Did you ever catch a baseball at a professional baseball game. I had attended Dodger games since I was a kid, and never even got close. The odds of catching a ball changed depending on where you sat. However, no matter how great the odds were, I would bring my ball glove. Nothing came close, except when I became a father.
Then one day, I was walking down the steps behind home plate with a Carnation frozen shake (my favorite Dodger concession) in each hand. Before reaching my family, I heard the crowd cheer above me when a foul ball hit the upper level. The fans failed to catch it letting it escaped down to my level about twenty steps above me. As I turned, I watched a baseball bounce down the steps toward me. To heck with the malts, I dropped them splattering on the ground and fell to one knee to field the grounder like I was taught in Little League. My opportunity had come and I was ready.
Most small and medium-sized businesses probably don’t prepare a strategic plan. If you did, you would probably include a common tool: SWOT. The SWOT tool looks at your company’s “Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. Many companies usually list the SW, and T. But opportunities? That can be tough. The probably with this is that companies only look to their existing markets, and not leverage their product or expertise in other markets.
Take music for example: Songwriters and producers are banging their heads on the wall trying to get a share of a shrinking market. Yet, they don’t realize that they may have the tools to use music in a different way. Take Song Pong, for example. Song Pong is a music based social media game allowing users to communicate through music. The players can pose a challenge, share favorite songs, or deliver dedications. Song Pong utilizes personal music libraries and the 26 million song in the iTune store.
Now, I am not saying that you should not pursue your passion, but sometimes your passion can be an opportunity that you have not discovered. Michael Gorton, owner of the Song Pong app focused on the connectivity of music instead of producing its content.
So, how do you start? You start by looking at the needs of the public. Start with what you are producing and what is needed. Discard with is not needed and us the tools of what is left to inquire into several new markets.