What makes a good opportunity?

There’s a lot of misunderstanding around what opportunities really are.  As we’ve said, an opportunity is any human need that is insufficiently addressed or unmet for a group of people.

Needs might be unmet for a variety of reasons: 

1. There are no ways currently to address the need. 
2. Existing products are difficult to use or inefficient.
3. The world evolves such that different people have a need but with different requirements.
4. Technology advances such that a need can be addressed better or for the first time.

People have some needs that simply can’t be addressed by products or services. Many businesses fail because they try to solve problems that are currently unsolvable. It goes without saying, these do not make good business opportunities. For some needs, a particular environment might need to exist before the need can be met in a way that a market exists.

Let’s look at some examples. But first a couple of quiz questions to test your understanding: