As entrepreneurs, finding the right opportunity to grow and expand our businesses is a problem that keeps some up at night. Taking advantage of an opportunity may seem like a huge risk sometimes, especially when markets and economies seem uncertain, but there are ways to identify the right opportunities most of the time is critical to your business growth.
Most entrepreneurs go about their businesses by identifying a gap in the market and coming up with solutions on how to fill the gap by assembling or bringing together the resources and capabilities needed.
Here are some ways to identify business opportunities that are right for you:
1. Look at your competitors
Research to see what other businesses are doing or not doing. What makes your customers choose you and what makes their customers choose them? Analysing your competitors will help you identify key business opportunities to expand your market reach.
2. Listen to your customers
Your customers will always something to say about your products and services—good or bad. Listening to their frequently asked questions, feedbacks and complaints can help to identify key business opportunities to expand and develop your current products and services.
Never take a break from listening to your customers, and you will understand more of what customers want, where they want it, how they want a product or service supplied, when they want it supplied, and at what price.
All of these should inform your next steps and your strategy.
3. Monitor industry trends and insights
Tune in to what is happening in your industry. This will help to identify patterns and opportunities that may not be obvious at first. Subscribe to publications, follow experts in your industry, join relevant groups, and set Google alerts for key industry terms. Stay abreast and educate yourself on the latest techniques and trends.
4. Draw inspiration from your own personal experiences.
Many of the most powerful world-changing ideas will come from the experiences and challenges an entrepreneur has faced in his or her own life. Considering problems that are affecting your personal life and work can lead the way to identify more impactful business opportunities.
5. Find opportunities in your local community.
One of the best ways to identify world-changing ideas is to start locally: Look for issues that concern your local community.
Joining volunteer groups and reading news that discusses problems in your city is a great way to learn more about the issues your community is trying to address. This can help you validate your ideas and start small as you prepare to take your idea to the world.
6. Ask others how you can help.
Coming up with ideas on your own is not always easy, but there could be people around you who have great experiences and insights that you can tap into.
External input can help you generate more ideas regarding issues you can address and how your business could solve these problems.
Whether you are seeking to improve living conditions for impoverished people or trying to revolutionize your industry, finding a greater purpose in your work can make all the difference for your entrepreneurial efforts.
About The Tony Elumelu Foundation
The Tony Elumelu Foundation is the leading philanthropy empowering a new generation of African entrepreneurs, driving poverty eradication, catalysing job creation across all 54 African countries, and ensuring inclusive economic empowerment. Since the launch of the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme in 2015, the Foundation has trained over 1.5 million young Africans on its digital hub, TEFConnect, and disbursed nearly USD$100 million in direct funding to 18,000 African women and men, who have collectively created over 400,000 direct and indirect jobs. The Foundation’s mission is rooted in Africapitalism, which positions the private sector, and most importantly entrepreneurs, as the catalyst for the social and economic development of the African continent.
