Entrepreneurship 110

Ideas and Opportunities

Ideas vs. Opportunities There is a difference between ideas and

opportunities.Idea – a thought or concept for a product or service.; the “light bulb moment.”Opportunity – a need, want, problem or challenge that might be satisfied by an Entrepreneurial venture.

What comes first, an idea or opportunity?Sometimes an Entrepreneur will identify a problem, see an opportunity, and then come up with an idea to take advantage of the situation. When the opportunity arrives first and you think of an idea to fill it, it is called market-pulled entrepreneurship.

Market Pulled EntrepreneurshipExample:You notice that more and more people are locking their keys in their car. You are pretty sure that if there was some way to keep a spare car key close to the car people would invest in the it...this is a problem with a market.You think about it for months, and one day as you attach a note to your fridge you think, “I’ve got it!” and create a magnetic key holder for the underbelly of automobiles.

When an Entrepreneur comes up with an idea firstand then attempts to find an opportunity for it, it is referred to as product or service driven entrepreneurship.

Product/Service Driven EntrepreneurshipExampleYou have the best recipe for bread inthe world! You search the city trying to find the best market (opportunity) for your bread and decide on localcafes and coffee shops.

Read the handout carefully.Determine if the inventions are examples of “Market Pulled Entrepreneurship” or “Product/Service Driven Entrepreneurship.”Be able to explain your answer to the class.

Video Ice Hotel - Canada

Change Successful Entrepreneurs are aware of

change. From change comes both ideas and

opportunities. There are two main types of change that an

Entrepreneur focuses upon: fads and trends.

Fads Short lived products or services. Arrive out of nowhere, experience a BOOM

in sales and then disappear. Some fads may reappear years later.

Trends A trend is longer lasting than a fad. Furthermore, a trend impacts society and

our lives, where a fad does not. A trend changes the way that we live.

Entrepreneurs will encounter more long term success with trends than fads.

Poker – Virtual and Physical An unknown poker player who

went by the name of Chris Moneymaker taught himself how to play poker online. He would then go on to win the World Series of Poker. Ever since then, many tv networks broadcast poker now, including ESPN. Some reality shows have even broadcast celebrities playing the popular table game.

Livestrong Bracelets Started by champion cyclist

Lance Armstrong as a way to raise money for cancer, these yellow wristbands have been sold across the world and worn as a fashion statement. The best part is the proceeds that go to help people around the world who are living with cancer. To this day, tens of millions have already been raised selling them online.

Wide Skate Shoes with Fat Laces The sneaker trend in

the 2000's seemed to be wide skate shoes such as Etnies or Adidas with big fat laces.

Facebook (and other social networks) Facebook is a social networking

website launched on February 4, 2004.[The free-access website is privately owned and operated by Facebook, Inc. Users can join networks organized by city, workplace, school, and region to connect and interact with other people. People can also add friends and send them messages, and update their personal profile to notify friends about themselves

The website currently has more than 100 million active users worldwide

Reality TV A reality show is basically

unscripted television. It all started with Survivor, Big Brother, and The Amazing Race. Now due to popularity, many channels have decided to create their own reality shows, such Simple Life on FOX, The Apprentice on NBC, and The Bachelor on ABC.

Organic Food Organic agriculture is an example of a

worldwide growth industry that agricultural producers are responding to. It can be a profitable, sustainable business for those producers interested in going through the certification process necessary to enter this market. Organics have grown at a rate of nearly 20 percent per year for the last seven years, and industry experts are forecasting continued growth. One study, undertaken by the Organic Trade Association, surveyed industry leaders about the trends in organics and where they saw the next 20 years taking them. They forecasted that overall, the everyday use of organic products of all kinds will be both accepted and routine by the year 2025

Space Exploration As of 2007, space tourism

opportunities are limited and expensive, with only the Russian Space Agency providing transport. The price for a flight brokered by Space Adventures to the International Space Station aboard a Soyuz spacecraft is now $30 million. Flights are fully booked until 2009.

Alternative Fuels

In the year 2000, there were about eight million vehicles around the world that ran on alternative fuels, indicating an sustainability.

The major environmental concern is that “most of the observed increase in globally averaged temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in greenhouse gas concentrations.“

Environmental Concerns In response to this environmental

concern, most paper and pulp factories plant new trees to replace the ones they cut down for their paper making business. Of course, it takes several years for these newly planted trees to reach the same size as the trees they are replacing. Paper recycling has also helped reduce the number of trees needing to be harvested for paper, as a typical piece of paper made from wood pulp can be recycled four to seven times before the fibers become too short to reuse. To maintain the quality of recycled paper, it is usually mixed with virgin pulp wood.

Forecasting Trends Entrepreneurs do not just wait for trends to

happen, but instead attempt to forecast them. Why? So that they might create ventures that take advantage of them.

Accurate forecasting depends on your ability to organize data in a way that will help you see patterns.

One of the easiest ways to forecast trends is through “Time Series Forecasting.”

Time Series Forecasting With this method, you plot data from the past and

present on a graph. Next, you analyze the trend that you see and

make predictions about the future. With each set of data a trend will emerge (growth

trend, stable situation or declining trend) as well as lines for each (linear, curved, irregular, or cyclical).

See Overheads

Assignment For this assignment you will need:

Graph paper A ruler A pencil Information from Statistics Canada