Entrepreneurship is the activity of finding market demand, looking for market opportunities, and meeting this demand by investing in enterprises. Entrepreneurship needs opportunities, and opportunities depend on discovery. In order to find suitable entrepreneurial opportunities in the vast tide of market economy, entrepreneurs need to have certain qualities.

I'm not afraid of not having a chance, but I'm afraid of not having a vision.

I often hear some friends who want to start a business complain like this: "Others have good opportunities, but I'm unlucky and have no opportunities"; "I wish I had done it a few years ago, but it is difficult to do anything now." This is all a misunderstanding. We live in Shanghai, the city with the most entrepreneurial opportunities in the world. Opportunities are everywhere, depending on whether you can identify them. For example, repairing bicycles is a small business, but my student Zhu Yueqing has made it a good entrepreneurial project. After he was laid off in the autumn of 1997, he decided to start a business, seized the opportunity of logistics service reform in Shanghai universities, and invested 2111 yuan to open a bicycle repair shop in Fudan University. In the first month, he earned more than 1,111 yuan. Later, under the guidance of his teacher, he tried to expand the maintenance point and expand the car repair business by means of "chain operation". Now he has set up bicycle maintenance points in 12 colleges and universities in Shanghai, and has successively developed new projects such as green space maintenance, waterless car washing, property cleaning and car decoration. Not only did he successfully start his own business, but he also brought out 54 small bosses. This example shows that "if you are not afraid of no opportunity, you are afraid of no vision".

Discover entrepreneurial opportunities with a positive attitude

Everyone knows that the inventor of jeans is Levi's in the United States. At the beginning, he followed a large number of people to the west for gold. On the way, a big river blocked the way. Many people were angry, but Levi's said, "Great!" He managed to hire a boat to ferry people who wanted to cross the river and made a lot of money. Soon the ferry business was robbed, and Levi's said, "Great!" Because mining sweats a lot of drinking water is very tight, so others sell water and make a lot of money. Later, the business of selling water was taken away, and Levi's said it was "great", because workers knelt on the ground during mining, and the knees of pants were particularly easy to wear out, but there were many abandoned canvas tents in the mining area. Levi's collected these old tents and washed them, and the pants sold well. That's how jeans were born. Levi's took the problem as an opportunity and finally realized his dream of getting rich, thanks to his optimistic and cheerful positive attitude.

Napoleon Hill, a famous master of success, said, "All success and all wealth begin with ideas". A friend who wants to start a business, if you haven't found the opportunity or seized it for the time being, don't blame others, first think about whether your attitude is positive. Are the ideas and ways of thinking correct?

Grasp the four characteristics of entrepreneurial opportunities

Some entrepreneurs think they have good ideas and are full of confidence in starting a business. It is important to have a little idea, but not every bold idea and new idea can be turned into entrepreneurial opportunities. Many entrepreneurs have failed because they just started their business by idea. So how to judge a good business opportunity? Professor Jeffrey A. Demos, the author of Entrepreneurship in the 21th Century, points out that a good business opportunity has the following four characteristics: first, it can attract customers; Second, it can work in your business environment; Third, it must be implemented during the existence of the window of opportunity (note: the window of opportunity refers to the time it takes to promote business ideas to the market. If competitors already have the same idea and push products to the market, then the window of opportunity will be closed. Fourthly, you must have resources (people, money, things, information, time) and skills to start a business.

cultivate the ability to discover entrepreneurial opportunities. Finding entrepreneurial opportunities is not an easy task, but it is not unattainable. Entrepreneurs can consciously strengthen practice and cultivate and improve this ability in their daily life.

have a good habit of market research. The most fundamental thing to find entrepreneurial opportunities is to go deep into the market for research. To understand the market supply and demand situation, the changing trend, whether the customer needs have been met? Advantages and disadvantages of competitors.

See more, listen more and think more. We often say that we are well informed and knowledgeable in many ways. Our knowledge, experience, thinking and understanding of the market can't be comprehensive. Seeing more, listening more, and thinking more can enable us to obtain information extensively and draw useful things from other people's knowledge, experience and ideas in time, thus enhancing the possibility and probability of discovering opportunities.

unique thinking opportunities are often seized by a few people. We must overcome the bondage of conformity psychology and traditional habitual thinking, dare to believe in ourselves, have independent opinions, and not be influenced by other people's comments and gossip, so as to find and seize the opportunity of being ignored or forgotten by others.

Find five sources of entrepreneurial opportunities, which are ubiquitous and ubiquitous, and the opportunities mainly come from five aspects:

Question: The fundamental purpose of entrepreneurship is to meet customer needs. And customer demand is a problem before it is met. An important way to find entrepreneurial opportunities is to be good at discovering and understanding the needs of yourself and others or the difficulties in life. For example, a college graduate in Shanghai found it very inconvenient for teachers and students in the suburbs to travel to and from the urban area, and founded a passenger transport company, which is a successful case of turning problems into entrepreneurial opportunities.

change: most opportunities for starting a business arise from the ever-changing market environment. When the environment changes, market demand and market structure will inevitably change. Peter Drucker, a famous management guru, defines entrepreneurs as those who can "look for change, react positively and make full use of it as an opportunity". This change mainly comes from the change of industrial structure, the upgrading of consumption structure, the acceleration of urbanization, the change of population ideas, the change of government policy, the change of population structure, the improvement of residents' income level and the trend of globalization. For example, with the improvement of residents' income level, the number of private cars will continue to increase, which will lead to many entrepreneurial opportunities such as car sales, repair, accessories, cleaning, decoration, second-hand car trading and escort driving.

Creation and invention: Creation and invention provide new products and services, better meet the needs of customers, and also bring entrepreneurial opportunities. For example, with the birth of computers, entrepreneurial opportunities such as computer maintenance, software development, computer operation training, graphic production, information service, online shop opening, etc. follow. Even if you don't invent new things, you can become a person who sells and promotes new products, thus bringing you business opportunities.

competition: if you can make up for the shortcomings of your competitors, it will also be your entrepreneurial opportunity. Look at the companies around you. Can you provide products or services faster, more reliably and cheaper than them? Can you do better? If you can, you may find an opportunity.

the emergence of new knowledge and technology: for example, with the popularization of health knowledge and the progress of technology, many entrepreneurial opportunities have been brought around "water", and many entrepreneurs in Shanghai have joined the "urban clear spring" and embarked on the road of entrepreneurship.