Business owners are instinctively entrepreneurial. It is in their blood. It is what made them identify a business opportunity in the first place, work out a way to meet that need and muster the resources to capitalise on that opportunity.

Throughout their lives, challenges have presented themselves and their ingenuity works through those issues and turns them back into opportunities. If this owner has these problems, their competitors probably have them too. Resourcefulness keeps them ahead of the game.

Similarly, that quest for new ideas, new products and new customers drives a passion for more fine opportunities.

Sometimes the owners have a suitcase full of ideas and potential opportunities. Yet their ability to capitalise on more than one is limited by their key resources … people, time and money. Occasionally, the grass does seem greener on the other side of that business valley.

However, sometimes the opposite is true. The owner’s business is floundering. Competition is coming from all corners of the globe. Technology is changing everything inside and outside of the business. Sales and margins are declining and everybody is blaming the economy.

There is usually no shortage of ideas of what to do, the problem remains, which is the best path to travel?

We have long said, “success in business is knowing which opportunities not to take”. Perhaps self-evident but how can the business owner see the right path from the wrong path?