Entrepreneurs, businesspersons and self-employed people often speak of how what they’re doing to generate their income making for their passion, which is fair enough, except in most cases they’re not really passionate about the actual market they’re servicing. I mean it’s hard to be passionate about something like wall socket plugs if you run a hardware store or something like that. Rather it’s about notching up the sales and you know full-well that if you had no choice you’d be selling anything you can get your hands on, provided it sells of course.

What those who go into the economics game for themselves are really passionate about is perhaps the underlying activities related to the business process. I mean if you’re visiting Phuket in Thailand for example and you come across a street vendor who is selling selfie-tripods, you’ll probably be disappointed in your quest to try and discuss some camera angle shots with them. Their passion probably lies far from whatever it is they’re selling.

The product or service you sell is but just a conduit of the underlying passion of the business process, perhaps even of the fact that you’re going against the grain and you’re trying to live a life which is not scripted by the establishment. Of course this is not to say there aren’t any entrepreneurs who are active in a field or market they truly are passionate about, but in most cases, as is the case with the conventional corporate sector, most of us find ourselves in fields we would trade-in without thinking twice given the chance to do so while still maintaining our ability to generate a comfortable living wage, or even more than that.

In many instances people who turn to business see that as something of a last resort as they feel they have no choice by way of finding permanent, fulfilling work opportunities.

Either way, when you get into entrepreneurship it’s more about satisfying your own need to make money, so you sort of tend to go wherever it is the market dictates. However, budding entrepreneurs often miss the trick when it comes to sourcing opportunities. They often look for something they can sell, whether it’s a product or service and then look to go right ahead and sell it. They try to invent something new and although not necessarily something new by way of a brand new product which was previously not in existence, but rather by way of the business method.

How it should rather be is that you should actively seek out opportunity based on existing business models and then try to improve on them, based mostly on your own personal experience of those industries.

If you take the example of Sattiraju Law Firm with a speciality in racial discrimination, this does indeed make for a great example because of the fact that the field of law has been in existence for a very long time and there are about as many law firms as there are legal issues to deal with. However, these particular professional experts saw a gap in a very specific segment of the market, which was a decision likely based on personal experience or the experience of some people close to them.

That’s how to spot opportunity – think about all instances in which you were like “I just wish they could have provided their contact details” or perhaps something like “It would have helped if this and that service provider would have allowed me to customise my own service package to match my specific needs!”

Tell all your friends!