In today’s hypercompetitive world with rapidly changing technology, it is essential for an entrepreneur to at least consider entering a market outside the company’s national borders.
OPPORTUNITY RECOGNITION AND THE OPPORTUNITY ASSESSMENT PLAN
The key to successful domestic and international entrepreneurship is to develop an idea that has a market with a need for the product or service idea conceived. The ideation process explained in Chapter 4 needs to be thought of in terms of satisfying a specific market need or as one entrepreneur stated, ”making the customer whether a business, a consumer, or a government more profitable.”
What is deemed to be “profitable” varies by the product/service idea and particularly whether the idea is an industrial product (business-to-business market) or a consumer product (business-to-consumer market). This is best accomplished through the development of an opportunity assessment plan.
An opportunity assessment plan is not a business plan. Compared to a business plan, it:
- Is shorter.
- Focuses on the opportunity, not the venture.
- Has no computer-based spreadsheet.
- Is the basis for making the decision to either act on an opportunity or wait until another, better opportunity comes along.
An opportunity assessment plan has four sections-two major sections and two minor sections. The first major section develops the product/service idea, analyzes the competitive products and companies, and identifies the uniqueness of the idea in terms of its unique selling proposition. This section includes:
- A description of the product or service.
- The market need for the product or service.
- The specific aspects of the product or service.
- The competitive product available filling this need and their features.
- The companies in this product market space.
- The unique selling propositions of this product or service.
Some data sources for determining competition and industry size are discussed in the next section later in this chapter