Entrepreneurship

Unit 3: Opportunity Seeking: Entrepreneurial Imperatives and

Sources

3S of Opportunity Spotting and Assessment

❖ Opportunity Seeking
❖ Opportunity Screening
❖ Opportunity Seeking

Opportunity Seeking

❖ Entrepreneurial Opportunity Seeking

- Being coined as the “innovative opportunity seekers” in the business
industry, entrepreneurs are equipped with a spirit of inquiry that will
help them decide which products or services are most likely needed in
the marketplace
- Is the first step that must be taken by any start-up venture in order to
have an idea as to the kind of business opportunity that will be taken by
any budding entrepreneur.

Sources of Opportunities
❖ External/Macro Environmental Sources
- Any enterprise, company, or organization is not alone in its business
environment. It is always surrounded by an array of factors and forces
that help in shaping opportunities but also pose present threats to the
company.

Six Macroenvironmental Sources of Opportunities

1. Demographic
2. Economic
3. Socio-cultural
4. Technological
5. Political and Legal

Example: Macroenvironmental Sources of Opportunities

❖ Situationer
 - A group of students intends to put up a milk tea shop near their school.
In establishing such business, they have come up with the following
data to analyze the impact of the different macroenvironmental sources
of opportunities to their desired business:
★ Demographic
➔ How can these sources help you?
- Nearby residents are mostly from the 15-50 age group.
- The residents are mostly Filipinos.
- A number of the nearby residents are employed in either the
private or public sector.

★ Economic
➔ How can these sources help you?
- Nearby residents are mostly employed.
- The average monthly household income is Php40,000-50,000.

★ Socio-cultural
➔ How can these sources help you?
- A huge percentage of the area population is attributed to
teenagers.
- Individuals from the 15-18 age group prefer drinking milk tea
over coffee.

★ Technological
➔ How can these sources help you?
- Shops near the area are tied up with various online delivery
services to serve more customers.
- Most shops are equipped with an online ordering platform to
ease long queues.

★ Ecological
➔ How can these sources help you?
- The city where they belong doesn’t allow the use of plastic bags.

★ Political and Legal

➔ How can these sources help you?
- Registration with the DTI is needed.
- A business permit from the city has to be obtained prior to the
operation of the business.
Sources of Opportunities
❖ Internal/Microenvironmental Sources
- Internal sources pertain to those factors that can be controlled by the
management. It includes factors of resources available that affect
individuals and businesses.

Five Microenvironmental Sources of Opportunities

1. Customer
2. Supplier
3. Reseller
4. Competitors
5. General Public

❖ Industry and Market Disparities

- Certain disparities in the market may take place in the form of
regulations, deregulations, constant changes in supply chains, and
other structural problems.

❖ Consumer Preferences and Interests

- Consumer preferences and interests can also be sources of
opportunities. These preferences refer to the interests or tastes of
individuals. When products eventually become outdated, consumers’
changes in perception can subsequently kill sales.

❖ Technological Discoveries and Advancements

- Continuous advancements in technology can be the source of highly
innovative opportunities in the business industry.

Note: As an entrepreneur, you need to think about the means adopted by shoppers when
purchasing products. You have to devise ways for you not to fall out from the industry, most
especially in today’s digital age.
Opportunity Screening

❖ Entrepreneurial Opportunity Screening

- In this phase, the entrepreneur will lay down a list of several
opportunities which he will evaluate prior to transforming his business
idea into a reality.
- It is the process of making both qualitative and quantitative
assessments of a business idea’s capability of producing sales growth
and promising financial performance.
- Is the process where the entrepreneur will lay down a list of several
opportunities, which he will evaluate prior to transforming his business
idea into a reality.

The opportunities chosen may likewise be evaluated by:

1. Identifying resources
2. Analyzing capabilities
3. Evaluating competitive advantage
4. Developing strategies
5. Reviewing feedback

❖ Evaluating Opportunities
➔ Remarkable value to customers
➔ Can ideally solve a compelling need, problem, or demand of the
market
➔ A potential cash cow
➔ Corresponds with the entrepreneur’s skills, resources, and risk
appetite.

Two-Stage Approach in Screening Opportunities

★ Qualitative Assessment
- Focuses on gathering information, details, and recommendations from
other entrepreneurs in the industry.

★ Quantitative Assessment
- Business idea’s viability used to gauge a business opportunity’s
feasibility and desirability to attract investors

The 12Rs of Opportunity Screening

 1. Relevance to one’s vision, mission, and objective
2. Resonance with one’s values
3. Reinforcement of existing enterprise strategies or entrepreneurial
interests
4. Revenues
5. Responsiveness to customer needs and wants
6. Reach
7. Range
8. Revolutionary Impact
9. Returns
10. Relative ease of implementation
11. Resources required
12. Risks

Opportunity Seizing

❖ Entrepreneurial Opportunity Seizing

- The stage of determining the critical success factors of succeeding in
the industry, while also being cautious about other factors that cause
failure to some businesses.

Objectives of Opportunity Seizing

- Given that opportunity seizing is the final stage of choosing the most
feasibility opportunity, it’s relevance in entrepreneurship dwells on two
main objectives:

➔ To enable the entrepreneur to transform his business opportunity into a

reality, and
➔ To address the compelling needs or demands of the market.
➔ Stepping out of the comfort zone
➔ Make the small ones count
➔ Network with creative and business-minded people

❖ Business Position Statement

- A business position statement refers to a brief description of a product
or service catered by the business and specifically how such a product
or service answers the compelling need of the target market.
Value Proposition vs. Business Position Statement
★ Value Proposition
- Is broader in nature and is a direct output of a business strategy. It
refers to a bigger picture which includes all the core benefits offered to
various market segments and the price that a customer pays to acquire
those benefits.

★ Business Position Statement

- Is more specific and technically deals with a subset of the value
proposition. It is oftentimes used in marketing programs and activities
of the entrepreneur.

Writing a Business Position Statement

➔ Keep it Short
- A business position statement is not about the vision and mission of an
enterprise. Therefore, such statements should be concise and
straightforward.

➔ Make it Unique and Remarkable

- If the entrepreneur wants to stand out in the industry, the business
position statement should be crafted in a unique way.

➔ Stick to the core values of the business

- A business position statement must reflect the primordial values of the
enterprise itself.

➔ Show how the business is different from other competitors.

- The competition will always be present in any industry. As such, an
effective business position statement should point out what separates
the business from its main competitors.

Example: Crafting a Business Position Statement

- “For consumers who want to purchase different products online with
competent delivery services, ABC provides a fully-functional online
shopping site. ABC sets itself apart from other online retailers with its
basic mission: a commitment to operational excellence to all its valued
consumers.”