How Entrepreneurs encounter and take advantage of Opportunities?

Understanding or identifying entrepreneurial opportunities is the focus of entrepreneurs, investors, and academics. By its very nature, entrepreneurship involves the commencement of something new. The recognition of an idea as having the potential create a desired value and the decision to exploit that value are important entrepreneurial topics. Below are the general stages of an opportunity in the entrepreneurial context:

• Identification of a potential opportunity.
• Recognition as an opportunity.
• Creation to explore the opportunity.
• Selection of the opportunity for exploitation.
• Exploitation of the opportunity.

Exploitation of an opportunity is the subject of this and so many other entrepreneurial texts. For the aspiring entrepreneur, however, identifying and recognizing and opportunity can be the most challenging prospect.

So, how does one identify an idea as a potential opportunity and ultimately recognize an idea as an opportunity? While many academics propose answers based timing, available resources, the nature of the venture, and attributes of the individual entrepreneur, there is no clear answer to this question. There are, however, several recognized manners in which new ideas came about. I bring up this topic, not to explore the academic theory of opportunity recognition, but to provide a background for where entrepreneurs find or generate the idea or concept that ultimately becomes a functioning business venture. First, lets look at what type of idea constitutes a potential business opportunity.