How do you spot opportunity and take advantage of a gap in the market?
It may seem difficult when you first take a look around, but when you start to really dive in and shift your mindset, opportunities start to become increasingly exposed.
But how do you develop that mindset and see the opportunities that are available and then capitalise on them??
Here's the six steps I use to spot and qualify an opportunity:
Focus your attention: If your trying to look everywhere, it'll be overwhelming and difficult to spot patterns. Look into one particular niche at a time.
Understand your environment: You don't need to be an expert in your niche to spot and start on an opportunity, but you do need to understand the fundamentals of the environment you want to operate in. Get to work by watching YouTube, completing linkedin courses and talking to people in that area.
Look for patterns: In any industry or niche there are sets of patterns that succesful companies will operate from. Whether that be demographics, location, required services or unsolved problems. You can learn from the bigger players and scale down their approach.
Innovate don't create: The best opportunities dont require a completely new idea, they just need a new approach to the service, or utilisation of seemingly innocuous resources. Think how things are used and how that same item may serve a new purpose.
Research your customers: Peoples eyes glaze over when you use the R-word, but it doesn't need to be as dull as it sounds. Research can be as simple as asking people walking through an area what they think of your idea, or how many times they visit. Remember that when talking to people, it's all about your approach and first impressions.
Be courageous: Richard Branson said that opportunities are usually disguised as hard work. If you want to take advantage of an opportunity you need to move fast, work extremely hard and get out of your comfort zone. Yes it may be scary and uncomfortable but when you pull it off it'll all be worthwhile.