Evaluating an Opportunity:
Even when your gut feeling is that you can't fail with an opportunity to build a business, you can reassure yourself by evaluating the opportunity using a few critical criteria.
  • Market issues such as the need for your product or service, the size of the market, and its growth rate;
  • Economic issues such as potential after-tax profits, the time required to achieve positive cash flow, and the amount of money required to get the business rolling;
  • Competitive advantage issues such as the fixed and variable costs of marketing and production, the degree of control over costs, supply, and distribution, and barriers to entry such as regulations and technology;
  • Management team issues including the approach taken by your competitors to the same opportunity; and
  • Fatal flaw issues, based on all the preceding criteria. If there's a fatal flaw, you should reconsider your opportunity before you invest your time and money.
 
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