Pioneering your own business can be an extremely difficult way to generate an income. Entrepreneurs need to have a high tolerance for uncertainty. To be successful, you need to have the drive to succeed and the perseverance to overcome failure. Business owners constantly face the stress of making important decisions that affect their own business and very often the businesses of their customers. Despite all this hard work, running your own business can be an immensely rewarding experience. Being your own boss gives you independence and the potential to earn an uncapped income. It provides you with greater flexibility for exercising your passions and talents. It does not matter whether you are a young start-up business or a mature enterprise, discovering the right business opportunities is a vital aspect to your business success.

Start-up businesses require an initial business idea which serves as the foundation of their market offering. Mature businesses are faced with the challenge of sourcing new opportunities to stay competitive in a cut-throat business environment. To succeed your business needs to be constantly evolving.Discovering a profitable business opportunity is more complex than simply just stumbling upon a good idea. Your success will depend on your ability to transform the idea into an income by delivering marketable products or services. You will need to overcome challenges and adversity. You need to be prepared to deal with the unexpected.The following 10 tips can help you succeed:

• 1. Conduct research to uncover evidence of a feasible target market. If there is no target market for your business idea, no one will buy your product or service. Conversely, if you under estimate the size of your target market, you may miss out on important opportunities.

• 2. Your business idea must satisfy a need within the target market. It must do this at a price that the target customer is willing to pay. You need to be customer focused and you must be able to answer the question, “what is in it for the customer?”

• 3. You need to perform a thorough analysis of the business environment to expose potential threats and opportunities for your business. You need to evaluate economic, legal, cultural, political and technological factors that can impact your business. Companies may not have control over the external environment but they can construct contingency plans to deal with the impact the environment on the business.

• 4. Competitor analysis must be performed. A new business will struggle in a market that is already saturated with competition and product substitutes. You need to build a unique selling position that motivates your target market to buy from you, instead of your competitors.

• 5. Once you have analysed your target market, competitors and business environment. You need to put a strategy in place to ensure success. You must be able to generate the financial resources needed to support this strategy.

• 6. The business opportunity must fit in with your skills, experience and personality type. There is little hope of success if you do not have the appropriate expertise.

• 7. The business idea needs to inspire your confidence and passion. This helps you develop the inner strength needed to persist through uncertainty and adversity.

• 8. You need to evaluate whether the business opportunity can generate enough income to support your needs. There is no value in investing your time and energy into a venture that is not going to deliver enough monetary rewards to fulfil your financial obligations.

• 9. You need a dependable supply chain. A constant and stable stream of supply is needed to maximise sales. If you cannot supply a product your customers will go to your competition.

• 10. Ensure that you have a support network. Other organisations can help you manage your new venture. Their experience and unbiased point of view can be an invaluable resource.Alan Tollemache is a Bookkeeper and Accountant operating in Sydney. He specialises in bookkeeping, accounting, finance and business services. He has over 40 years of experience in business growth.