New Business Opportunities: Getting to the Right Place at the Right Time

This excellent book is among my personal collection of selected books written by Jeffry Timmons, who is internationally renowned and respected in the field of entrepreneurship education and research. It follows Timmons' earlier book, The Entrepreneurial Mind, which I had already reviewed. In some way, it is linked to also Timmons' earlier (now revised/expanded for the 21st Century) pioneering book, New Venture Creation.What I like about this book is that it helps you to understand the critical difference between 'idea' and 'opportunity', and also how to evaluate each and pursue them. It has a focus on execution as opposed to just having ideas. For an entrepreneur wannabe, a clear understanding of the distinctions between an 'idea' and an 'opportunity' can make or break the business or project success. As the saying goes, Clarity is Power!In a nutshell, it helps you to answer many crucial questions at the onset, prior to embarking on your venture, for example:- what is a good opportunity?- why do a selected few opportunities inherently have much greater upside potential than all the rest?- why and how do winning entrepreneurs often find the best opportunities?- how can you find such opportunities? or create one?- would you recognise an opportunity when you see it?- how can you determine whether the opportunity will last?- is it the right opportunity for you? - can you determine to what extent it will add or create value, and thereby actually fill a customer need?All the chapters in the book are well organised and systematically structured for easy follow-up reading.The core chapters, which I find very useful, are as follows:Chapter 1: what is an idea?Chapter 2: enhancing creativity (tickles your brain!);Chapter 3: sources of new business ideas:Chapter 4: recognising opportunities (wow!);Chapter 5: sources for opportunity screening (wow!);Chapter 7: opportunity screening guide ( a real gem!);Chapter 8: using other peoples resources or OPR (very interesting insight!);The opportunity screening guide illustrated in the book is a real gem. It can really help you to determine whether you want to continue your initial pursuit and develop a complete business plan.The remaining chapters, chapter 13, 14, 15 16 and 17 show how the three essentials of venture creation: opportunities, people and resources come together to face the many difficulties, which arise for entrepreneurs. With these enlightening chapters covering entrepreneurs in action, this book is deeply rooted in real-world applications plus 20 years of classroom refinement by the author as an entrepreneurship educator/academic.Best of all and on the whole, the book is very easy to read and follow. Timmons writes very concisely and succinctly.I strongly recommend this book to all entrepreneur wannabes to read - and reflect - before you embark on your pursuit.