Building a business enterprise is not easy. Most
successful business people start from scratch and
worked their way to the top. They utilized business
skills and experience to make sound decisions that
helped them achieve their business goals. However,
before you start the business, you should be able to
first scan the market and identify the business
opportunities present for you to capitalize on.
Needs and Wants: Business Opportunity.
Everyone has his or her own needs and wants.
However, these needs and wants are considered
differently by us. We have different concepts of the
things that we need and we want. However, it is
important to be able to identify and classify as to
which are our needs and wants as knowing this may
present a good business opportunity.
Basic needs are things that are essential for us and our
wellbeing. These are the things that we cannot do without.
These include:
1. Basic commodities for consumption,
2. Clothing and other personal belongings,
3. Shelter, sanitation, and health,
4. Education and skills-generation
5. Relaxation and leisure
On the other hand, wants are desires, luxury, and extravagance that signify
wealth and an expensive way of living. Wants or desires are considered
above all the basic necessities of life. For instance, every individual has an
eagerness or passion for non-basic needs such as:
1. Fashion accessories, shoes, clothing,
2. Travelling around the world,
3. Eating in an exclusive restaurant,
4. Watching movies, concerts, and plays,
5. Having luxurious cars,
6. Wearing expensive jewelry, perfume,
7. Living in impressive homes
The needs and wants of people are the basic
indicators of the kind of business that you may
engage into. The knowledge for the needs and
wants can serve as a measure for the success of
your business idea as you will have an idea
which product or service will generate more
demand from your target market.
Generating Ideas for your Business
You can also generate sound ideas for your
business by considering different factors
such as the kind of people that you want to
cater, their needs and wants, lifestyle,
culture and tradition, and social orientation
that they belong. There are different ways by
which you may generate ideas for your
business. These include:
1. Examine the existing goods and services. Are you satisfied with
the product/service? What do other people who use the
product/service say about it? How can it be improved? Improving
an existing good or service may generate a good business
opportunity for you. You can improve the materials used in
producing the product. You can also introduce new ways on how
the product can be used, making it more useful and adaptable to
the customers’ many needs. Improving or enhancing an existing
product or service is known as innovation. You can also invent a
new and improved product or service to replace the existing ones.
2. Examine the present and future needs. Look and
listen to what customers, institution, and communities
are missing in terms of goods and services.
Sometimes, these needs are already obvious and
recognized immediately. Other needs, on the other
hand, are not as obvious since they can only be
identified in the future and in the event of certain
developments in the community.
3. Examine how the needs are being satisfied. Needs for the products and
services are referred to as market demand. To satisfy these needs is to
supply the products and services that meet the demands of the market.
The term market refers to whoever will use or buy the product or service,
and these may be people or institutions such as other businesses,
establishments, organizations, or government agencies. There is a very
good business opportunity when there is absolutely no supply to a
pressing market demand. Businesses or industries in the locality also have
needs for goods and services. Their needs for raw materials, maintenance,
and other services such as selling and distribution are good sources of
ideas for business.
4. Examine the available resources around you. Observe what
materials or skills are available in abundance in your area. A
business can be started out of available raw materials by selling
them in a raw form and by processing and manufacturing them
into finished products. The work and experience that you may
have will provide you with business opportunities to acquire the
needed skills which will earn for you extra income, should you
decide to engage in income-generating activities. With your skills,
you may also tinker around with various things in your spare time
and invent new products.
5. Read magazines, news articles, and other publications on
new products and techniques or advances in technology.
The internet also serves as a library where you may browse
and surf on possible businesses. It will also guide you on
how to put the right product in the right place, at the right
price, at the right time. Listing of possible businesses to set
up in an area may also be available from banks and local
non-government organizations.
Activity:
Finding the Best Business Idea
Consider the results of the interview with your household members. Using the data that you have generated;
think of five potential business ideas/opportunities that you think would click within your community. Rank these
ideas from 1st to 5th place in being the best business idea.
Business Idea:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Ranking
QUIZ- IDENTIFYING
BUSINESS
OPPORTUNITIES
1. What is market scanning in the context of business?
a) A method of pricing strategies
b) A process of analyzing trends and opportunities
opportunities
c) A way to promote a product
d) A customer service technique
2. Which of the following is NOT a common factor in
market scanning?
a) Economic trends
b) Technological advancements
c) Social media algorithms
d) Government regulations
3. What is the primary goal of market scanning?
a) To blindly follow competitors
b) To identify potential business opportunities and
opportunities and threats
c) To increase production costs
d) To eliminate all competitors
4.How does market scanning help businesses identify
opportunities?
a) By allowing businesses to copy competitors exactly
competitors exactly
b) By analyzing changes in customer needs, trends, and
trends, and economic shifts
c) By avoiding risks completely
d) By focusing only on past business successes
successes
5. Why is it important to consider technological factors in
market scanning?
