OPPORTUNITY SEEKING,

SCREENING, AND SEIZING

A. Opportunity Seeking
OPPORTUNITY SEEKING
Essentialto an entrepreneur’s
opportunity seeking are the
 Entrepreneurial mind frame
 Entrepreneurial heart flame
 Entrepreneurial gut game
 Entrepreneurial mind frame
 To see things in a very positive and optimistic light in the midst
of crisis or difficult situation.

Chinese writing:
Entrepreneurial heart flame
 There is one commonality between an inventor and an
entrepreneur, it is the surging passion.
 Driven by passion, they are drawn to find fulfillment
in the act and process of discovery.
 They have that great desire to attain a vision or fulfill a
mission.
 It is also about emotional intelligence or EQ, which is
also manifested in the entrepreneur’s effort to nurture
relationship with customers, employees, and suppliers.
 Entrepreneurial gut game
 Ability of the entrepreneur to sense without
using the five senses. Also known as
intuition.
 “Lakas ng loob” (strong intestinal fortitude)
 Confidence in one’s self and the firm belief
that everything is within reach so long as you
aspire for it.
Sources of Opportunities
 1. Macro Environment
 Refers to the “big or macro forces”
 It can be divided into 5 categories composed of the SPEET.
 S – Socio-Cultural Environment
 Beliefs, customs, traditions
P – Political Environment
 Government system of the country of the local area of business. It
includes all laws, rules, and regulations
E – Economic Environment
 The income levels and the purchasing power of its people.
E – Ecological Environment
 Natural resources and the ecosystem
T – Technological Environment
 New scientific and technological discoveries.
Examples of opportunity and threats
FACTORS
1. Social
- Trend toward healthier food
choices
2. Political
- Tax exemption for 13th month pay
and other bonuses up to 70,000
passed by congress
3. Economic
- ASEAN integration in 2015
(countries that belong to ASEAN
trading at zero tariff)
4. Ecological
- Increase usage of Eco bags and
environmental friendly containers
5. Technological
-increased usage of smartphones to
disseminate important information
(news, weather, traffic updates)
OPPORTUNITIES
More healthy product offerings are
demanded by customers
Increase purchasing power of the
consumers leading to higher retail
sales
Opportunity for a business to
expand to other ASEAN markets
Opportunity to start an advocacy
toward a ‘greener’ operation (not
limited to usage of eco-friendly
containers/packaging)
Greater usage off apps to place
delivery orders via smartphones,
which may help increase market
reach
THREATS
Insufficiency of supplies for health
products
Increase of expenses which burdens
the small businesses
Smaller suppliers’ difficulty coping
with greater competition posed by
foreign rivals; might lose small but
reliable suppliers.
Additional cost incurred by new
packaging may decrease
profitability
Potential for online customer
disappointments and netizen
bashing due to poor product/service
delivery brought about by
intermittent technical glitches
 2. Consumer preferences, piques, and perception
 Customer preferences change over time
 People’s taste in clothes, music, shoes, entertainment, dance,
sports, hobbies, and even careers have evolved over the years
 What piques customers is a great source of opportunities
 Before the customer is won over, there is first a battle for the
mind. Next, there is a battle for the heart. Finally, there is a
battle for the wallet.
 The longer the customer wants to use the product, the greater
the chances of creating lasting loyalty.
 Opportunities abound in shaping consumer perceptions or
occupying spaces in their minds or places in their hearts that
have not yet been filled.
 New inventions, new systems and work processes, new insights
about the human psyche, new applications for old knowledge,
new combinations based on the convergence of previous
technologies, new outlooks about how life should be led, and a
host of other new things are tremendous sources of
opportunities
 Determining personal preferences and competencies lay the
foundation for a new business venture.
 Unexpected occurrences in both the external and internal
environment of the enterprise indicate that significant changes
are happening and opportunities are sprouting.
 Challenge 1:
“Opportunity seeking in the digital era.”
B. Opportunity Screening
 In screening opportunities, the entrepreneur first has to
consider his/her preferences and capabilities by asking
three basic questions
 Do I have the drive to pursue this business opportunity to the
end?
 Will I spend all my time, effort, and money to make the
business opportunity work?
 Will I sacrifice my existing lifestyle, endure emotional
hardship, and forego my usual comforts to succeed in this
business opportunity?
12 Rs of opportunity
Screening
The 12 Rs of opportunity Screening
 Relevance to vision, mission, and objectives of the
entrepreneur. It must be aligned with what you have as
your personal vision, mission, and objectives for the
enterprise you want to set up.
 Resonance to values. Other than vision, mission, and
objectives, the opportunity must match the values and
desired virtues that you have or wish to impart.
 Reinforcement of Entrepreneurial Interests. How does
the opportunity resonate with the entrepreneur’s personal
interests, talents, and skills?
 Revenues. In any entrepreneurial endeavor, it is important to
determine the sales potential of the products or services you
want to offer. Is there a big enough market out there to grab
and nurture for growth?
 Responsiveness to customer’s needs and wants. If the
opportunity that you want to pursue addresses the unfulfilled
or undeserved needs and wants of customers, then you have a
better chance of succeeding.
 Reach. Opportunities that have good chances of expanding
through branches, distributorships, dealerships, or franchise
outlets in order to attain rapid growth are better opportunities.
 Revolutionary Impact. If you think that the opportunity will
most likely be the “next big thing” or even a game- changer that
will revolutionize the industry, then there is a big potential for
the chosen opportunity.
 Returns. It is a fact that products with low costs of production
and operations but are sold at a higher prices will definitely yield
the highest returns on investments. Returns can also be
intangible; meaning they come in the form of high profile
recognition or image projection.
 Range. The opportunity can potentially lead to a wide range of
possible product or service offerings, thus, tapping many market
segments of the industry.
 Relative Ease of Implementation. Will the opportunity be
relatively easy to implement for the entrepreneur or will
there be a lot of obstacles and competency gaps to
overcome?
 Resources Required. Opportunities requiring fewer
resources from the entrepreneur may be more favored than
those requiring more resources
 Risks. In an entrepreneurial endeavor, there will always be
risks. However, some opportunities carry more risks than
others, such as those with high technological market,
financial, and people risks.
 The ultimate goal of doing the opportunity screening matrix
is to narrow down the many opportunities into one or two
most attractive ones.

Opportunity Screening

 Go down to the DETAILS

The Pre-feasibility Study

“To assure the viability of the opportunity”
Opportunity Seizing
 At this stage the entrepreneur must be able to determine
the critical success factors that enable other players in the
same industry to succeed while, at the same time, be
vigilant about those factors that cause other business to
fail.
Crafting positioning Statement
 Look at other competitors or substitute
 Details of major buyers
 Customer profiling-characteristics, traits, behavior, usage
pattern
Designing, prototyping, and Testing the
Product
 The entrepreneur must render the concept and translate it
into its very physical and very real dimensions.
 The entrepreneur must be able to ‘perfect’ the product or
service at it goes through the above processes while
continuously subjected to testing and improvement
Implementing, organizing, and Financing
 Good planning and good programming are essential to
have a good implementation.
 The entrepreneur must begin with the end in mind, or
his/her desired result, for the chosen opportunity.
 End results refers to the satisfaction of the customer, huge sales
realized, etc.
 Choose the right people who can perform technical and
managerial functions
 Designing of operating workflow that would assure the
effective, economical, and efficient production of output.