Opportunity Spotting

(Weeks 3 - 6)

I. Introduction
Hello inspiring Entrepreneur! With the basic concepts you have learned from the previous
lesson, maybe something is already playing in your mind on what business you wanted to
engage in? Probably, at this moment you would be asking yourself, how should I start? Or will my
idea be patronized by the customers? And a lot of questions comes into your mind and then you
become confused, right? Now you have learned in the previous lesson about entrepreneurial
competencies, you would be experiencing more about entrepreneurial activities in seeking for
business opportunities.
After performing the activities in this worksheet, you are expected to:
1. Identify the market problem to be solved;
2. Give solution to the problem; and
3. Analyze the market need.

Written Work
Activity 1. Read a part of this article from Eight Successful Filipino Entrepreneurs Who Started Small and answer
the questions that follows.

Tony Tan Caktiong used to operate an ice cream parlor, before converting it into a fast-food restaurant
called Jollibee. With a starting capital of P350,000.00 the young Caktiong opened two branches in Cubao and
Quiapo, together with friends who supported his idea. Caktiong decided to serve hamburgers, fried chicken, and
spaghetti to customers when they started looking beyond the usual ice cream. Eventually, the business grew,
and he had to hire more employees. By knowing the Filipino market, Jollibee managed to excel as a fast-food
powerhouse.

Processing Questions:
1.What is the business of Tony Tan Caktiong?
2. What is his original business idea? Is the original business idea of Tony becoming successful? Why?
3. What are the steps that he does to come-up with a successful business?
4. What lesson in the story that could help us become successful entrepreneurs?

II. Discussion
Your activity is a test of becoming an entrepreneur. Seeing beyond the box is a need to create
and innovate resources. The problem is how to begin with putting up the idea? Some would say
start with a business plan, but what is a business plan?
Business Plan is written document describing the nature of the business, the sales and marketing strategy, and
the financial background, and containing a projected profit and loss statement. Some people think you do not
need a business plan unless you are trying to borrow money. But a business plan is more than a pitch for
financing; it is a guide to help you define and meet your business goals. A business plan will not automatically
make you a success, but it will help you avoid some common causes of business failure, such as under-
capitalization or lack of an adequate market. One could not write a business plan without going into the first
process which is looking into the business concept.
Business concept is an idea for a business that includes basic information such as the service or product, the
target demographic, and a unique selling proposition that gives a company an advantage over competitors. A
business concept may involve a new product or simply a novel approach to marketing or delivering an existing
product. Once a concept is developed, it is incorporated into a business plan. To bring about the business
concept, the entrepreneur should be able to recognize an opportunity in terms of product or services.
Product Opportunity exist when there is a gap between what is currently on the market and the possibility for
new or significantly improved products that result to emerging trends. Opportunity recognition is relevant to an
entrepreneur, it is the active, cognitive process (or processes) through which individuals conclude that they have
identified the potential to create something new that has the potential to generate economic value and that is not
currently being exploited or developed, and is viewed as desirable in the society in which it occurs (i.e. its

