Business Start Up Process: Finding a Value-Creating Opportunity

Business Start Up Process: Finding a Value-creating Opportunity

Entrepreneurship is something many people dream of, but only few can achieve. What are the reasons that make owning one own company so difficult to reach? The most common phenomenon is that people usually don’t know what they should do to become a successful entrepreneur; more specifically they don’t even know how to start. According to the Pathways to innovation and entrepreneurship framework, the first step is to assess oneself based on personal background, triggers and both enabling and disposing factors to become an entrepreneur. Then, the next step is to find a value-creating business opportunity (Logan, 2010). The key to entrepreneurship is the ability to identify, pursue and capture the value from business opportunities (Muzyka, 2000). Without the ability to identify good opportunity, it would be tough to accomplish the goal. The process of identifying good business opportunity involves discovering a gap in the current marketplace and then exploiting that gap to one own advantage. The key in finding a gap in the market is to break the process down, think about it and answer the questions of what makes a good opportunity and where entrepreneurs find opportunity logically.

1. OPPORTUNITY: DEFINITION

In his book “Financial Times Mastering Entrepreneurship”, Muzyka defined an opportunity as a business concept that, if turned into a tangible product or service offered by a business enterprise, will result in financial profit. However, it is not everyone that succeeds in the process of spotting out the opportunity. In order to avoid being trapped, there are several aspects of entrepreneurial opportunity that need to be understood. Firstly, different people perceive and capture opportunity differently. It is rooted from differences in experiences of each individuals or team to identify and exploit opportunity. An opportunity for one may be a situation others want to keep away from....