• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Submissions
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Jun 1, 2023
  • Startup
    • Creating a Plan
    • Funding a Startup
    • Franchise Center
    • Getting Your Office Ready
    • Making Your Business Official
    • Marketing Your New Business
    • Personal Readiness
  • Run & Grow
    • Customer Service
    • Human Resources
    • Innovation
    • Legal
    • Operations
    • Risk Management
  • Leadership
    • Best Practices
    • Communication
    • Green Initiatives
    • Open Culture
    • Strategic Planning
    • People Skills
  • Sales & Marketing
    • Advertising and Lead Generation
    • Marketing Innovations
    • Marketing Plans
    • Online Marketing
    • Relationships
    • Sales Activities
  • Finance
    • Budgeting and Personal Finance
    • Payments and Collections
    • Tax and Accounting
    • Pricing Strategy
    • Working with Investors
    • Working with Lenders
  • Tech
    • eCommerce
    • Hardware
    • Software
    • Security
    • Tech Reviews
    • Telecom
  • Shop

SmallBizClub

Helping You Succeed

taxbandits banner
Home / Startup / Creating a Plan / How to Choose Your Own Venture
How to Choose Your Own Venture

How to Choose Your Own Venture

2800 Views

Aug 19, 2013 By YEC

As a professor of social entrepreneurship and an entrepreneur, people often approach me with all their ideas. They get overwhelmed with how to start choosing their first venture (or second, for that matter).

 
How do you start? Whether you are new to entrepreneurship or starting another venture, you begin the same way:
 
Uncover your strengths FIRST: Research suggests that the most successful enterprises (for-profit or social) leverage each individual’s or organization’s strengths. Begin with your staff and/or board and brainstorm. What do you already have or know? Think broadly about your unique assets. For me, my unique asset was my speaking ability. I was a debater in high school and have always loved to craft a great speech.
 
Evaluate your strengths: After you identify your strengths, vote on the top five to seven strengths that are most unique, have value to others, and are closest to your mission. Then, walk through the questions below for each strength. Questions to ask:
 
  • Is it different and distinct?
  • Who would value this strength?
  • How valuable is it? Do other options exist?
  • What is the market willing to pay for this strength?
  • Is this a long-term strength?
 
For me, my strength was my speaking ability. Through these questions, I realized that it was valuable to many different audiences and could present a long-term strength.
 
Identify opportunities from TOP strengths: After evaluating your strengths, think of all the opportunities that exist for that strength. For me, I could write speeches for others, write and present speeches myself, or teach others how to speak more effectively.
 
Assess your opportunities: After you identify your opportunities, vote on the top five to six opportunities and then walk through each question below to assess their promise based on ease of implementation, fit, and profit. Questions to ask:
 
Ease of Implementation:
 
  • Do we have the right internal expertise and capacity?
  • How complex is the opportunity?
 
Fit:
 
  • Does this fit with existing businesses?
  • Does this fit with our image?
 
Profit:
 
  • What are the startup costs?
  • What is the market demand and/or willingness to pay?
  • How soon can we expect a profit?
 
Based on this, you will have an objective assessment of which opportunities have the most promise.
 
Not every venture is viable. Success requires the right opportunity, the right timing, and the right process. Once you determine that all of these are aligned, take each opportunity and conduct a feasibility assessment. The feasibility assessment allows you to “fail early and cheaply” and helps you decide on a go or no-go decision. If the feasibility assessment is promising, the next step is developing a business plan to create a roadmap for your venture. Once you go through these steps, you will have the confidence that your venture is not only the best opportunity for you, but also a viable business venture for years to come.
 
A version of this post originally appeared on the author’s blog.
 
Suzanne Smith, MBA is a serial social entrepreneur and bridges many disciplines, including serving on the National Board of the Social Enterprise Alliance, coaching nonprofits as Managing Director of Social Impact Architects and Co-Founder of Flywheel: Social Enterprise Hub, and educating future leaders as Adjunct Professor at the University of North Texas. She holds an MBA from Duke University, where she was a CASE (Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship) Scholar and continues to serve as a Research Fellow.

Filed Under: Creating a Plan Tagged With: Creating a Plan, Getting Started, Starting a Business, Young Entrepreneur Council

YEC

YEC

The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, YEC recently launched StartupCollective, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses. Follow the YEC on Twitter @YEC.

Related Posts

  • Preparing for the Future of Business: 2022 & Beyond
  • How To Prep Your Life For Quitting Your 9 to 5
  • 6 Essential Things to Consider When Starting a Hot Sauce Business

Primary Sidebar

Random

6 Ways to Track Your Call Center Analytics

Aug 11, 2014 By Scott Resnick

Competency Builds Trust

Dec 18, 2012 By Harry Kierbow

What is Customer Appreciation and Why Should You Do It?

Feb 28, 2017 By Parker Davis

Having a System in Place for Your Business

Oct 31, 2016 By TaxConnections

Valuable Printing Concepts You’ll Want to Know for Marketing: Part 2

Aug 29, 2016 By Elaine Fogel

Footer

About Us

Small Biz Club is the premier destination for small business owners and entrepreneurs. To succeed in business, you have to constantly learn about new things, evaluate what you’re doing, and look for ways to improve—that’s what we’re here to help you do.

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Copyright © 2023 by Tarkenton Institute, Inc. All Rights Reserved | Terms | Privacy