Source: ‘Red Oceans’: How to Find Profitable Startup Ideas – Capital & Growth
Some entrepreneurs start businesses based upon their hobbies or avocational interests. They turned their passion for a particular activity or subject into a business venture. … Often these businesses are not started to reap considerable profits, but instead to pursue a lifestyle that brings joy and personal satisfaction to the entrepreneur.
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But if the market for what you like, what interests you or where you live is too small or diffused to support your business idea, then creating that business is a fool’s errand (unless you have money to burn).
The External Approach (or the “Outside-In approach”) to discovering viable business ideas looks first to the external market (verses the skills, knowledge and tastes of the entrepreneur) and tries to methodically discover market gaps that already exist.
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- Observing the Market
- Focus Groups
- Reverse Brainstorming
- Market Growth
- Matrix Charting for Insights
- The “Slice of Life” Approach
- The Market-Area Saturation Approach
- The Competitive Matrix Approach