Opportunities....

"We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations."

~ Charles R. Swindoll.

What is Entrepreneurial Opportunity?

Many definitions on opportunity include references to three characteristics:

1. Potential economic value (capacity to generate profit)

2. Newness (products, services or technology that did not exist previously)

3. Perceived desirability (moral and legal acceptability of the new product or service in society)

Opportunity can be perceived as means of generating economic value (profit) that has not been exploited and is not currently exploited by others.

Opportunity recognition which is also termed as opportunity discovery can be defined as cognitive process through which individuals conclude that they have identified an opportunity. However, opportunity recognition is only the initial step in a continuing process and is distinct both from detailed evaluation of the feasibility and potential economic value of identified opportunities and from active steps to develop them through new ventures. It is developed in a gradual manner.

Business opportunity can be identified through many ways including public information such as magazines, newspapers, trade publications and through personal contacts.

A cognitive capability possessed by individuals which includes high intelligence and creativity is the first foundation of entrepreneurial alertness. They help individual entrepreneurs to identify new solutions to market and customer needs in existing information and to imagine new products and services that do not currently exist. Moreover, Intelligence has been found in several investigations to be linked to founding new ventures.

Entrepreneurial opportunity is not the result of problem solving activity but readiness to recognize disequilibrium (market gaps) at the market place.