12 Senior High School

Saint Francis College

ABM STRAND
Guihulngan, Negros Oriental, Incorporated

MODULE 1 & 2

BUSINESS SIMULATION

FINDING BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES

Learning Objectives – At the end of this module, you can:

1. Scan the external and internal markets and identify potential business opportunities to capitalize
on.
2. Use a systematized Opportunities Attractiveness Matrix in choosing a product or service which is
feasible in terms of the market, operations, and financials.
3. Choose the appropriate methodology (research sampling and data processing) in determining the
demands and market acceptability of a proposed product or service.
4. Draw conclusions, make recommendations, and finalize the most feasible business to be offered to
the market.

What I need to know

Finding the right business opportunity can be downright challenging and at times frustrating. What
may seem like a perfect business idea may turn out to be a dud. Moreover, as a budding entrepreneur,
you will likely encounter problems – failures, even – in your business ventures. For instance, your
customers might shift to a competitor or problems in your operations might adversely affect the
business. Hence, venturing into business can be considered a leap of faith, with risks and challenges
that will surely test your skills, knowledge, and will.

What I Know
1. Why do finding the right business opportunity can be challenging and sometimes frustrating?

1|Page
 WHAT IT IS (Lesson Proper)
Scanning the Market
The entrepreneurial process – or simply, the process of venturing into business – formally begins with a
scan of the market to find business opportunities from macro environmental sources and within the
realms of the entrepreneur’s community or locality. The first step is for the new entrepreneur to list
down, ideally, five business opportunities which he or she can possibly venture into. The entrepreneur
must focus on a business idea that he or she thinks is most viable and with the least number of risks.
Thereafter, the entrepreneur must devote his or her time establishing, growing, and managing this
chosen business.

External Sources of Business Opportunities

There are numerous external sources of business opportunities. These are external sources are the
external forces in the budding entrepreneur’s environment. Among them are the following:
 Sociocultural
 Technological advancements
 Economic growth or decline
 Politics and legal factors
 Industry trends
 New discovery or new knowledge
 Futuristic or unexpected opportunities
 Consumer preferences, including preferences of digital customers
 Competitors
 Societal problems or irritants in the marketplace
 Physical location of the entrepreneur
The entrepreneur must not be overwhelmed by these external factors; instead he or she must choose
only the most viable or compelling business opportunities present in the environment. In scanning the
external market, the entrepreneur must look closely at the immediate environment – specifically, the
locality or community – where he or she intends to conduct the business. Focusing on the locality only
will help simplify the process of external scanning as opposed to doing an extensive scan of the
surrounding locations right away. However, in today’s digital age, the entrepreneur can also perform an
external scan on a national or international scale, including the digital behavior of potential customers.

The cases that will be presented will teach you how to find business opportunities from external
sources. You are not yet required to dig deep; rather, what is important with the external scan is that
you list down all potential businesses which you think might flourish with the external factors present.
It is at this point where the entrepreneurial trait of being sharp-eyed to business opportunities kicks in.

Study the case. Note, however, that the data in these cases are fictitious only. For this case, the goal is
to identify at least two most compelling external sources of opportunities and at least two potential
businesses.

2|Page CASE 1
Mr. Antonio Castañeda is a graduate of information technology (IT) who is currently living in Makati
City. He worked at an IT company for five years. Mr. Castañeda has no prior entrepreneurial experience,
but strongly believes that he can venture into business and succeed.

Recently, he read from a 2015 international magazine that Makati City in the selfie capital of the world.
The magazine mentioned that 70 percent of the Internet traffic from Makati City originates from mobile
devices such as tablets and smartphones. Mr. Castañeda also found out that nearly every resident in
Makati City owns a smartphone, and that on average, a smartphone owner spend at least three hours
per day using his or her gadget.

In addition, Mr. Castañeda learned that by 2020, Makati City will have more than 1,000,000
smartphone users who will use their devices not only to take and post selfies on social media, but also
to access mobile banking, shop online, listen music, watch videos, and read news and other texts.
Additionally, Mr. Castañeda’s research revealed that smartphones after approximately two years need
some form of repair or enhancement already.

Mr. Castañeda is now interested to explore business opportunities in Makati City considering all the
details he has learned. His initial idea is to establish a business in a mall in the Central Business
District of Makati. While Mr. Castañeda believes that he can be a successful entrepreneur, he remains
wary of the risks of putting up a business, particularly for a first timer like him.

Here are at least two compelling external sources of opportunities and at least two potential businesses
for Case 1:

External Source of Specific External Source Potential Business

Business Opportunity of Business Opportunity Opportunity

 Sociocultural factors In Makati City,  Smartphone/tablet

 Technological smartphones are used to distribution
advancement take selfies, access mobile business
 Industry trends banking, shop online, listen  Smartphone/tablet
 Physical location of to music, watch videos, and accessories business
the entrepreneur read news and other texts.

 Consumer A smartphone owner in

preferences of digital Makati City spends an

customers average of three hours per

day using his or her gadget.

 Irritant in the Smartphones work fine for Smartphone/tablet repair

marketplace approximately two years. business (service)
Thereafter, they need some
form of repair or
enhancement.

Internal Sources of Business Opportunities

3|Page
There are also various internal sources – the entrepreneur’s strengths or assets that derive him or her
to pursue a potential business – of business opportunities. These internal sources are the following:

 Talents, hobbies, skills, expertise, or academic background

 Financial capacity
 Processes/operational capacity
 Leadership and people management skills
 Entrepreneurial attitude/character
 Vision and strategy

Identifying business opportunities from internal sources is easier to accomplish because at the onset,
the entrepreneur already known his or her strengths, so he or she can list these down without devoting
too much time. The next case that will be presented will teach you how to find business opportunities
from internal sources. Again, you are not yet required at this point to dig deep or to do in-depth
research. What matters in an internal scan is that you list down all potential businesses that you think
might flourish considering the internal factors or your strengths as an entrepreneur.