a) They influence customer behavior and industry advancements
industry advancements
b) They are unpredictable and should be ignored
ignored
c) They only matter for tech-based companies
d) They have no real impact on business success
success
6. If a business notices a shift in consumer preference
towards sustainable products, what should they do?
a) Ignore the trend and continue with traditional products
products
b) Develop new products that align with sustainability trends
sustainability trends
c) Wait for competitors to act first
d) Reduce marketing efforts
7.You are starting a coffee shop business. How can market
scanning help you?
a) By helping you identify the best location and target market
target market
b) By guaranteeing success regardless of competition
competition
c) By ensuring you have no competitors
d) By focusing only on your personal preferences
preferences
8. A company notices an increase in online
shopping. How can they apply this information?
a) Increase their brick-and-mortar stores only
b) Develop an e-commerce platform to capture online
shoppers
c) Stop selling products offline completely
d) Ignore the trend and continue with traditional retail
methods
9. A new law requires food businesses to display calorie
counts on menus. How should a restaurant apply this
information?
a) Ignore the law and face penalties
b) Update menus and train staff on the new regulations
regulations
c) Stop selling food with high-calorie content
d) Complain about the law but not take action
action
10.A company finds that sales of electric vehicles (EVs) are
rising. What external factors should they analyze before
investing in EV production?
a) Government policies, infrastructure, and consumer demand
consumer demand
b) Only their internal business costs
c) Personal opinions of business executives
d) Fashion trends unrelated to cars
11. A tech startup is struggling to compete with established
brands. Which market scanning approach could help them
analyze competition effectively?
a) Ignoring competition and focusing only on their own ideas
own ideas
b) Studying competitors’ pricing, customer feedback, and marketing
feedback, and marketing strategies
c) Copying competitors exactly without changes
d) Reducing research efforts to save costs
12.A company wants to expand into international markets.
Which factor is most critical in evaluating the business
opportunity?
a) The company’s personal preference
b) Economic stability, cultural differences, and local demand
and local demand
c) The CEO’s travel interests
d) The time zone difference
13. A food company wants to launch a new plant-based burger. What
key factors should they evaluate to determine if the market is ready?
a) Consumer demand, competitor products, and pricing strategies
pricing strategies
b) The CEO’s favorite food choices
c) Ignoring competitors and setting the highest price possible
possible
d) The success of unrelated products like soft drinks
14.Develop a simple threestep process for market
scanning to identify
business opportunities.
15. Imagine you are an
entrepreneur looking to start a
tech business. Create a short
strategy on how you would use
market scanning to identify a
profitable niche.
An African Student Invented Waterless Bath With DryBath
Do we need to take bath every day? That’s debatable because scientific studies are split into two opinions regarding this. However, if you ask whether or not should taking bath include water, DryBath
has the answer and it is no.
DryBath is the world’s first and said as best waterless body wash that you can use anytime to clean your whole body. Such kind of claim might sound ordinary to you if it came from a huge company
commercial, but the fact that this product was created by a student might change your mind.
Yes, DryBath is not an agenda made by big company to change your lifestyle, but rather an innovation made by a student to help more people in his country. How does DryBath work? How can it
change the lives of many people?
This is the story of an invention made by a student in Africa called DryBath, and how it can change the world.
Cleaning Yourself With Drybath
drybath products
Taking bath or shower is one of the most basic self-hygiene practices that we do almost every day. Some people even take bath or shower more than once every day, especially people who live in
tropical countries like Indonesia or India.
Taking bath is also considered as a way to make you more beautiful. Many of beauty commercials on television includes people taking bath for beauty purposes. Soap commercials usually also
include some perks such as moisturizing or whitening in their products.
However, self-hygiene or cleaning yourself is the most important purpose of taking bath. This is the original purpose of taking bath since ancient times, and other purposes such as beauty came much
later in human history.
One thing that is included in the origin of taking bath is the consumption of water. Even now you may still think that there is no way we can take bath without consuming water. But DryBath proves it
wrong, because you can actually clean yourself without consuming water.
Just like we can wash our hands without water using hand sanitizer, this product applies almost the same principal. DryBath is challenging conventional water-consuming bathing tradition with non but
damp towel.
https://earthbuddies.net/african-student-drybath/
IN 2013 WE NEEDED TO FIND AN ALTERNATIVE FLOUR AND PROTEIN: CRICKETS TO THE RESCUE
Buy Cricket Flour Growing up our family always had dietary restrictions due to food allergies. However, in 2013 our founder Charles B. Wilson learned
that he needed to start incorporating alternative proteins and flours into his diet and started experimenting to find replacements for those ingredients
such as wheat, dairy, and more.
After trying different alternative flours and proteins, Charles came across articles promoting the use of edible insects as a sustainable source of protein.
Turns out those insects could also be made into a high protein powder and flour.
