Opportunity screening is the process by which entrepreneurs evaluate innovative product ideas, strategies, and marketing trends.It is important to develop a business concept. Your business concept is what ties your business idea to a greater core.

1. Opportunity
Seeking, Screening,
and Seizing

2. 2.1 Opportunity
Seeking
 Entrepreneurs are innovative
opportunity seekers.
 They have endless curiosity to discover
new or different ideas and see
wether these ideas will work in the
market place. This is what separates
entrepreneurs from the ordinary
businessman whose main objective is
simply to earn profit from producing,
buying, and selling goods.

3. Entrepreneurial Mind
Frame, Heart Flame, and
Gut Game
—The entrepreneurial mind frame allows
the entrepreneur to see things in a very
positive and optimistic light in the midst of
crisis or difficult situations.
—The Heart of Flame is also about
emotional intelligence or EQ which is often
manifested in the entrepreneur's efforts to
nurture relationship with customers,
employees, and suppliers.

4. Entrepreneurial Gut
Game
—This refers to the ability of the
entrepreneur to sense without
using the five senses.
Somehow, the entrepreneur
just knows wether something
will work or not without
necessiting logical, systematic,
and sequential thinking.

5. Macro Environmental
Sources of Opportunities
—refers to the "big or macro forces" that
affect the area, the industry ,and the
market, which the enterprise belong to.
They influence how business should
be conducted ,how consumer will
behave, how supply and demand will
move, and how different competitors
would position themselves, and how
the cost of doing business will proceed.

6. 5 Categories of Macro
Environmental Forces
1.Socio-Cultural Environment
—includes the demographics and cultural
dimensions that govern the relevant
entrepreneurial endeavor.
This will help the entrepreneur assess the trends
and dynamics if the bigger consumer population,
their beliefs ,taste, customs, and traditions.
2.Political Environment
—defines the governance system of the country or
the local area of business. It includes all the laws,
rules, and regulation that govern business
practices as well as the permits, approvals, and
licenses necessary to operate the business.

7. 3.Economic Environment
—Supply and demand forces mainly derive the
macro economic environment. They are the same
factors that drive the interest and foreign exchange
rate that fluctuate with the movement of the
market forces.
4.Ecological Environment
—Includes all natural resources and ecosystem,
habitat of men, animals, and minerals. There is
growing awareness in the world today that will
make this factor more and more important for
countries, industries, and business.
5.Technological Environment
—new scientific and technological discoveries often
lead to the launch and commercialization of new
products with superior attributes or to rendering
the old one obsolete, are the entrepreneur's
nightmares.

8. Industry Sources of
Opportunities
—One of the most difficult about industry
analysis is defining what constitutes an in
industry in the first place. The proper
classification of what industry the
enterprise competing it is important of the
entrepreneur's intention is to define who
are the relevant costumer, who are the
direct and indirect competitions, and what
are the critical characteristics of the
market as to the quality of products or
services to be delivered.

9. PARTICIPANTS IN
AN INDUSTRY

10. 1.Rivals or competitors
—true rivals or competitors are those
competing for the same or similar markets.
Ex.(Jollibee vs.McDonald's, Coca-cola vs.
Pepsi, Samsung Galaxy vs. Apple's iPhone,
etc.)
2.Suppliers of input (e.g., fuel, electricity, raw
materials)to rivals as well as suppliers of
machinery and equipment, suppliers of man
power and expertise, and supplies of
merchandise.
3.Consumer market segments being served by
rivals or competitors.
4.Substitute products or services, which
customers shift or turn to.
5.All other support and enabling industries.

11. There are several ways
of defining an industry.
—The most common way of defining an
industry is according to product types or
according to the functions of the product
of service. Classic examples of this
industries include the computer
industry(Microsoft vs. Apple),beer industry
(San Miguel Beer vs. Beer na Beer),fast
food industry (McDonald's vs.
Jollibee),and cola industry (Coca -cola vs.
Pepsi)

12. To illustrate the tracing of a product
chain, a good example would be the
coconut industry. The coconut tree,
regarded as the "tree of life“, is
useful for different purposes. Its
trunk, shell, meat husk, and leaves
find their way to all types of product
is such as oils, soap, handicraft,
oleochemecals, furniture,
wallboards, coir, etc. Looking at
value chain alone presents many
potential opportunities for the
entrepreneurs.

13. Micromarket
refers to the specific target market
segment of a particular enterprise. These
are the target customers that represent
the immediate costumers of an enterprise,
meaning those who are currently buying
the good or services offered by the
enterprise and its direct competitors. It
likewise pertains to a clear define location
as specific customers group that an
enterprise wishes to serve.

