[0:00]When we're talking about business opportunities, we don't want to be the kind of business people who just jump on everything. Because this has a way of making you lose focus, it has a way of making you lose your goal posts. And the idea of being a business is to face one thing and win at it before you try other things, because focus is actually beneficial to your business. Today, we're going to be talking about five ways to identify great business opportunities. So here are five ways to help you know how to identify a good business opportunity. Number one, the timing is right. Timing is everything in business. The timing can be the difference between what helps you fail at something and what helps you do well at something. So make sure that before you take on a good a business opportunity, you know that the time is right for you to do it. Is your market ready, are your customers ready? These are the sorts of things you look at when trying to determine if the time for this is right. Number two, the cost to profit ratio is in favor of profit. As a business, your main goal is to make profit, unless you are a social enterprise or an NGO. But your main goal is to make profit. So if your main goal is to make profit, make sure that when trying to determine if a business opportunity is right for you, you can actually make profit out of it. Yes, there will be costs associated with it, but you want to make profit. It has to be profitable, the books, the numbers have to make sense to your business. Number three, it is aligned to your vision. Your vision is your goal post as a business, and if you want to take on an opportunity, it has to be in line with your business. I'm not asking you to be rigid as a business, of course you want to stay dynamic. Of course you want to be ready for change, but at the end of the day, you have one single vision, and that is your customers and what they want. So make sure that when you're trying to determine if you want to take an opportunity, you know that it is in line with your vision, it will help you get to your goal faster. Number four, you have the capacity to take quick advantage. When you want to take an opportunity on, can you take it at the speed of light? Is your business poised at the position where they can run when the gun goes off? That is how you know you can take quick advantage. Do you have the finances sitting down in the bank account so that when your opportunities come up, you can take quick advantage? Do you have a network of people that can push you on and position you so you can take quick advantage of opportunities when they come up? Number five, it will be valuable to your customers. At the end of the day, your customers are who you're trying to get to. So if you are taking on an opportunity, for example, you want to diversify into another product line or you want to add in another service to your business, make sure that your customers are ready to take this, make sure that it makes sense to your customers. If you are selling fans, for example, and suddenly you want to sell air conditioning, you know that the customers who you sell this fans to are also looking for cool air and it can make use of air conditioning. So that is how you determine if an opportunity is right for you, it makes sense and it is valuable to your customers.
[3:40]Our question today is from Philip from Facebook. Philip wants to know if it is okay to say no to an opportunity that he doesn't have the capacity to do now, but he can do it in the future. Philip, just like the five things we have been saying, you have to go through this list. Is the time right? Do you have the finances and are you positioned where you can take quick advantage? Yes, you can't do it, you you can't do this now, but you can do it in the future. So what is stopping you from doing it now? Think about it. If you something you can solve quickly and you can pivot immediately, then there's no reason why you can't take on this opportunity now. So think about it and make sure it makes sense for your business. Thank you for watching the Five Minute Entrepreneur. Make sure you leave your questions and comments below and we will answer them in another episode.