For this case, the goal is to identify at least one internal source of opportunity and at least one potential
business.

CASE 2
Mr. Carl Aquino has a degree in literature and has been into poetry ever since he was kid. He is a
tremendously talented poet who specializes in composing love poem booth during the college fair. In
their booth were a netbook, specialty paper, envelopes, and a printer. He was pleasantly surprised when
several couples proceeded to their booth and asked him to compose love poems. He charged P100 for
each love poem. He typed each poem on his netbook using a free desktop publishing software. He added
designs and graphics – sometimes pictures of the couples themselves passed on through a flash drive or
via Bluetooth – to the poem before printing it on specialty paper. Carl felt appreciated every time a
couple came by their booth to ask for a poem.

Here are at least two compelling internal sources of opportunities and at least two potential businesses
for Case 2:

Internal Source of Business Specific Internal Source of Potential Business

Opportunity Business Opportunity Opportunity

 Hobbies and skills  Carl Aquino has  Poem store (in

 Processes or been into poetry parks, schools and
operational capacity ever since he was a offices)
kid. He is a talented  Alternative
poet who specializes business:
in composing love digital poem store
poems.
 He has a netbook, a
printer, and

4|Page
 specialty paper.

WHAT’S MORE

We come to understand the external sources and internal sources of business opportunities.
Now, let us now check and evaluate on what you have learned from the discussion by answering
the following tasks.

Task II. Read and Answer.

Read the article on http://www.shoemoney.com/2015/09/03/how-to-train-yourself-to-identify-

business-opportunities/. Then answer the following questions:

1. What online business can you easily think of with the four factors presented in the article?
2. Do you know someone who runs a successful online business? What do think are the critical
success factors of that online entrepreneur?

Task III. Answer the following questions.

1. What are the three potential business opportunities that come to your mind considering the
external sources in your own locality?
2. Do you foresee yourself as a traditional entrepreneur or online entrepreneur?
3. What talents, skills, hobbies or expertise do you have which you can use in a potentential
buseness?
4. Do you think you have the attitude and character to become a successful entrepreneur in the
future? Justify your answer.

Task IV. Case Study.

Study the cases below and give at least two compelling external sources of opportunities and at least
two potential businesses. Use the chart in the above example case.

Case 1

Mrs. Marites Bonifacio had been a banker for five years. But she resigned from work after she got
married and had her first child. She resigned so she could focus on raising her son. One day, while her
son was sleeping, Mrs. Bonifacio was channel surfing when she chanced upon a news feature being
shown. The news feature was about virtual assistants, or freelancers or home-based online employees.
5|Page
While watching the program, Mrs. Bonifacio discovered that virtual assistant work at home using
computer connected to the internet to serve the needs of foreign employers. According to the program,
foreign employers prefer this setup because it is cheaper for them to operate rather than to hire regular
employees. Mrs. Bonifacio also found out from the program that the Philippines is currently one of the
major sources of virtual assistants in the world, with over 1,000,000 Filipinos serving various foreign
markets worldwide. After watching the news feature, Mrs. Bonifacio did more research and she found
out that virtual assistants in the Philippines earn an average of 5 Usd per hour and that most of the
jobs were related to accounting, finance, marketing and sales. She also discovered that this trend of
hiring virtual assistants is expected to continue for the next 5 to 10 years, thus giving opportunities for
Filipinos to work online instead of going abroad or working in office-based jobs.

Case 2

Mr. Marvin Miranda is a fresh graduate of marketing management. He has observed that the current
administration has brought about number of drastic changes, including the implementation in Baguio
City of a curfew for minors and 1:00 am liquor ban. Marvin believes that a number of bars in Baguio
City might be affected by these new policies. Additionally, he has also noticed that most of the coffee
and tea shops in Baguio City are always full. An aspiring entrepreneur ever since he was young, Marvin
wants to tap the market which he believes he knows the most – the youth.

Give at least two compelling internal sources of opportunities and at least two potential businesses. Use
the chart in the above example case.

Case 3

Mr. Tui is a fresh accountancy graduates from a well-known university. Tui’s family makes and sells
bagoong (fish paste). It is the major source of the family’s income and the reason why he was able to
finish his education. Tui knows firsthand how his father runs the business – from production to
packaging all the way to distribution. Tui, who had shown at an early age an interest in the family
business, has also been trained by his parents on how to manage the family business.

Unfortunately, the business has been on a decline due to stiff competition and ineffective marketing
initiatives, including unattractive packaging. Tui’s parents tasked him to help out in marketing the
product in a more creative and appealing way. The family is hoping to reverse the downward trends so
that they can fulfill their dream to export their bagoong to Thailand, a country where fish paste is
commonly used in preparing various dishes.

Case 4

Ms. Lou Vin, whose mother was a dancer, started dancing when she was five. Since then, dancing has
become a way of life for Lou. She is a member of dance group and a consistent performer in school and

6|Page
community programs. She also joins various dance competition in and out of school. Lou also happens
to be a fresh graduate with a degree in business management. So, she is thinking of ways on how to
combine her interests in both dancing and business.

Task V. Activity/Output.

1. Prepare a potential business opportunity chart. You should come up at least two internal sources
and external sources of business opportunity and at least two potential business opportunitties.

-End-

7|Page