14. Consumer Preferences,Piques,and
Perceptions:
Cosumer preferences,piques and perceptions can be sources of opportunities.
Consumer preferences refer to the tastes of particular group of people.Some
examples are the clothes people wear,the food they eat,the music they
listento,and the movies they watch.The consumer's age,culture,and dislikes refer
to the things that irritate consumers.Either way,the entrepreneur csn explore
oppurtunities brought about by consumer .
1.Custumer preferences change over time.
2.Peoples tastes in clothes,music,shoes,entertainment,dance,sports,hobbies,and
even careers have evolved over the years.
3.What piques customers is a great source of opportunities.

15. 4.Before the customer is won over,there is first a battles for the
mind.Next,there is a battle for the heart.Finally,there is a battle for the
wallet.
5.The longer the customer wants to use the product,the greater the
chances of creating lasting loyalty.
6.Opportunities abound in shaping consumer perceptions or occuying
spaces in their minds or places un their hearts that have not yet been
filled.
7.New insentions,new systems and work processes,new insight about
the human psyche,new applications for old knowledge,new revelations
about how to physical world works,new interpretations ,new
combinations based on the covergence of previous technologies,new
outlooks about how life should be led,and a host of other new things
are tremendous source of opportunities.

16. 8.Determining personal and competencies lay the foundation
for a new business venture.
9.Unexpected occurrences in both the external and internal
environment of the enterprise indicate that sugnificant change
are happening and opportunities are sprouting.

17. 2.2 Opportunity Screening

18. *The personal Screen
—In screening opportunities,the enterpreneur first has to consider
his or her preferences and capabilities by asking three basic
questions:
1.Do I have drive to pursue this buseniss opportunity to the end?
2.Will I spend all my time,effort,and money to make the business
opportunity work?
3.Will I sacrifice my existing lifestyle,endure emotional
hardship,and forego my usual comforts to succeed in this business
opportunity?

19. 12 CRITERIA FOR SCREENING
OPPORTUNITIES:

20. The 12Rs of Opportunity
Screening
1.Relevance
—the opportunity must be alligned with what you have as your
personal vision,mission,and ibjectives for the enterprise you want
to set up.
2.Resonance
—Other than vision,mission and objectives,the opportunity must
match the values and desired virtues that you have or wish to
impart.
3.Reinforcement if Entrepreneurial Interest
—How does the opportunity resonate with the entrepreneur's
oersonal interest,talents,and skills.

21. 4.Revenues
—In any entrepreneurial endeavor it is important to determine the
sales potential of the products or services you want to offer.
5.Responsiveness
—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
6.Reach
—Opportunities that have good chances of expanding through
branches,distributionship,dealership,or franchise outlets in order to
attain rapid growth are better opportunities.

22. 7.Range
—The opportunity can potentially lead to a wide range of possible
product or service offerings thus,tapping many market segment of
the industry.
8.Revolutionary Impact
—If you think 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 choosen opportunity.

23. 9.Returns
—It is a fact that products with low costs of production and
operations but are sold at higher prices will definitely yield the
highest returns on investments.
10.Relative Ease of Implementation
—Will the opportunity be relatively easy to implement for the
entrepreneur ir will there be a lot of obstacles and competency to
overcome.
11.Resources Required
—Opportunities requiring fewer resources from the entrepreneur
may be more favored than those requiring more resources.

24. 12.Risks
—In an intrepreneurial 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.

25. The pre-feasibility study
 The ultimate goal of doing the opportunity screening matrix
is to narrow down the many opportunities into one or two
most attractive ones. The next step is to conduct a pre-
feasibility study to ascertain the viability of the opportunity.
The idea is to focus on a few key items that could make or
break the business concept. This time, the entrepreneur
must go down to the details and take time to consider the
following factors that are contained in the pre-feasibility
study.

26. Market Potential and Prospects
—is based on estimated number of possible customers who
might avail of the product or service.For a more realistic
number,it would helpto narrow down your estimation to the
relevant population or target customers in the area where you
want to operate your business (micromarket).

27. Segmenting the Market
—using a set of demographics (e.g. gender,age,place of
residence,income class,etc.)will be the most basic approachin
determining the target segment.Keep in mind that some
general statistics for these demographic can be found online.If
you want to go into more details,then you might have to took
into other specific classifications that are relevant to the market
you are targetting such as the psychological profiling and
llifestyle preferences of the different customer segments.

28. Assessing Competition
—Market potential is also affected by the number of
establishments supplying and serving your target
customers.This process would determine how saturated the
market is in the given area of coverage.The more supplier and
competitors there are within a confined area,the greater the
level of saturation.

29. Estimating Market Share and
Sales
—after estimating the number of potential target market or
segment,the next thing that the entrepreneur should assess is
the potential market share he or she can attract
Conservatively,the entrepreneur can go for a small market share
unless the entrepreneur has a very superior product or service
that can immediately command a large merket share.

