Put a grain of boldness into everything you do.
—Baltazar Gracian y Morales, S.J.
What do you do? It is one of the first questions asked when you meet someone new. You must be able to answer that question when anyone asks about your business. Be ready with a quick and confident answer when asked.
Growing Capacity Through Opportunities
Moving forward with anything new is bold. Growing your capacity often means expanding and creating new opportunities for growth. Opportunities are just new business ideas you have not considered before now. Most small companies start with a limited number of products or services. Service companies often soon find they need to offer additional services because the most valuable contracts tend to go to “full service” vendors. Product companies realize they can add complementary products to make their customers happy and increase sales. Sometimes companies that sell a product find that they can grow their bottom line by offering services to implement, install, and maintain those same products. Service companies may discover that selling one or more of the products they service adds to their profit margin as well.
Opportunities are the seeds of your ideas that when properly nurtured sprout into success. Whether you are an entrepreneur considering a new business opportunity or an existing business owner contemplating expanding with another opportunity, an organized and thoughtful approach reduces risks and helps ensure success. Deciding what opportunity is right for your organization begins with fully identifying and vetting an idea.
Every opportunity solves a problem by meeting a need caused by a point of pain or inconvenience. Consider for example a need to keep an entire community safe by manufacturing the best customized parts necessary to ensure the reliability of a dam to avoid the pain of a dangerous flood. Perhaps you want to provide better housing for low-income single mothers to reduce the pain of substandard housing. On the other hand, the need may be to experience the pleasure of taking a bite out of a delectable dessert so good that just thinking of it makes your customer’s mouth water.
It is clear to see we have many perceived needs; some are more urgent than others are. All needs present opportunities. The viability of your opportunity depends on meeting a need in your market that can be clearly stated. It may be as simple as overcoming boredom or as complicated as creating scientific breakthroughs in answer to a world problem.
Finding Your Market
Your customers may be buyers, donors, funders, service recipients, or some combination depending on whether you are for profit or nonprofit. Determining if a customer market exists is different from creating a market strategy or developing a marketing or sales plan. At this point, understanding where your opportunity fits into the marketplace determines if what you have to offer is worth pursuing. If not, you may need to consider the changes necessary to make your opportunity viable. Better to know now. The market determines what you sell. A perfect market consists of a large customer base with no reasons why you cannot reach those customers who are willing and able to pay the price you ask.
Ask yourself these questions:
1. Is there a place in the market for my opportunity now or will I have to educate customers so that they understand the need?
2. What credible data exists from reliable sources such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, U.S. Census, SBA, U.S. Labor Bureau, trade associations, and industry research?
3. After reviewing reliable data sources ask yourself, is my estimated market big enough to be successful?