Being able to find new business opportunities is the foundation stone upon which many of the most successful entrepreneurs have built their careers....

Some successful entrepreneurs basically only have one idea, and built on that. Ross Perot seems to fit this profile.... He had one idea - providing both mainframe computers *and* the software at the same time. When IBM rejected his idea, he managed to turn his idea into Electronic Data Systems, which became a multi-billion dollar company.

But others have founded multiple companies, and found many, many opportunities.... Richard Branson is a good example here. Almost any business you can think of, Richard Branson has been in it, through his "Virgin" group of companies (particularly in the UK, his home base).... Whether retail music stores, financial services, airlines, and so on.... While not all have succeeded, a large number of his ventures have.

I've been studying ways of seeing new business opportunities.... I believe it's a skill you can learn. In fact, it may be one of the most important skills as an entrepreneur....

As well as the examples I gave before, here's another approach to finding new business opportunities. It's to look at trends....

If you can spot the trends early on in their cycle, then that's a business opportunity.

There are many types of trends to look out for.... Things like demographic trends. Trends in new adopting technology. Trends in cultural change. All these things represent new opportunities....

For example, among demographic trends are the large bulge in teens, the children of baby boomers. As they grow, they will be changing their buying habits. That represents an opportunity....

I've read that the population of California will, within a decade or two, be over 50% ethnically Hispanic. That represents another type of trend, an ethnic and cultural trend, which also represents an opportunity....

There are at least several other ways of spotting business opportunities....

This is a very important topic.... It's an important foundation of success. I also think being able to spot good business opportunities makes things more exciting!

Is there interest in this topic?

- Dien