Entrepreneurs are those that find and recognize good business opportunities. The question is, how do you train yourself to identify opportunities that will earn you money?
The reality of the matter is that this is tricky even for the most experienced entrepreneurs. Even if you do your due diligence, there is still the chance that things won't work out for you and you'll have to move onto new ventures.
We'll be getting into a process that you can use to find potential opportunities in a moment, but let's start with a few general considerations you should be thinking about before we get into the meat of the matter.
How To Recognize Good Business Opportunities
When it comes to online business, there are really only a few things you need to be thinking about. With a physical brick-and-mortar store, you have to be thinking about location. With online business,
location is online.
With a retail location, you have to be thinking about pricing and competitiveness. With online business,
Ramit Sethi says
price is a mere triviality if you do your research and offer a product that people are gung-ho for.
But there are still some things you should be taking a look at. A good online business opportunity is one where:
- The product or the service solves a problem. It's important to build a business around real pain points that people are experiencing. This goes back to Sethi's point.
- You have the resources you need to get started. With online business, you don't necessarily have to spend a lot of money to get up and running, but it's still a good idea to take a look at the assets available to you, including finances, resources, and connections. Obviously, the more you have to leverage, the faster and easier it will be to legitimize your business.
- There is an opportunity to work with others. Finding a partner isn't easy, but it is worthwhile. If you have the opportunity to work with someone that complements your skills and experience, it is far more likely to be a worthwhile pursuit.
- The timing is right. When it comes right down to it, this is an ineffable quality of a good business opportunity. For things to work out, a lot of things have to line up, including how much time you can dedicate to your business, what the market is asking for, and so on.
4 Steps You Can Follow To Find New Opportunities
I know that most of you are here because you want to figure out how to build your affiliate businesses. From here on out, we'll be taking a look at a few steps you can take to
find viable niches, but you certainly can apply these steps to find other prospects as well.
Also keep in mind that there are other ways of finding niches that make sense for you.
Keyword research is a prime example. However, the process I'm about to outline - as suggested by
Brian Dean - works pretty well too.
Step #1 - Go To Quantcast Top Sites & Generate A List Of Ideas
On
Quantcast Top Sites, you can see what some of the most popular niches on the internet are.
You can more or less skip over the big brands that are dominating the top of the list, but as you go further and further down the rankings, you'll see more niche results.
As you continue to explore the top sites, you'll begin to figure out what people are passionate about, and come up with potential business ideas.
Go through the results, make a list of your best ideas and keywords, and move on to the next step.
Step #2 - Go To Quora & Enter Your Keywords
Quora is a Q&A site where a variety of niche related questions are right at your fingertips.
When you plug your ideas and keywords into Quora, you'll see the kinds of questions that are being asked on the term you entered. It might even give you some ideas on how to niche down even further.
For example, if you enter the keyword "knitting" into the results, you'll see that one of the questions is: "Are there any knitting boards".
Knitting boards would obviously be a very specific niche.
That example might be too broad, or it might even be too specific. It really depends on the niche. However, I think you can see how this would allow you to find the kinds of things people are already talking about.
Step #3 - Go To The ClickBank Marketplace & Determine Whether Or Not You've Found A Viable Niche
The
ClickBank marketplace allows you to find affiliate products in a variety of different niches. Whether or not you choose to promote one of the products listed here is up to you, but for now we're still in the research phase.
Either browse through the existing categories, or run a search to find offers related to your chosen topic(s).
Look for popular products in
your chosen niche. This is a good way to find out whether or not you've come across a worthwhile affiliate niche.
Also keep in mind that competition is generally a good thing when it comes to online business, as it validates that there is a real market out there.
Step #4 - Repeat Steps 1 Through 3
Did you identify a great business opportunity? Don't rush this process, because you might not find a profitable niche the first time through.
There's something to be said for taking fast action - and I would encourage you to do that - but you don't want to rush into things without some idea of what to expect.
Of course, if you do your due diligence and still don't hit it out of the park, don't get too discouraged. The key is learn from your mistakes and keep trying.
Conclusion
Do you have a better idea of how to identify good business opportunities now?
Although the process outlined above is pretty scientific,
this really isn't a science. You could do everything in your power to research an opportunity, and still come up with nothing. Conversely, you could start something on a whim that catches on.
The good news is that you get better every time. By the time you've started and scrapped multiple projects, you'll be able to get up and running so fast that you won't even be concerned with past failures.
