Creating a business can be a lot of work. It involves solidifying an idea, making key financial decisions and completing a series of legal activities. You will also need to do market research to find out what customers are looking for and how you can fill their needs. Then, you will need to register your business and apply for licenses or permits.
You may be able to come up with some business ideas by evaluating your interests and hobbies. For example, if you enjoy hiking, you could start a company that offers hiking gear rentals or tours. Another way to come up with an idea is to identify pain points in your current job or in the community and find ways to solve those problems.
Once you have an idea for a business, it’s time to do some market research to see what the demand is and how you can compete with other businesses. This is where you will determine whether your business concept can be profitable and whether it is a good fit for your skills and experience.
Some researchers have highlighted personal characteristics of entrepreneurs as a crucial factor in the process of opportunity identification (Baron Reference Baron2004; Garcia, Martinez and Fernandez Reference Garcia, Martinez and Fernandez2010; Velazquez Garcia and Balslev Clausen 2020). These are cognitive variables, such as the entrepreneur’s perception of opportunities, self-efficacy or fear of failure. A study conducted in Latin America found that these variables were significant for entrepreneurship, particularly when the entrepreneur had prior entrepreneurial experience (Kelley, Singer and Herrington Reference Kelley, Singer and Herrington2016).