Recently, I have been enjoying sewing. After moving to my parents’ home months ago, I realized that they sewed and made additional income. There was a beneficial environment to start sewing, such as multiple sewing machines, a variety of fabric materials, various threads, and other necessary tools. I have learned sewing from their lectures.
Several days ago, my parents received a large amount of old clothes from one of their sewing companions. It was about 10 cardboard boxes. Although I don’t know the detailed reason, the person who gifted these items seems to have quit his sewing work due to old age.
That made me think about how to encounter hidden opportunities. Let’s discuss it.
How to find hidden opportunities
Sometimes, we want to discover hidden opportunities and make money efficiently.
One typical example is entering industries that lack popularity but are still necessary for society and have reached the bottom of their decline. It is the same logic as investment. We buy low and sell high with the longer perspective. In the case of active jobs, we enter near the bottom and exit at the top.
That is a rational way to avoid competition and increase profits with less effort.
Currently, digital creation is high, while material production is low, especially in developed countries. In other words, there are opportunities for material production.
However, we sometimes lack such opportunities. We don’t know how to encounter such fields. We have no interests, skills, equipment, or sales customers in specific fields. Although we want to do something, creating everything from nothing takes time and effort.
One solution is getting acquainted with the elderly people in the neighborhood. That can lead you to a reasonable business that can quickly generate sales. Today, I will explain why.
Two approaches to effective business fields
If you want to discover the business field that suits your circumstances, try getting acquainted with the elderly people in the neighborhood. That might lead you to a reasonable business that can quickly generate sales.
There are two approaches to identifying effective business fields. They are as follows:
- Preferring a globally advantageous business: This is suitable for a steadily growing period. We try to create and sell something universally appealing.
- Preferring a locally advantageous business: This is suitable for a confusing, declining period. We try to identify the missing elements in society and supplement them.
Now is the early stage of the latter. Focusing on local matters is advantageous.
The unpopular, aging, and highly demanded local businesses
To make it easier to understand, let’s look at an example of the individual sewing field in my area.
Despite the demand and the growth in sales, there are few entrants or successors in some local fields. Since this is a long-term tendency, the business operators are aging.
These elderly business operators, especially independent or individual ones, tend to be unable to adapt to the times. They often don’t know how to use the internet. They cannot use social media, take orders online, or even purchase materials online.
That separates the people whose sales grow from those whose don’t. In addition, some also want to retire. That is why many producers quit their businesses despite high demand.
Such unpopular, aging, and highly demanded local businesses are everywhere, especially in the long-declining popularity field.
The well-informed elderly people
However, such fields vary by region. It depends on each society.
The elderly people in the neighborhood tend to be well-informed about such local circumstances. When you go for a walk during the day, you often come across such elderly people, especially in shop rest areas, parks, and community centers.
Among such elderly people, there are empathic and social ones. You may easily identify them if you are empathic and logical. They seldom say negative things but love interacting. They want to be acquainted with as many people as possible. If you smile and greet them occasionally, they will likely respond positively.
They are connected with seniors of the same generation. They know people who have recently quit their businesses and those who want to shut down their independent jobs.
Those aged business operators without successors tend to willingly provide us, the younger ones, opportunities if we show them our sincere interests. They often provide you with enough environment, such as equipment, tools, materials, lectures, selling places, and even their customers.
For them, their business equipment will eventually become garbage after shutting down their businesses. They often want someone to make use of them.
Even though those pieces of equipment and methods tend to be old, they are usable enough for professional productions, and you can improve them. In other words, you can show your creativity.
The local, hidden opportunities
In the case of my parents, they receive so much fabric that they cannot use it all. This time, they received not only fabric materials but also thread, zippers, fasteners, and various sewing components. They have received leftover materials from many people many times.
There are also many opportunities to sell. They have been refusing orders for a long time due to the high volume of customers. They chose to sew what they liked rather than increase profit. Even among their sewing companions, it seems that there are so many customers that they cannot handle them.
In fields of decline in the long term, there are many such advantageous environments locally. That provides you with a reasonable environment to create your business and show your talents effectively.
If it is a place we can contribute to, we will naturally have an interest.
After the phase of the cycle turns, we can sell our businesses. Buy low and sell high. Enter at the bottom and exit at the top. Pay attention to the local when the majority of people want to become globally famous. Then, sell it when many people come to desire it. That perspective will show you the time to shift to the next stage.
Conclusion
That is one effective way to discover hidden opportunities and make money efficiently.
The elderly people in the neighborhood often know aged business operators without successors who willingly provide us opportunities.
That might lead you to a reasonable business that can quickly generate sales.
Thank you for reading this article. I hope to see you in the next one.
