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Entrepreneurship Matters
Dr Kudzanai Vere
I have come to understand entrepreneurship and business as the recognition and exploitation of market opportunities in a sustainable manner.
The answers lie in the individual’s ability to recognise and subsequently exploit these opportunities.he question remains, why is it that some complain of lack of opportunities while others seem to have plenty?
It is one thing to recognise an opportunity and it’s a totally different thing to be able to exploit it.
You often question why other people fail to tap into entrepreneurship and business opportunities that are all over their place while others will be longing for them.
This is exactly what happens in life.
This article will take you through the opportunity recognition process.
Knowledge of markets and customer problems
Business is a result of successful exploitation of market opportunities and the knowledge of the market becomes critical.
Market opportunities comes in the form of challenges bewildering mankind. It is the ability of one to come up with a solution to solve these challenges that makes them relevant within that market.
You will see that every market has its own unique problems that call for unique solutions. A serious entrepreneur must have an in-depth understanding of these markets and the relevant challenges they face.
Knowledge of markets and customer problems forms the starting point of our journey to opportunity recognition.
Opportunities comes loaded in socio economic challenges people, communities and nations face that investing in understanding these has always paid off.
Education
Your level of education determines in a big way your level of assimilation of critical issues and opportunity recognition ability.
By education, I know a number will jump into giving examples of prominent entrepreneurs who dropped out of school. That will then be from a shallow understanding of education.
The term education speaks into acquiring new knowledge into your mental chambers either formally or informally.
Those that dropped out of school and made it big in their areas got some form of education within their lines of business.
You can only get to fully comprehend issues, markets, customer behaviours, trends and challenges if you have
an understanding of how that area functions.
Personal experience
Personal observation and experience of events and situations unfolding triggers questions within one’s mind of what should be done to solve or correct observed social, economic and political inadequacies.
Experience has always been said to be the best teacher. It must teach you to be able to identify and exploit opportunities as they unfold.
We obviously have others who have almost experienced it all but failed to identify and make use of the opportunities within their spheres.
Those that ultimately do so have a positive conviction within them that they too can make a difference in the provision of solutions to humanity.
Work experience
Many times opportunities come in our line of work experience. This is an area that one should be well conversant with as they would have spent considerable time doing and have developed eyes and ears that sees and hears opportunities in the market as they arise.
There are also instances where you find people excellent at solving socio economic challenges inconsistent with their work experiences.
This also happens and should be accepted as most opportunities bears the same seed and there are certain universal principles that governs exploitation of market opportunities.
Entrepreneurial alertness
Entrepreneurial alertness is known as the sixth sense of entrepreneurs that allows them to see opportunities that others miss.
It is defined as the ability to notice things without engaging in deliberate search. When others are seen chaos and turmoil, entrepreneurs see great business opportunities.
Such kid of alertness is a learned skill and people who have more knowledge of an area tend to be more alert to opportunities in that area than others.
Entrepreneurs has ka that of entrepreneurship that continues to make them relevant and outstanding in their spaces.
The ability to identify and exploit opportunities in a unique and innovative way speaks of entrepreneurial alertness.
Networks
Nothing beats the power of association. When used constructively associations can be strong driving engines for institutional and economic growth.
They often say your network determines your net worth. It is within those that you wine and dine with where you get to know of opportunities in certain economic spheres.
When people come together for a good cause, great business ideas can be discussed, opportunities discovered and solutions proffered.
In Zimbabwe we have a number of networking platforms where like-minded people gather, explore the market, discuss challenges people are facing and brainstorm on solutions to those.
Among these are the CEO’s Forum, the MegaFest Festivals and Awards, the Retailers Confederation of Zimbabwe, Premium Business network International and others.
Conclusion
One can only be able to exploit the opportunities they would have successfully identified. In order to identify entrepreneurial opportunities, one needs to have an understanding of the markets and the challenges customers are facing informed by some experience, personal or work within or outside their area of passion and profession.
That sixth sense of entrepreneurial alertness and networking plays an equally important part in assisting in the recognition of opportunities. It also doesn’t benefit to be able to see the opportunities that you will fail to exploit. Exploitation of opportunities matters for it is where ideas and concepts are converted or transformed into products and services for the benefit of the masses.
Determined to engage, inspire and transform generations.
The writer, Dr Kudzanai Vere is the founder of Kudfort, Transformational Mindset Institute, Premium Business Network International and the Institute of Entrepreneurs Zimbabwe. He is an entrepreneur, author and transformational speaker in the areas of entrepreneurship and personal development. The transformational speaker have trained more than 5 000 entrepreneurs globally in the areas of innovation, organisation development, practical business management and ideation. You can contact him on +263719592232 or email [email protected]
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