| "Every problem is an opportunity, and the bigger the problem, the bigger the opportunity," declared Vinod Khosla, one of the world's leading venture capitalists, in a talk at Stanford University. "No one will pay you to solve a non-problem."
Is this an opportunity? Is this a good business idea? - questions commonly posed by future entrepreneurs. Sometimes developing ideas for businesses seems like an insurmountable challenge. Sorting through ideas to see which may be good ideas can be even more difficult. Fortunately, tools, frameworks and guidelines can help entrepreneurs with both. A good starting point is to understand the difference between an idea, and an opportunity.
It's a common mistake: many people use the words 'idea' and 'opportunity' interchangeably. Seems innocuous, right? But it can lead to real problems.
Perhaps it's a flash of inspiration; perhaps you've sat and brainstormed in a workshop - either way, ideas spring forth from an inner source. No analysis has been performed to determine the quality of the idea. In fact, the basic rule to getting the creativity flowing in a brainstorming session is 'there's no such thing as a bad idea'. And during idea-generation, that's true; but in fact, few are really good business ideas. So the goal is to generate as many as possible to provide the raw material for the next stage: opportunity evaluation.
Opportunities, on the other hand, are ideas that have been through an analytical wringer. Take an idea, punch it, pull it, ask the right questions, and if it holds up - it's an opportunity: a chance to build a viable venture.
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