Identification of Entrepreneurial Opportunities

Before selecting an enterprise, the entrepreneur must first identify promising opportunities. Identification is the process of scanning the environment, spotting unmet needs, and shortlisting ideas worth pursuing. It is a mix of alertness, information-gathering and judgement.

Main sources of entrepreneurial opportunities:

• Unmet needs and problems of customers — products or services people want but cannot easily get, or existing ones they are dissatisfied with.
• Changes in the environment — new technology, changing lifestyles and tastes, rising incomes, urbanisation, and demographic shifts (for example a growing young population creating demand for education, gadgets or fitness services).
• Government policy and plans — new schemes, incentives, or sectors the government wants to promote (such as renewable energy, food processing or digital services).
• Import substitution and exports — goods now being imported that could be made locally, or products with export potential.
• Use of local resources and skills — raw materials, crafts or talents available in the region that are not yet fully used.
• Business and trade information — trade fairs, industry reports, market surveys and the experience of existing businesses.

Steps in identifying an opportunity:

1. Environmental scanning — study the economic, social, technological and political environment to notice trends and gaps.
2. Generating ideas — list possible product or service ideas that respond to those gaps.
3. Screening and evaluating ideas — compare the ideas against demand, resources, profitability, competition and the entrepreneur's own fit, and drop the weak ones.
4. Testing feasibility — for the shortlisted idea, carry out a market survey and a rough feasibility check (technical, financial and commercial) to confirm it is workable. …