Have you ever found yourself surveying another company, wondering how they always seem to land on their feet? No matter what they do, multiple opportunities for growth just seem to present themselves to them, and their business continues to move from strength to strength.
How do they do it? You might find yourself suspecting that it’s a case of knowing the right people in the industry. Certainly, being well connected can help. However, all too often, it’s more a case of opportunity leading to further opportunities.
What is an Opportunity?
In the world of business, I would define an opportunity as:

The chance to build something different to what your business currently does, in order to allow it to genuinely benefit your clients or the surrounding community and your business at the same time.

In short, it’s the chance to expand your business into new areas. It’s the occasion where you find yourself faced with a decision to either stick to the safe ‘tried and tested’ methods, or to try something new and potentially open your business to a new market audience.

However, success, as we are familiar with, favours the bold – and it takes boldness, courage and resources to seize an opportunity.

An Example
Take the example of a company specialising in warehouse storage solutions. They’re doing relatively well, so you might argue that there’s no reason for them to seize opportunities… after all, do they really need to?

However, as this company is always looking for opportunities to take their services to a different level, they’re always actively looking at the market for storage needs and solutions. They identify a gap in the market – noticing that the local university students are struggling to find units to store their belongings in the holidays. So, they invest a little bit of money into transforming some of their warehouse space into suitable short term storage units, then advertise their services to the student community. In short, they seize the opportunity and manage to boost their revenue in the process.

Of course, this then leads to further opportunities. When the student units aren’t in use, the warehouse storage company then realises that they’re ideally suited for people who are moving house, and looking to store their belongings for a short period of time. And so, their business continues to expand… thanks to them taking that initial opportunity.

Attracting Opportunity

How can you attract opportunity to your business? If you lay the right foundations, opportunities will come to you. Here’s how you can achieve it:

• The Quality of work. When you focus on providing top quality products and services, you swiftly develop a good reputation. Clients start to recommend you to others, and surrounding businesses start to discuss you in a positive way. By earning this reputation for your current services, you’re putting yourself in a strong position to be considered trustworthy for any future services you might choose to offer.
• Your attitude. How you behave as a business owner will greatly determine how likely it is that opportunity will present itself to you. If you have a positive outlook, foster a strong work culture and actively seek out opportunity, it’s far more likely to happen for your company.
• Your team. Encourage your team to be proactive. Tell them that you’re looking to develop the business, and would like their help in identifying possible avenues for growth. Multiple sets of eyes seeking out opportunity are far more powerful than just the one pair of eyes.
• Networking. Getting yourself ‘out there’ and networking with others is a great way to find new opportunities. In business, it is often a case of ‘it’s not what you know but who you know’, and familiarising yourself with well-connected people is a good way of identifying new ways of developing your company.

Be Open to Opportunity
If you operate with integrity, offering great services to your clients, then it’s inevitable that your business will start to enjoy a good reputation, which in turn, will bring new opportunities. People will start to approach you to work on ideas that may benefit you, as they’ll regard you as a business that’s primed for success.
Most business success-stories feature at least one case where an opportunity provided a skill-set or situation to develop another opportunity. In short, success attracts further success!

In my book, $20K to $2 Million in 2 Years, I explore the difference between a good and a great business. Both of them want to grow, but the subtle differences between the good and great businesses can result in very different outcomes. If you’d like to read a preview of the book for free, and find out how you can transform your business from ‘good’ to ‘great’, simply click here.