How to Discover your Small Business Opportunity
Discovering your small business opportunity could be easy if you have heaps of small business ideas but it could be difficult if you have too many ideas and can't decide what you want to do.
The key to finding the best opportunity is profitability!
On the other hand, finding a profitable small business opportunity requires a lot of time, effort and patience in researching the ideas you have to find out what your market wants.
Many people don't put the time and effort required into researching thoroughly the opportunities that are available to them.
They want the get rich quick option ...
We have all heard how get rich quick schemes end up ... so please take the time to research all the options that are available to you.
Also, don't leave something out because you don't think that it will be profitable. You won't know if it profitable until you have done your research.
Business Owners Poll
How much time did you take to research your small business opportunity?
Discovering the Right Small Business Opportunity
All of us are striving to find a nice little profitable small business opportunity that requires little work or freedom from working.
There are many opportunities for reducing the workload for any business opportunity but you generally can't get away from the business altogether.
Although, if you set up the systems and automation as soon as you start the business then there is much more chance that you will be able to set away from the business ... eventually ... but not immediately.
Does that make sense?
So, here are some ways for you to find the right business opportunity for you:
- Keep an eye out for opportunities in your daily life: - If you keep your eyes and ears open you will be amazed at what people are saying. Nearly all the businesses that we setup and started were based on a conversation that come up unintentionally. We weren't looking for anything but it just come up. So we jumped in and grabbed the opportunity, after doing our research!
- Looking at what others are doing: - Understanding how others are making money can help you pick a small business niche. You must know the industry though. Just because someone else has started a small business and it has been successful for them doesn't mean that it will necessarily work for you. Again ... do the research and ensure that you know what you can do.
- What is your passion: - If you start a business that is related to something that you are passionate about it is much more likely to be successful AND you will have the motivation to get through the difficult times.
- Know the industry: - Your opportunity can be from any industry or any small business opportunity. But if you don't know what the demands and resources are, then it is going to be a struggle for you. You should always start a business that fulfills your personal and financial needs.
Best Places for Market Research
There are many places that you can do your market research and now we have the internet which is just a wealth of information!
- Friends on Facebook - talking to you friends on Facebook is a cheap and simple place to start your research, particularly if they are your potential market. Just ask them if they would be interested in your offering.
- Survey Monkey - you can set up a free account with Survey Monkey and you can ask up to 10 questions in the online survey. These surveys can then be shared in your online or offline communities.
- Review the financials - how do you know if the business is going to be profitable if you haven't researched the financial reports. The Profit and Loss Statement, the Balance Sheet and the Cash Flow Statements will give you a lot of information about the business. If you are not sure how to read them contact your accountant or a financial adviser to discuss further.
- Attend Business Networking Events - finding a community near you is simple. Meetups have a huge list of events that you can join. When you attend these events discuss your opportunity and find out what they think. They will only be so happy to share their opinions.
- Visit a local Small Business Development Centre - small business development centres are usually linked to local Councils and so they know what could work well in your local area.
- Get Stats from Bureau of Statistics - Every country collects data on the demographics of the people living there. In Australia it is the Bureau of Statistics, in the US it is the US Census Bureau. You can download information from their website and you can see whether your opportunity will be profitable for the people living in your area.
- Checkout what your competitors are doing - successful business owners will take ideas from their competitors and make it better. The saying is "not point in reinventing the wheel!". The more that you can research what the successful businesses are doing in your industry and/or area the more chance of success you will have.
© 2009 Tammy Love