Entrepreneurship

Lecture - 3

Opportunity Recognition,
Creativity, & Idea Generation
What Problem Can You Solve?
 What does the word
“Opportunity” mean to you?
 Is it a chance to get
something for nothing?
A chance to do something that you have
NEVER done before?
What about problems? Do you think problems
can lead to great business ideas?
 Many amazing businesses have
been created by entrepreneurs
who were frustrated by problems
and developed businesses to solve
them.
Anita Roddick started THE BODY SHOP because she was
tired of paying for perfume and fancy packaging when
she bought makeup.

So Roddick created simple, inexpensive packages and

even encouraged recycling of containers from her
shops.

She kept her prices low and her advertising down to

earth (Roddick once said it was “immoral” for
cosmetics companies to use pictures of glowing sixteen
year olds to sell anti-wrinkle creams to forty year old
females).
Bill Gates is another problem solver. Before he
started Microsoft, most software was so hard to
use that is was extremely terrifying to the
average person.

He decided to create software that would be fun

and easy to use, and he built a multi-billion
dollar business.
According to Anita Roddick, entrepreneurs
should ask themselves the following questions:

- What product or service would make my

life easier or more enjoyable?

- What makes me annoyed or angry?

- What product or service would take away

my aggravation?
Creating Opportunities from Imagination
• What is the one thing that you would want to have more than
anything else?

• What does it look like? Taste like?

• What does it do?

Widen Your World

• The best way to train your mind to recognize your

opportunities is to broaden it with lots of new experiences

– Traveling
– Meeting new people
– Learning a language
– Reading books you might not normally read
– Attending lectures, poetry reading, concerts
– Trying new hobbies
– Watching the news, reading newspapers and magazines
– Discussing news events with friends and mentors
– Internships & volunteer work
The more new stuff we try,
the smarter and more
creative we become!
Entrepreneurs Exploit Changes in Our World

• Peter Drucker believes that for a business to be considered

entrepreneurial, it should exploit changes in our world.

• Drucker defines an entrepreneur as someone who “always

searches for change, responds to it and exploits it as an
opportunity.”
Could that someone be you?
Hypothetical Situations
• Here are some hypothetical situations. What business would you consider
in order to find solutions to these needs? See if you can find ways to solve
these problems:

1. Kids with after school activities and working parents

2. A going-out of business sign placed in a local store
3. A new retirement home is built near your home
4. Four new working families with small children just moved into your
neighborhood
5. You live near a college
6. You know a lot of families who have birthday parties for their children
7. A lot of people in your area speak only one language
Quick Exercise!
• An entrepreneur recognizes opportunities where other
people see only problems

• Try thinking of three problems that annoy you and a business

solution for each:
An Idea is NOT Necessarily an Opportunity

• Not every wild business idea is an opportunity

• An opportunity is an idea that is based on what consumers
want
• Many small businesses failed because the entrepreneur didn’t
understand this fact
How do you recognize when an idea is an
opportunity?
1. It is attractive to customers
2. It will work in your business environment
3. It can be executed in the window of opportunity* that exists
4. You have the resources and skills to create the business, or
you know someone who does and who might want to work
with you

*The window of opportunity is the amount of time you have to get your business idea to
your market. If competitors have already had the same idea and gotten their product to the
market first, that window of opportunity has slammed shut.
Four Roots of Entrepreneurial Opportunity

• You can train your mind to recognize opportunities by thinking about

these four roots of opportunity:

• Problems: Could you create a business that would solve a problem for
yourself or other people?
• Change: Any change can stir up new business opportunities. Read the
newspaper! Look for changing laws, situations and trends.
• Invention: Even if you don’t invent something, you might a creative way
to sell or market a new invention. Maybe you could bring a new
invention to your community first?
• Competition: If you can find a way to beat your competition , you can
create a very successful business with an existing product or service.
Could you do a better job? Could you be faster? More reliable?
Cheaper?
Types of Opportunities

• Internal Opportunities
– No matter what business you start, is has to meet a consumer
need. But many successful entrepreneurs have started business
that initially did not appear to meet much consumer needs.
They built on passion alone.

• External Opportunities
– When you look outside yourself for business ideas, you can find
external opportunities. People in your neighborhood are maybe
complaining about something that is lacking. But the problem
with external business opportunities is that your business idea
may fill a need for the market, but you may not have the
interest, skills and passion for it.
Everyone has to work for food, then why beg for it
through a job?