Finding business opportunities....

What are some of the best ways to spot promising business opportunities?

I know that there are several approaches.... I'd like to ask for your wisdom in this....

Here's one way. It's to find a successful business in one place, and if that kind of business doesn't yet exist in your area, then that's an opportunity.

It's easy to think of examples in retail....

Here in Australia, there's a chain of lingerie stores called "Bras 'n Things." I once read a newspaper article about the founder of that chain of stores, Brett Blundy. In that article, he said that he got the idea by going to the USA, and seeing a Victoria's Secret store. He realized that no chain like that existed in Australia, so he came back to Australia and created it.

Another example I've been told is that in Canada, there is a chain of Mexican fast food restaurants called "Taco Time." (I don't know if it's only in Canada....) It's apparently a "copy" of the better known "Taco Bell" chain of restaurants.

A third example could be discount stores like Price Club. Price Club was the original, yet it grew relatively slowly. That gave the opportunity for others to copy the idea in their regions, which gave rise to others like Costco, Sam's Club, etc., all of which are based on the same concept as Price Club.

Another approach which is similar in concept is to take a successful product from one area or country, and become the agent or distributor for that product in your country, or for a new type of sales method. This is an approach advocated a lot by Joe Cossman. He recommends to his students to get the rights to products from abroad, and to then market the products in your area as an agent or distributor. Alternatively, if it's not being sold by mail order, you could get the mail order rights, and so on.

Those are a couple of proven approaches to find highly promising business opportunities.... What are others? I value your insights....

- Dien