30. Technology Assessment and
Operations Viability.
—In order to get the enterprise going,the entrepreneur must
go through the intricacies of detailing the operations that
would be required by the business,wuch also includes
technology assessment.By going through this process,the
entrepreneur would be able to determine wether the product
or service offering will meet customer demand or not.

31. 4 Target customer expectations Affecting the
scale and complexity of an enterprises
operations
1.Qualities Demanded
—This would be determine the needed capacity of
operation.
2.Quality Specification Demanded
—This would dictate the following;(a) quality of input or
raw materials;(b) quality assurance process in
transforming input to output ;(c) quality output that
meet the operations, standards set;and (d)quality
outcomes for the customers who will be looking for
specific results.

32. 3.Delivery Expectations
—knowing how much,how frequent,and when to deliver to
costumers.
4.Price Expectations
—the selling price of the product or srevice would be evaluated
by the customers according to the value they would receive (in
terms of quality,delivery,and quantity)and this value added
should be matched against competitors.

33. Investment
Requirements and
Production/Servicing
Costs

34. 1.Pre-Operating Costs
—these are the costs related to the preparation for the launch of
business.These include the pre-feasibility study,in-depth feasibility
study,market research,product development,organizing
development,and initial promotional costs.
2.Production/Services Facilities Investment
-this refers to the long-term investment for the actual business
establishment,including investment in land
,buildings,machinery,equipment .If the business would be renting
or leasing space,the leasehold improvement (or renovation)would
also be part of the facilities investment.

35. 3.Working Capital Investment
—this includes the investment needed to operationalize the
business,the composed of cash,accounts receivable,and
inventon'es (raw materials,work-in-process,and finished goods).

36. These operating expenses
would include:
a.Employee salaries
b.Rent and lease expenses
c.Utilities
d.Transportation
e.Fees and liceness
f.Commissions
g.Office supplies,etc.

37. "Financial Forecacasts and
Determination of Financial
Feasibility"
—the financial forecasts refer to the monetary transactions that
the business is expected to engage in.The end result of the
financial forecastd will indicate the feasibility enterprise.

38. 4 Critical Financial Statements:
1.income statement
2.balance sheet
3.cash flow statment
4.funds flow statement

39. Income statement
—a financial statement that measures an enterprise's
perfirmance in terms of revenue and expenses over a certain
period.The formula is:
REVENUES–EXPENSES=INCOME OR PROFIT(LOSS)

40. Balance Sheet
—creating the balance sheet is a bit more complicated because
one has to look at 3 different things:Assets,Liabilities,and
Equities.
The balance sheet equation is:
ASSETS=LIABILITIES+EQUITY

41. Financial Ratios and
Measurements:
In any business endeavor, the investor or the entrepreneur
himself/herself will always be interested in knowing the
payback period or how long will always be interested in
knowing the pay back period or how long will it take for
him/her to get back what he/she has invested in the enterprise.

42. THE FEASIBILITY STUDY
For bigger projects that entail millions of pesos worth of
investment, a full-blown feasibility study might be required
more than the pre-feasibility, a feasibility study is more
comprehensive and detailed. It requires a more rigorous
approach. A feasibility study is prepared to convince bankers
and investors to put money into the business opportunity.

43. 2.3 OPPORTUNITY SEIZING

44. 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 fall.
The critical factors may change depending on
what market segment the enterprise is
addressing. If the market segment wants very
high quality products and can tolerate higher
prices, the critical success or failure factors here
would be different from a market segment that
is very price conscious but is not too
demanding on quality.

45. CONCEPTUALIZING THE PRODUCT
OR SERVICE OFFERING
 After making an assessment of the competing
products, the entrepreneur must then
conceptualize his/her own products. A concept
is an idealized abstraction of the product or
service to be offered to the preferred market of
the entrepreneur.
 The concept must be compelling and unique
to the customers targeted, meaning that the
product should contain the attributes or
features desired by the targeted market that
make up the product’s main value proposition.

46. DESIGNING, PROTOTYPING,
AND TESTING THE PRODUCT
Designing means that the entrepreneur
must render the concept and translate it
into its very physical and very real
dimensions (measurement). This entails
building a prototype of the product that
will be ready for actual testing by the
entrepreneur and then, later on, subject
to testing by potential customers
through focus group discussions (FGD),
surveys, product demonstration sessions,
and the like.

47. IMPLEMENTING, ORGANIZING,
AND FINANCING
Good planning and good
programming are essential to have
good implementation. The
entrepreneur must begin with the end
in mind, or his/her desired end results,
for the chosen opportunity. End
results refer to the final outcomes of
the business, such as highly satisfied
customers, huge sales realized, large
profits generated, etc.