‘Red Oceans’: How to Find Profitable Startup Ideas- Capital & Growth, by CSSheppard

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.

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.

  • 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