There are three approaches thinking farmers use to identify an opportunity their new venture. Once an entrepreneurial farmer understands the importance of each approach, s/he will be much more likely to look for opportunities and ideas that fit each profile. The three approaches are –
1. Observing trends
The first approach to identifying opportunities is to observe trends and study how they create opportunities for entrepreneurs to pursue. The most important trends to follow are economic trends, social trends, technological advances, and political action and regulatory changes. As an entrepreneur or potential entrepreneur, it’s important to remain aware of changes in these areas. This sentiment is affirmed by Michael Yang, the founder of Become.com, a comparison-shopping site, who believes that keen observation skills and a willingness to stay on top of changing environmental trends are key attributes of successful entrepreneurs:
2. Solving a problem
The second approach to identifying opportunities is to recognize problems and find ways to solve them. Problems can be recognized by observing the challenges that people encounter in their daily lives and through simpler that have yet to be solved. Commenting on this issue and how noticing problems can lead to recognizing business ideas. Look for problems. People complain about it being hard to sleep through the night, get rid of clutter in their homes, find an affordable vacation, trace their family origins, get rid of garden weeds, and so on. As the late John Gardner, founder of Common Cause, observed: “Every problem is a brilliantly disguised opportunity.”
3. Finding gaps in the Marketplace
Gaps in the marketplace are the third source of business opportunities. There are many examples of products that consumers need or want that aren’t available in a particular location or aren’t available at all. Part of the problem is created by large retailers, like Wal-Mart and Costco, that compete primarily on price and offer the most popular items targeted toward mainstream consumers. While this approach allows the large retailers to achieve economies of scale, it leaves gaps in the marketplace. This is the reason that clothing boutiques, specialty shops, and e-commerce websites exist. These businesses are willing to carry merchandise that doesn’t sell in large enough quantities for Wal-Mart and Costco to carry.
When identifying opportunities, you then have to make the decision to embrace this new opportunity. Early adopters reap most of the benefits from an innovation; by the time most farmers ‘catch on’, the early adopters have made their profit and moved on to something else.
It has been found that the probability of being an early adopter of a profitable innovation increased with years of schooling and scale of farming operation, as well as with frequency of contact with extension service information sources. Educational disadvantage is an aspect of being a late adopter which hinders the acquisition and processing of information which could improve farm profitability and viability
Most farm business attend field days, yet only 3% participate in formal courses in a twelve month period. Farm businesses which train are more likely to be responsive and make changes to their farming practice. Many farmers report that work on the farm and distance from delivery locations are barriers to participation. The characteristics of training attenders and non-attenders are compared in terms of education, farm size, profitability and reported changes to farm management practices which are expected to contribute to future profitability. Farm managers who do not participate in training are likely to be from small farms, be from farm businesses making little more than break even profit, be sole managers and have a low level of education.
Farmers who do continue to attend training will become aware of sustainable farming and what is involved.
There are many different methods of sustainable agriculture, and they all prioritize preserving the environment and protecting the livelihoods of farmers and local communities. Some notable examples include:
- Rotating crops. Planting a variety of crops encourages crop diversity because it improves soil quality and pest control.
- Integrating livestock and crops. Smart integration of crop and animal production can make farms more efficient and profitable.
- Planting cover crops. Cover crops such as clover, rye or hairy vetch are planted during off-season months to keep the soil covered year-round when it might otherwise be left bare. This helps prevent soil erosion and reduces the need for fertilizers and herbicides.
- Permaculture. Permaculture design techniques include growing grain without tillage, herb and plant spirals, and keyhole and mandala gardens. These efficient techniques help to reduce the waste of resources.
- Better water management. Crops that do not demand much water are grown in dry areas to reduce water usage in farming methods.
With most industries, including farming, early adopters reap most of the benefits from an innovation; by the time most farmers ‘catch on’, the early adopters have made their profit and moved on to something else. It has been found that the probability of being an early adopter of a profitable innovation increased with years of schooling and scale of farming operation, as well as with frequency of contact with extension service information sources. Educational disadvantage is an aspect of being a late adopter which hinders the acquisition and processing of information which could improve farm profitability and viability.
