Business and opportunities: recognize where and how to invest

• 
  
  Anyone who wants to stay in the market needs to observe the businesses and opportunities that arise all the time. After all, if you don’t have the tact to understand what the public wants, you could offer products and services that are outdated or uninteresting.

A practical example: IBM, which was once one of the leaders in the computer market, increased its product portfolio and, today, is one of the main investors in artificial intelligence, helping even those who do not understand machine  learning .

Another example is  Apple , which is always offering products that competitors don’t even consider investing in because it knows how to recognize businesses and opportunities for success. When the iPhone was launched, the trend was for cell phones to have more improved physical keyboards. The quality of the touch screen was something out of the ordinary, in addition to the app store, something that didn’t exist at the time. Can you imagine living without all of this nowadays?

Do you want to know how to recognize businesses and opportunities in your segment? See our tips:

How to recognize businesses and opportunities in your sector?

Planning, study and investment (not just financial) are essential factors in recognizing business and opportunities.

Analyze your business

Firstly, businesses and opportunities need to have a market basis. You need to be sure that your product or service idea is really what the market needs. There’s no point investing in something the public doesn’t want.

Is your business idea really an opportunity or just something you’ve held on to and don’t want to let go of? Sometimes giving up takes more courage than investing in an idea that clearly won’t work.

Another way to carry out an analysis and identify businesses and opportunities is by asking questions:

• What problems (social, functional and even emotional) is the consumer facing?
• How can your company help them resolve it?

A product or service must be attractive, financially durable for the company and, of course, add something of value to the customer’s life. Therefore, remember not to “invent” problems, they must be real for your audience! There is no point in advertising showing how “impossible” it is to live without that item if, in fact, it does not bring something innovative to everyday life.

Know your customer

Knowing the audience you are working with is essential to structuring more effective actions.

With the internet, it has become much easier to recognize businesses and market opportunities while strengthening ties with the consumer. On the one hand, this is good, as a brand can turn consumers into fans and even promoters of its products, however, more care is needed on the brand’s part: any mistake, no matter how small, can alienate a select audience.

The customer is more demanding. He can talk directly to the brand, and if the company has this opportunity for such close dialogue, it cannot waste it. Therefore, the conversation must be more in-depth: the user must realize that you, the company, understand what they want and need.

Therefore, the concept of target audience is already too broad for this type of more specific approach that seeks to understand the businesses and opportunities available. That’s why the persona was created, that is, the model of your ideal client. Instead of creating content, products and services for an audience of 35 to 45 years old and professionally active, create for Pedro, 38 years old, a business administrator and workaholic.

Your persona must have at least the following information:

• name, gender, age and profession;
• instruction level;
• region and type of residence (do you live alone?);
• marital status (do they have children? Do they live with them?);
• hobbies;
• dreams and ambitions;
• how she usually gets information (computer, cell phone, television, newspaper);
• what are your main problems;
• how your company can help resolve them.

It may seem like a lot of data, but believe me, the more you have, the better. They will serve as a basis not only for you to find business and opportunities, but once you find them, you can create an entire communication plan that speaks directly to that customer, as well as products and services aligned with what they want.

Study the competition

Recognizing business and opportunities also means knowing where your company is failing . To do this, there is the famous SWOT analysis, which helps you discover your own strengths, weaknesses (internal factors), threats and opportunities (external factors).

But you don’t need to stop there. It’s time to understand how other companies work their own businesses and opportunities to offer something aligned (but better), improve what’s missing in your business and invest in what the competition is missing.

You can count on offline (mystery shopping) and online (data analysis from competitor sites) strategies. Both are valid and bring surprising results.

Invest in networking

Networking is a great method of understanding how businesses and opportunities work.

Networking is the famous network of professional contacts and can be fundamental in learning to recognize business and opportunities. It can be made up of former employees, former bosses, partner companies, suppliers and other managers who have never worked directly with your business, but who are from a sector that may need your products and services.

If you want to increase your networking, the first option is to have a LinkedIn profile. Create one for yourself and a page for your business. In your profile, include professional characteristics, a text that summarizes your career and all your qualifications. On the page, write the company’s history, missions, visions and values , as well as a detailed summary of its products and services. Don’t forget to update it constantly.

Another more effective and personal way to learn to see gaps, businesses and opportunities is through events and lectures in your sector. These corporate meetings allow you to meet leaders, managers, analysts and other high-ranking professionals in your sector and adjacent areas. In addition to learning more about your business, you gain new contacts that could provide you with an opportunity to explore new areas.