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• Entrepreneurial Opportunity:

  • A business opportunity is an economic idea that can be implemented to create a business enterprise and earn profits
  • Before selecting an opportunity, the entrepreneur must ensure there is a good market for the product and an attractive rate of return on investment
• Elements of a Business Opportunity:

  • Assured market scope
  • An attractive and acceptable rate of return on investment
  • Practicability of the idea
  • Competence of the entrepreneur to capitalize on it
  • Potential for future growth
• Factors involved in Sensing Opportunities:

  • Ability to perceive and preserve basic ideas that could be used commercially
  • Ability to harness different sources of information
  • Vision and creativity
• Opportunity Spotting Process:

  • Spotting needs and problems in the environment
  • Evaluating ideas to find creative solutions
  • Identifying a product or service through innovation
  • Setting up a project and nurturing it to success
• Perceiving and Sensing Opportunities:

  • Entrepreneurs perceive opportunities, synthesize information, and analyze emerging patterns
  • They have vision and can persuade others to see and support the opportunity
• Problems lead to solutions that emerge as business opportunities
• Change in social, legal, technological aspects leads to new business opportunities
• New inventions of products or services lead to new business opportunities
• Competition often results in new and better ideas that create business opportunities
• Innovation involves creating new things of value and processes that add value to existing products or services
• Ability to harness different sources of information:

  • Sources include magazines, journals, books, seminars, trade shows, family members, customers, friends
  • Gathering information from various sources helps in evolving basic ideas
  • Analyzing information aids in identifying the right opportunity to start a new business
• Vision and creativity are essential:

  • Entrepreneur should creatively identify an idea to generate a valuable solution
  • Vision helps in converting the solution into a business opportunity
  • Overcoming obstacles, exercising control, and making a significant difference are key aspects
• Environment scanning is crucial:

  • Business environment includes economic, social, political, legal, and other factors
  • Entrepreneurship depends on external conditions
  • Environmental scanning involves monitoring internal and external conditions for opportunities and threats
• Importance of environment sensitivity:

  • Sensitivity to environmental factors is crucial for success
  • Adapting to the environment leads to long-term success
  • Sensitization helps cope with rapid changes and build a positive image
• SWOT Analysis Framework:

  • Involves monitoring economic and non-economic environment for opportunities and threats
  • Data collection, processing, and forecasting aid in developing goals and strategies for business survival and growth
• Opportunity-Project Interface:

  • Testing opportunities against environmental parameters for sound business decisions
  • Evaluative process leading to judgment on viability and business sense
• Entrepreneurship environment includes micro and macro factors:

  • Micro factors: Suppliers, customers, intermediaries, competitors, general public
  • Macro factors: Political, economic, social, technological, ecological, legal (PESTEL model)
• The PESTEL Model:

  • Political, economic, social, technological, ecological, legal factors influence business decisions
  • Considerations include taxation, government stability, foreign trade regulations, interest rates, inflation, social demographics, technological advancements, environmental impact, and legal aspects
• Problem identification:

  • A problem sets up a conflict that requires a solution
  • Objectives include clearly stating the problem, identifying the target group, and assessing market acceptability
  • Helps in bringing new products, understanding market needs, being creative, increasing employment, and national income
• Idea generation:

  • Involves creating, developing, and communicating abstract, concrete, or visual ideas
  • Business ideas can come from market trends, consumer needs, or serendipity
  • Idea fields help in streamlining idea generation by expanding thinking and structuring ideas
• Various sources of idea fields:

  • Natural resources, existing products or services, market-driven ideas are sources of idea generation
  • Ideas can be based on forest resources, agriculture, horticulture, mineral, animal husbandry, existing products, market research, and consumer preferences
• Market research is different from marketing research:

  • Marketing research focuses on marketing processes
  • Market research focuses on markets
• Market research is essential for maintaining competitiveness over competitors
• Market research provides information to identify and analyze market need, size, and competition
• Market research involves systematic gathering and interpretation of information about individuals or organizations using statistical and analytical methods
• Idea generation is knowledgeable, creative, and systematic, developing from knowledge of the consumer, market, technology, and general environment
• Trading involves buying goods and services and selling them to consumers at a profit
• Trading has advantages of being easier to launch and less risky compared to other businesses
• Service sector entrepreneurial opportunities are growing due to advancements in Information and Technology
• Opportunities in the food sector include:

  • Indian fast food/finger food
  • Family dinner options
  • Sandwich and salad parlours
  • Ice-cream and juice/beverage parlours
  • Indian "desserts" and "snack food" chains
  • Speciality tourism options
• Creative ideas can be generated by developing new products or services, improving existing ones, finding new processes/resources, new markets, or new uses of existing products/services
• Entrepreneurs like Bill Gates, Sam Walton, Ted Turner, Henry Ford, Ray Kroc, and Fred Smith have significantly impacted everyday life through their innovations
• Product identification is crucial after opportunity spotting and scanning the environment
• Transformation of ideas into opportunities involves a strategic process of examination, evaluation, analysis, and synthesis
• Idea and opportunity assessment steps include:

  • Product identification
  • Application and use examination
  • Level of operation assessment
  • Cost evaluation
  • Competition analysis
  • Technical complexity consideration
  • Annual turnover and profit margin examination
• Market assessment involves:

  • Demand assessment
  • Supply and nature of competition analysis
  • Cost and price evaluation
  • Project innovation and change study
  • Trend spotting to understand market trends
• Ways in which an entrepreneur can spot trends:

  • Regularly reading leading publications and websites affecting their business
• Ways in which an entrepreneur spots trends:
• Entrepreneurs regularly read leading publications and websites affecting their business, including industry publications, trade association sites, major newspapers, key business magazines, thought leaders, and influential bloggers
• They scan information from a wide variety of sources, from international news to niche bloggers focused on specific aspects of their industry