Low actual or perceived literacy levels and lack of confidence as a learner are barriers to participation in training. Adult learning literature suggests that anxiety in adult learning is increased by an unsatisfying or unsuccessful school experience. In the past, post-compulsory education was not relevant for children who were to inherit family farms. Indeed, staying on at school was sometimes seen as undesirable because education could encourage these children to move away to other jobs. A number of studies point to attitudinal barriers to farmers’ participation in training, for example. These barriers could be linked to lack of confidence in the ability to succeed in training situations.
Some great tips on How to Identifying Opportunities to (finally) make some money with your online business.
1) Instead of chasing new opportunity all the time, focus on taking what’s already working and make it better
80% of your sales come from 20% of your efforts, so isolate the 20% and do MORE of what is WORKING. That’s why you must be tracking and reviewing analytics.
2) In today’s market you don’t need a USP (Unique Selling Point), but a UCP – Unique Connection Point
How do you connect with clients in a way that is different from competitors? You need to be more patient, understanding, and empathetic to build connection and affinity with your market.
3) A BIG mistake people make is thinking untapped market is best place to go
But the fast track to success is picking busy markets where the action already is. Take a look at Nick Pineault’s recent success. You see, niche products that tap into bigger markets is where the money is. Find out what your user search behaviors are and reverse engineer offers to exploit this opportunity.
4) Mindset
A lot of what drives us to take action is when our backs are against the wall. If you want to accelerate your money and business to grow, you need to envision something that you don’t currently have in your life that you want, and then reverse engineer the numbers of what it would take to buy the item (or pay off the debt, if that is the case).
Farm size and training
There are economic barriers to training which are relatively greater for smaller farm businesses with less cash flow and for those with a small workforce, which reduces flexibility to release people for training. Post-secondary education in Australia emphasis’s the economic barriers faced by the rural community in accessing education and training.
Most farms in Australia participate in some training. Training ‘events’ are broadly defined to include field days, demonstration days, seminars and conferences as well as formal courses. Over eighty percent of farms participated in at least one training event in the past 12 months.
Profit and changes to practice
The average profit of the Tasmanian survey group who made a course-influenced change (gross operating surplus $69 371) is statistically significantly higher than that of the group which did not make a change (gross operating surplus $34 450).
Higher education levels are associated with a greater likelihood of planning some training over the next three years. Sixteen percent of all farms plan no training, and 46% of these have only Year 9 or below education, reflecting that one third of the lowest education level group did not participate in a training event in the past 12 months, and do not plan to participate in the next three years.
The correlation between education and perceived need for education confirms the finding that farmers with education up to at least year 10 demonstrate a greater perceived need for learning.
To summaries, Australia’s relatively poorly educated farm workforce not only limits our productivity directly in the ways suggested, but has a compounding effect by inhibiting further training, and so further limiting our capacity to be flexible, adaptable and respond to change.
Profit
Farms which are covering costs (interest payments excluded), but making less than $20 000 per year are least likely to identify and plan training. Those making a loss train and plan training at a similar rate to farms making larger profits. Farms making a loss have an asset distribution weighted toward the high end of the farm business population as a whole (ABS, 1995).
Small farms are less likely to have people participate in training than larger farms, and farms managed by a single individual are less likely to have people participate in training than those with more than one person in the management team.
If training participation is to increase, these farm managers must be convinced that time spent training is more valuable than time sitting on the tractor or crutching sheep. They must be made aware of the benefits of training for their individual farm context. Only then will they rearrange their time and/or employ relief staff to perform essential on-farm tasks, and participate in training.
While some training barriers can be overcome by the provision of flexible delivery methods, electronic communication and provision of training ‘events’ in remote locations, there may also be barriers in attitudes toward training and in the values which some farmers place on training. Some of these barriers are likely to be related to prior education.
With a little education, the Simple formula to Success is
- Identify a problem in your niche market.
- Create a product that solves it.
- Make sure the solution has a Big Idea/Hook.
- Market it with personality.
- Build an entourage of raving clients.