To properly vet an opportunity, you need to do something that I like to call a “Needs Inventory.” To get your inventory, you should do this critical exercise every quarter. If you have partners or employees, bring them into it. It can be incredibly powerful to share that transparency and it will maximize the number of eyes and ears that are helping.
My Personal Tip:
Being 100% honest with yourself and “getting real” when it comes to your career/company is the best thing you can do. Apply this honesty to deciding what you really need to advance, as well as the level of investment which is safe for resource allocation - your time, money, bandwidth, employees.
Start With The Needs Inventory
The first step involves going through the main areas of your business/professional life and identifying what you need, right now.
(example: Marketing, Sales, Operations, Partnerships).
Your timeline should be short. Make it for today through the next couple weeks, or 3 months. Your needs should be:
• Very clear and simple. They don’t have to be written pretty.
• Tangible.
• Have a goal/end result tied to them. What will they enable you to do if you fulfill the need?
• Prioritized.
List them out with these four segments: Need, Reason, Or Else and VIP details.
Not all we chase leads to success. As entrepreneurs, we frequently waste precious time and money - spreading ourselves thin - going after opportunities that fail to deliver what we really need. I know I’ve chased my fair share of opportunities that led in the wrong direction, or led me to wasted time and financial energy. But, I’ve also learned how to identify the opportunities worth chasing.
In this post, I’ll share some of my tips on identifying the right opportunities for your particular needs, and how to manifest them when they don’t exist.
Part 1: Vetting an Opportunity