It is good to begin by saying that entrepreneurs are made, but not born. Nevertheless, we have some families who are naturally enterprising. But I want you to know that anybody can become an entrepreneur. It does not require a particular level of education. An illiterate with good entrepreneurial skills will succeed in business. That is why we have a lot of school drop outs as successful entrepreneurs in every part of the world. Entrepreneurship involves some processes which are linked together but it all starts with the identification of opportunity.

Identification of opportunity

What is opportunity, and when does it knock? It never knocks. You can wait a whole lifetime, listening, hoping, and you will hear no knocking. None at all. You are opportunity, and you must knock on the door leading to your destiny. You prepare yourself to recognize opportunity, to pursue and seize opportunity as you develop the strength of your personality, says Maxwell Maltz. Entrepreneur sees an opportunity which other did not see. In most cases, the opportunity presents itself in form of a challenge. Naturally, people tend to run away from challenges but an entrepreneur will instead like to study the cause of the challenge and consider how he can provide a solution. Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people, said Eleneanor Roosevelt. The best way to identify opportunity is to start looking for problems that people are facing in their daily lives. For example, I once went to a suburb of a city. There is a large swamp there which separates one part of the locality from the other part. There was no bridge linking the two parts together. This means that people had to go round a long place before they could connect to the other part. In most cases, there would be a need to take a bike with an average fare of fifty bucks. This actually was a challenge to people living around that area but an entrepreneur saw it as a good business opportunity. He constructed a wooden bridge across the swamp. Each time anybody passes through the wooden bridge he/she will pay twenty bucks. The place is densely populated that there is no time of the day that there is no traffic of people passing on the bridge. People are glad that somebody provided solution and that they even pay less compared to what they pay for a bike to take them round a longer route. You can estimate how much this entrepreneur will be earning per day from the venture. Next time you hear somebody complaining about something, it can actually be a business opportunity for you. If there is no challenge, then there will be no opportunity. Some people saw the challenge in education system; they came up with private schools and institutions. Some identified accommodation problem; they went into real estate. Some identified lack of adequate power supply; they started importing generators.

Another way to identify opportunity is by assessing global trend. The entrepreneur always searches for change, responds to it, and exploits it as an opportunity, says Peter Drucker.

We live in a global community. What is happening in Europe, Asia and America will soon get to your continent and your country.

Let me dwell more on this stage of entrepreneurial process since this is what is lacking among our youth. Business opportunity usually comes first as idea. Therefore, you should learn how to generate ideas. As you begin to generate ideas, many of them may look crazy but it is advisable that you document them. Do not throw away any seemingly bad ideas yet. Keep a journal handy to record your thoughts and ideas as idea can come at any time. The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas, Linus Pauling said. You can get business idea while talking to a child or listening to other people. Your business idea may come by observing the products and services of other companies. You can make a list of things you use every day and think about how you could improve on them. For examples, customers usually seek improvement in term of speed, convenience, personalisation and price. It you notice that any of these is missing, you can create a business around it. Business idea does not necessarily mean that you have to reinvent the wheel. You just need to be creative and innovative. You can do something ordinary in an unusual way.

To identify opportunity, considering your skills and hobbies can be a good starting point. You then consider how you can match these with consumers’ needs and wants.

Possible places one can easily catch business ideas include the following:

Market
Newspapers and magazines
Motor Parks
Comments on discussion forums or blogs
Television and Radio programmes
Tourist centres/Amusement parks
Trade shows and exhibitions
Seminars
Quite environment

I mentioned earlier that many ideas will come to your mind. After you must have come up with some ideas, you need to consider which of them will give you a sense of fulfilment as a person. Deciding what you want to do, what you can do well, and what can give you the highest rewards for your efforts is the starting point in getting the best out of yourself, Brian Tracy advised.
http://www.businessinfohub.com/2015/09/15/how-to-locate-business-ideas-or-business-opportunities/

one of the best articles i have ever read herenice write up bro.

hijodedios:
one of the best articles i have ever read herenice write up bro.

Thank you.

Dey

Wonderful rightup bro. Thumbs up