A few weeks later, the first batch of crickets arrived and Charles began experimenting with a multitude of different shakes and recipes to incorporate
cricket powder in new ways. Soon family and friends we trying new crafted recipes and ideas and we knew we were onto something great.
Cricket Flours LLC was founded in 2014 to provide an environmentally friendly and sustainable source of protein and nutrition for the world’s expanding
population. Each of our cricket flour, roasted crickets, and cricket protein powder products provides enhanced protein and nutrition that are less
processed than competing protein sources. While many articles talk about cricket protein as a NEW food ingredient, it is more of a rediscovery of
something our ancestors already knew for a readily available protein and food source.
Our company is based here in the Pacific Northwest in Portland, Oregon, and from the beginning we knew we wanted to source our crickets as local as
we could. So we established relationships directly with cricket farms that raise crickets for human consumption. All of our product lines use cricket flour
and roasted crickets raised here in North America to reduce our own carbon footprint from shipping them from overseas and also to support the new
edible insect industry growing here
https://www.cricketflours.com/about/
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/video/viral/filipino-inventorbreaks-guinness-world-record-for-longest-hoverboardflight/vp-AAMecQe
1.What is market scanning in the context of
business?
A. A method of pricing strategies
B. A process of analyzing trends and
opportunities
C. A way to promote a product
D. A customer service technique
2. Which of the following is NOT a
common factor in market scanning?
A. Economic trends
B. Technological advancements
C. Social media algorithms
D. Government regulations
3. What is the primary goal of market
scanning?
A. To blindly follow competitors
B. To identify potential business
opportunities and threats
C. To increase production costs
D. To eliminate all competitors
4.How does market scanning help businesses
identify opportunities?
A. By allowing businesses to copy
competitors exactly
B. By analyzing changes in customer needs,
trends, and economic shifts
C. By avoiding risks completely
D. By focusing only on past business
successes
5. Why is it important to consider technological
factors in market scanning?
A. They influence customer behavior and
industry advancements
B. They are unpredictable and should be
ignored
C. They only matter for tech-based companies
D. They have no real impact on business
success
6. If a business notices a shift in consumer
preference towards sustainable products, what
should they do?
A. Ignore the trend and continue with traditional
products
B. Develop new products that align with
sustainability trends
C. Wait for competitors to act first
D. Reduce marketing efforts
7.You are starting a coffee shop business. How
can market scanning help you?
A. By helping you identify the best location and
target market
B. By guaranteeing success regardless of
competition
C. By ensuring you have no competitors
D. By focusing only on your personal
preferences
8. A company notices an increase in online
shopping. How can they apply this information?
A. Increase their brick-and-mortar stores only
B. Develop an e-commerce platform to capture
online shoppers
C. Stop selling products offline completely
D. Ignore the trend and continue with traditional
retail methods
9. A new law requires food businesses to display
calorie counts on menus. How should a
restaurant apply this information?
A. Ignore the law and face penalties
B. Update menus and train staff on the new
regulations
C. Stop selling food with high-calorie content
D. Complain about the law but not take action
10.A company finds that sales of electric
vehicles (EVs) are rising. What external
factors should they analyze before investing in
EV production?
A. Government policies, infrastructure, and
consumer demand
B. Only their internal business costs
C. Personal opinions of business executives
D. Fashion trends unrelated to cars
11. A tech startup is struggling to compete with
established brands. Which market scanning approach
could help them analyze competition effectively?
A. Ignoring competition and focusing only on their
own ideas
B. Studying competitors’ pricing, customer feedback,
and marketing strategies
C. Copying competitors exactly without changes
D. Reducing research efforts to save costs
12.A company wants to expand into
international markets. Which factor is most
critical in evaluating the business
opportunity?
A. The company’s personal preference
B. Economic stability, cultural differences,
and local demand
C. The CEO’s travel interests
D. The time zone difference
13. A food company wants to launch a new plantbased burger. What key factors should they evaluate
to determine if the market is ready?
A. Consumer demand, competitor products, and
pricing strategies
B. The CEO’s favorite food choices
C. Ignoring competitors and setting the highest price
possible
D. The success of unrelated products like soft drinks
14.Develop a simple threestep process for market
scanning to identify
business opportunities.
15. Imagine you are an
entrepreneur looking to start a
business. Create a short strategy
on how you would use market
scanning to identify a profitable
niche.
1.
b
2.
c
3.
b
4.
b
5.
a
6.
b
7.
a
8.
b
9.
b
10. a
11.
b
12. b
13. a
14. (Example answer: 1. Identify trends in the market, 2. Analyze competition and customer needs, 3. Assess risks and feasibility before entering the market.)
feasibility before entering the market.)
15. (Example answer: Research industry trends, analyze competitors, survey potential customers, and test market demand before launching a product.)
demand before launching a product.)