WHAT E-BUSINESS SHOULD YOU PURSUE?
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Competitive Advantage Once you have identified your personal interests and ideas, potential customer target markets, and their most in-demand products (the ICI part of the ICICLE formula), it is time to narrow your choices to those that offer the best profit and happiness potential. Although only you can decide which activities make you happy, I can help you with some additional analysis that should help your profitability potential. This analysis applies the concept of competitive advantage (the second “C” in your personal ICICLE equation) in order to determine the best e-business model for you. The key to most successful businesses is that they do their chosen activity better than their competition. A “competitive advantage” is a unique connection, resource, idea, timing, or other factor that means you can produce or deliver your product or service faster or cheaper or better or more profitably than the other guy. As a new entrepreneur, a competitive advantage can be a good reason to pick one business idea over another. A sustainable competitive advantage can make the difference between success and failure whether you currently have many competitors or they only show up later to copy your success. As a potential Internet millionaire, you need to assess your own skills and experience and look for something or someone in your background that will help push your new business over the top into million-dollar territory. If you have an area of expertise, connections, or even just enthusiasm, it may yield a competitive advantage for you. Let’s do an exercise: Write down your best answers to the following questions in your Millionaire Idea Journal. Do any of them apply to your list of potential million-dollar business ideas? You can also consult the many notes you should have written in your journal by now to see what other opportunities come to mind. Are you really good at anything that you can turn into a product or marketable service? Are people always telling you: “You are so…”? Could that skill or personal attribute be marketable online? Do you have: ▲
Unique knowledge of an industry, product, service, or target market?