

How to decide what business to start - Seph
http://sephskerritt.com/2009/05/06/how-to-decide-what-business-to-start/

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paulhart
The best opportunities are those where you create a new marketplace - an
inherent result is that you own the market, initially at least. Big risk here
though is overestimating the potential size of the market.

Second best is to attack an existing market in a novel way. You need to be
able to communicate the benefits of your methodology to an existing customer
base that has been conditioned to expect businesses in that market to operate
in a certain way, and comparable with a specific set of metrics. Your novelty
cannot ignore this scoring method.

The worst opportunities are the "me-too" models, where you attempt to compete
against incumbents in an existing market by copying (what appear to be) their
business models. Good luck with that.

As for me and my current idea (still quite gestational), I'm looking at a
"second-best" opportunity. The market is known, huge, and essential. The
novelty is (imho) pretty awesome. It'll need funding, but I believe the story
is very compelling. Time will tell.

