market’s needs. It is
not only important that a small firm should consider its present and potential competitors but also the
various components that drive competition namely entry, bargaining power of buyers and suppliers,
existing rivalries and substitution possibilities, in designing its overall business strategy.
Regulatory forces
The marketing and other business decisions of any firm are constrained, directed and influenced by
regulatory forces. Regulation usually exists to protect both the firm and its customers, ensure fair
competition and business practices as well as fair pricing.

Determining Feasibility of a Concept

Feasibility analysis provide a business with crucial information that could prevent the business from
entering blindly into a risky business.
It is an assessment of the practicality of a proposed plan or project. Is this project feasible?

Goals of feasibility
 To understand thoroughly all aspect of a project concept or plan.
 To become aware of any potential problem that could occur while implementing the project.
 To determine if after considering all significant factors the project is visible, that is, worth
undertaking.
 It can allow business to address where and, how it will operate.
 Can identify potential obstacles that may impede operations.
 Recognise the amount of funding it will need to get the business up and running.
 It contains marketing strategies that can help convince investors or banker that investing in a
particular project of business in a wise choice.

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Components of Feasibility Studies
 Executive summary: a narrative describing details of the project or product, service, plan and
business.
 Technological consideration: ask what it will take, do you have it, if not can you get it, what it
will cost.
 Existing market: examine the local and broader markets for the product, service plan or business.
 Marketing strategy: explain the type of marketing strategy.
 Required staff: this will include organizational chart, the entire human capital needed.
 Schedule and timeline: project completion date.
 Project financials.
 Findings and recommendation.
SELECTING A MARKETING STRATEGY
A good marketing strategy help one define your vision, mission and business goal and also outline the
steps you need to take to achieve the goals.
Your marketing strategy affects the way you run your entire business. Marketing strategy is a wide
reaching comprehensive strategic planning tools that:
1. Describe your business, it products and services.
2. Explain the position and the role of your product and services in the market.
3. Profile your customer and your competitors.
4. Identify the market tactics you will use.
5. Allows you to build a marketing plan and
6. measures its effectiveness.
A good marketing strategy helps you target your product and services to the most likely to buy it.
Components of Marketing Strategy

 Objectives and SMART goals: begin with the question ‘What is my objective’ define the core of
your marketing strategy, how much market share do you want to capture, try to be specific when
setting the objective
 Target Audience: how can your product or service solve your customers’ problems? Identify
your customers, conduct in-depth research of your target market, your customers, where they are,
the age group, compile data on your current customer, do social media analytics, their gender,
interest, job title etc.
 Brand Message: present your unique selling proposition. The brand message is one of the major
element of a marketing strategy
 Competitor analysis: here you analyse your competitors and figure out how your competitors
acquire customers. Identify your competitors, check their website, scan your competitor’s social
media account.
 Marketing Techniques and Channels: here select the marketing tools and methods that will
help you communicate your brand message to your target audience. For example, SEO Search
engine optimization, SMM Social media marketing, Email marketing, influencer marketing etc

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