Opportunity Identification

Some points on idea identification and attractiveness

• Repeat business, not one-time sell.
• Prefer rental or leasing business.
• Built-in sense of urgency.
• Health or financial loss from lack of action on customers’ part is ideal. I prefer automatic shipping, for example having a book-of-the-month, so that customer needs to:
• Business instead of a practice. Not built on a person’s talent, but on an organization’s.
• Regional or national potential, rather than local.
• The less labor intensive, the better; however, labor is better than capital expenditures.
• Already a market – other companies doing it.
• Demographics or lifestyle changes creating the need, and thus, the market.
• Emotionally appealing to the customer – there’s got to be sizzle.
• The numbers need to work so there is real money to be made.
• The more unregulated, the better.
• Odds of success are stacked in your favor, not against you.
• A proven team, not an untried idea. A great team is more important than a good idea.
• Success is not built on one client, one product, or customer.
• Payment at time of service or before, to eliminate large accounts receivable, accounts receivable aging, collection problems, or costs of bad debt.