Steps for Developing Strong Business Ideas

Potential entrepreneurs in order to generate strong ideas, review their set of personal skills and evaluate business opportunities  Entrepreneurs follow 3 steps to develop strong business ideas:

List and evaluate your skills sets by considering your:

1. Current hobbies and activities
2. Other hobbies and activities pursued in the past
3. Assessment of why the hobby or activity is exciting
4. Specific skills needed to implement the hobby or activity
5. Experiences with the hobby or activity which could help others
6. Products and services used in the hobby or activity

1. Assess the courses taken in one’s formal education
2. Evaluate why they were enjoyable
3. Courses taken that were easy
4. Programs taken which were unusual
5. Any specialized training in a specific area
6. If you had to do it all over again, what areas would you pursue now.

1. The businesses where you previously worked
2. The skills that were critical to the jobs performed
3. Previous positions held
4. Areas of expertise
5. What you really enjoyed about a previous position
6. Your frustrations in a previous position
7. The time when you were most excited about work

Gap Analysis

a) A relatively simple process of systematically examining the difference, or gap, between what is expected and what occurs. One type of gap analysis, called opportunity analysis, examines opportunities in the marketplace side-by-side with the individual’s ability to address those gaps

b) Potential businesses

Methods to identify gaps or business opportunities:

• Examine trends in the region, nation, and world that may not have reached your geographic location
• Discuss new business opportunity with family
• Look for environmental and regulatory changes such as in health care.
• Consider what frustrates you and your family
• Determine your interest and skill set in technology

Compare your skills and capabilities to gaps in market and generate your business idea

The initial task of your TMA is to propose a business idea and is divided to 3 parts:

Part One: answer the below questions to evaluate your skills (25 marks) :250 words

1. Based on your education, what are the skills you have that could be the basis for a business?
2. Based on your work experience, what are the skills you have that could be the basis for a business?
3. Based on your hobbies, what are the skills you have that could be the basis for a business?
4. What things do you like doing best?
5. Do you enjoy working with people?
6. In what general industry (retail/wholesale/manufacturing/service) would you prefer to work?

Part two: identify an opportunity in the market (by identifying a Gap or a business opportunity). (12.5marks) : 250 words

Part three: Generate a business idea. (12.5 marks): 200 words

• Students are expected to make sure the written TMA meets the following criteria:

In the first paragraph you need to answer the 9 questions

In the second paragraph you need to identify an opportunity

In the last paragraph you need to discuss your business idea.

You should also fill the PT3 form below and upload it as a cover page for your TMA

A poor presentation could result in the deduction of up to 5 marks of the total TMA paper mark.

Plagiarism: It’s imperative that team members write the TMA using their own words. Plagiarism will be penalized depending on its severity and according to AOU plagiarism policy.

Word count: TMAs are expected to be within the specified word count of 700 words. A 10% deviation from word count limit is acceptable. Not adhering to specified word count could result in the deduction of up to 5 marks of the total TMA paper mark.