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development is consistent with existing legal and moral conditions. People might be wondering how
entrepreneurs come up with potential products. Systematic innovation involves “monitoring seven sources for
innovative opportunity” (Drucker, 1985, p. 35). The first four are internally focused within the business or
industry, in that they may be visible to those involved in that organization or sector. The last three involve
changes outside the business or industry.
Internally Focused
o The unexpected (unexpected success, failure, or outside events). An entrepreneur may be able to discover
opportunity such as in failures like overproduction of fresh tomatoes thus the entrepreneur was able to preserve
tomatoes through drying or boiling.
o The incongruity between reality as it actually is and reality as it is assumed to be or as it ought to be. Children
doesn’t choose vegetables over meat but now in reality entrepreneurs are making ways that children will love
vegie foods like shawarma, vegie dumplings and the like.
o Innovation based on process need. In the pandemic times, medical face mask become scarce to cope with the
need, entrepreneurs provided reusable facemask for nonmedical practitioners.
o Changes in industry structure or market structure that catch everyone unawares. The market competition
becomes an opportunity like the popping up of convenience stores which grew like mushrooms around the city
blocks.
Externally Focused
o Demographics (population changes). Like age, status, race, sex is an entrepreneurial bases for opportunity for
each factor needs to be considered in providing goods and services.
o Changes in perception, mood, and meaning. The uniqueness of every individual creates differentiation of the
offered goods and services like the choice of perfume scents.
o New knowledge, both scientific and non-scientific. Acquired information both from scientific and in non-scientific
way can easily get into the ideas of an entrepreneur.
Entrepreneurs discover opportunities when they search for them in existing markets. This means they
observe technological, economic, or social trends. Recognizing opportunities is a cognitive process. It relies on
the ability of people to recognize patterns and connect the dots. Entrepreneurs create opportunities when they
engage with others in bouncing ideas back and forth, and each time it becomes more specific what the user
needs are and how they are going to be solved. Creating opportunities is a social process. It relies on the ability
of entrepreneurs to interact. There are two ways to recognize opportunities: discovering or creating. It is up
to you as an entrepreneur which way is most suitable for you and which actions to take to enable opportunity
recognition.
Design thinking is a human-centered approach to innovation that draws from the designer’s toolkit to integrate
the needs of people, the possibilities of technology, and the requirements for business success – Tim Brown,
president, and CEO. The design thinking process is best thought of as a system of overlapping spaces rather
than a sequence of orderly steps. There are three spaces to keep in mind: inspiration, ideation, and
implementation. Inspiration is the problem or opportunity that motivates the search for solutions. Ideation is the
process of generating, developing, and testing ideas. Implementation is the path that leads from the project stage
into people’s lives. To deliver products that solve your target customers’ problems, you must first identify
market problems. These problems may be stated directly as customer needs or implied indirectly.
Stated needs are explicit statements from your market that declare, “I want a product to do X.” While stated
needs are important, they are not as powerful as silent needs, which are problems with yet undefined solutions.
Your market consists of: Existing customers: People who have already purchased your product; Prospects:
People who have not yet purchased your product but are considering it and, Target market users: People in
your target market who are not currently looking for a solution. The key is to balance your focus to ensure that
you are really listening to your entire market at the same time. Key factors to make solutions to the problems: Do
not focus only on innovation and the competition, focus in solving the problem. Do not focus only on
customers. Customers understand problems, but they cannot help you to move your product forward. They
know what you provide and tend to stay inside that mindset. Do not Focus only on revenue. It is critical to find
a balance between prospects and customers to ensure that your future revenue is protected, while keeping
existing customers happy.
Spotting Business Opportunities. Anyone can spot the opportunities either by watching others having a
problem or find a solution to their own problem which many others may also be facing. Observation skills and
keeping an ear to the ground are traits of successful entrepreneurs. Spotting an opportunity is the only first step
but to convert the idea to a business requires good execution skills. The opportunity should also have sufficient

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market. If the market already has similar products / services, how can one differentiate their product from others
will determine whether opportunity becomes a reality. Business opportunities are like buses. If you miss one,
there is always another one.

III. Engagement
Written Work
Activity 2. Instruction: Read the situation below and fill the matrix with answers.

The role of an entrepreneur is extraordinary specially in the providing the needs of the community.
Presently, the country/world is experiencing crisis in the health sector specifically due to the COVID 19 pandemic
which has a domino effect in all other sectors of the community.

As an entrepreneur think of 3 probable problems and business solutions to attend to the situation.
Problem Solution Need

1.

2.

3.

After doing so, arrange the need according to priority and give the reason for its order. Giving priorities would
mean the first is the most essential solution.
Order of Priority Need Reason

1st Priority

2nd Priority

3rd Priority

Performance Task
Activity 3. Identify a market problem in the community where your residence is located and give solution to the
problem which would lead to discovering your opportunity in business. Fill in the form for this will serve as basis
for business proposal.

Problem Solution Market Need Business Target Market

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 IV. Application
Performance Task
Write your proposed idea based on the matrix below and post a sample picture of a similar
product or service you wanted to offer.

What business am I interested to

Sample Picture:

Reflection
Written Work
Activity 4. It is time to connect the learnings into one. Fill the space with word(s) to complete your learning for this
worktext.

1. To spot an opportunity is to find the ______________________.

References
Business Plan. Retrieved from
http://www.entrepreneur.com/encyclopedia/business-plan
Spotting Business Opportunities. Retrieved from
https://www.10minutebiztools.com/Spotting-Business-Opportunities.html
Stull, C., Myers, P.& Scott D.M. (2008). Identifying Market Problems: building
Products to Meet Customer Needs. https://learn.marsdd.com/article/identifying market-problems/
Swanson, Lee A. (2017) Entrepreneurship and Innovation Toolkit. Retrieved from
https://openpress.usask.ca/entrepreneurshipandinnovationtoolkit/chapter/chapter-1-introduction-to-entrepreneurship/
Chehtman, Andres (2017, July 27). 8 Ways to Identify Market Opportunities for Business Growth. Retrieved from
https://blog.euromonitor.com/8-ways-identify market-opportunities-business-growth/ar
Cagan, Jonathan; Vogel’ Craig M. (2012, September 13). What Drives New Product Development. Retrieved from
https://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=1945330&seqNum=2
Eight Successful Filipino Entrepreneurs Who Started Small. (2019, July 5) Retrieved from
https://business.inquirer.net/273445/eight-successful-filipino entrepreneurs-who-started-small
Morris/Bloomberg, David Paul. Retrieved from
https://www.forbes.com/profile/tony-tan-caktiong/#4348b4231a25

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