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Good Ideas vs Business Opportunities

 

 

 

 

We have all heard about or know someone who has had a brilliant idea and tried to turn it into a business only to discover that their brilliant idea was not needed on the market and did not generate any demand. According to Bigthink.com "humans have approximately 6200 thoughts being processed by their brains every single day on average" . This is a staggering amount of thoughts to even begin thinking about. When looking for business opportunities, somewhere in this mountain load of neural activity are some very brilliant ideas with the potential to generate millions, however there are also some very good ideas that are just good interesting ideas, but not business opportunities. The question you are possibly asking your self is, how do you know which is which? How can you identify business opportunities from good ideas? Well let's get into it.

Good Ideas are good for discussion and holding our imaginations, to look at what could be possible. They can be inspiring and motivating. Sometimes they are brought about by our good intentions to make the world a better place and reduce suffering of people. However; good ideas are seldom good business opportunities. Sometimes they are, but more often, they are not. Many first time prospective business owners are so impressed with their own brain babies that they think that because they thought about it, it is probably the best idea which is also a very high potential business opportunity. This often turns out to be wrong more times than they are right. A big part of the risks of failure that businesses carry in the earlier phase of business creation has to do mostly with whether or not the business was based in a good idea or a business opportunity.

So how do you Identify Real Business Opportunities from the Good Ideas?

While our identification criteria of a business opportunities from just good ideas in this article is not exhaustive, it however draws attention to what we believe from our research are the key indicators of Good Business Opportunities as opposed to just Good Ideas.

 

 

 

 

1. Based on meeting Human Needs

 

Whilst good ideas are based in wishes, wants, aspirations and hopes, good business opportunities are based in meeting need of people.

 

 A good business opportunity meets at least 1 human need. The most successful meet multiple needs in different levels of Maslow's hierarchy of Needs

 

 Using the hierarchy of needs image below, how does the Nike "just do it", shoes meet human needs on different levels of hierarchy?

 

 

Image of Maslow's hierarchy of Needs

 

 

2. Geographically Relevant

 

Opportunities make sense to the environment in which the business intends to operate.

 

Suppose you sold snow boots in South Africa. Although it may be a good idea for a good product, it is not an opportunity because there is no snow in South Africa therefore there would be no demand.

3. Clear/Proven Demand

 

Generally, products or services that have a history of demand and growing market are indicative of opportunities;

 

However, in the case where your product or service is new, it is a good idea to conduct some market research and viability testing to see if there will be customers for your products before committing a lot of resources in what may end up being an unwanted-nice-to-have-product and not needed on the market.

4. Time Appropriate and Aligned to Current Trends

 

 

Good Ideas sometimes tend to be disconnected to time and trends both past & future.

 

Suppose you are wanting to start a video store renting out VCR's. It’s a good idea that made many people millionaires 15-20 years ago.

 

However; this idea is highly inappropriate as a business opportunity in 2021, even though many people still demand video entertainment, the means of accessing it has now changed to streamed content on demand. Eg Netflix, DStv Now etc

 

5. Rooted in Logical Reasoning

 

Most good ideas have a feel good characteristic that cannot be pinned down to numbers or clear executable strategy.

 

With good Ideas It is often a poor & usually fuzzy exercise through which it tries to convince us on how the return on investment is determined.

 

Good opportunities can be strategized on clearly and the ROI can be determined in a simple and clear way.

 

Further Tips

As a prospective business owner looking for real business opportunities, it is important that you are realistic and logical in your analysis of that opportunity. Subject it to criticism and ask your target market if they would be willing to buy from you. You have to take ego out of your decision making and rather become guided by accurate market analysis data. However in the event that you would like further assistance in the creation process of your business you can always email us here at consult@thoughtmasters.co.za and we will gladly help you out.