TECHNOLOGY AND LIVELIHOOD EDUCATION

Entrepreneurship

Module 2: Environment and Market

One of your greatest dreams in life is to become a successful entrepreneur. As a

person, you are capable of developing your character and personality and how to respond
to some business challenges and opportunities. You can make things happen by identifying
the opportunities around you. You may ask yourself these questions: What do people need?
What products and services are available in the market today? Can they be improved? How
are they made or delivered? Can things be done better? Cheaper? Faster? Cleaner? Can a
product which is used for specific purpose be also used for some other purposes?
You slowly find answers to these questions as you decide to do the first step in
launching a business enterprise. Be cautious however, that you should develop a habit of
identifying opportunities around you. Only then, you will find the activity both exciting and
easy.

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 EXPLORE your Understanding

Essential Question
How does one select an entrepreneurial activity?

Content Standard
- The learner demonstrates understanding of environment and market that relates
with the career choice.

Performance Standard
- The learner formulates a business idea based on the analysis of the environment
and market

Guide Questions:
1. How does one determine the product to be produced or services to be offered and
delivered to the target market or customers in a particular community?

2. How does one select an entrepreneurial activity?

3. How can one respond effectively to a business enterprise?

Hello there! Are you ready to assess yourself if you are ready to generate
potential business ideas? Let’s try by answering the succeeding pre-
assessment.

Pre-assessment
1. The following are examples of peoples’ basic needs, except:
a. Recreation
b. Clothing
c. Shelter
d. Food
2. Which of the following should be considered first by a prospective entrepreneur in
choosing the right location for his/her store?

a. Types of merchandise
b. Access of the target customers
c. The attractiveness of the store layout
d. The prevailing prices of goods in the area

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 3. Thong plans to put a “digi-print” studio in their locality. Which of the following will
help him determine a successful plan for setting up of his business?

a. Survey of consumer associations

b. Checking for similar business to avoid competition
c. Getting feedback on the quality of service
d. Conduct a SWOT analysis

4. Caesar studies the population in his immediate community. He is doing this to –

a. Identify his would be “suki”.

b. Predict his biggest buyer.
c. Select his favorite costumers.
d. Determine whom to sell his product or service.

5. When an entrepreneur improves and alter products to make it more appealing to

target consumers, he/she is doing an -------- of the product.
a. alteration
b. invention
c. innovation
d. improvisation

Lesson 1 Needs and Wants of People

Everyone has his or her own needs and wants. However, people have different
concepts of needs and wants. Needs in business are important things that every individual
cannot do without in a society. These include:
1. Basic commodities for consumption
2. Clothing and other personal belongings,
3. Shelter, sanitation and health
4. Education and relaxation

Basic needs are essential to every individual so he/she may be able to live with dignity
and pride in the community of people. These needs can obviously help you generate
business ideas.

Wants are desires, luxury and extravagance that signify wealth and an expensive way
of living. Wants or desires are considered above all the basic necessities of life. Some
examples are the eagerness or the passion of every individual which are non- basic needs
like; fashion accessories, shoes, clothes, travelling around the world, eating in an exclusive
restaurant; watching movies, concerts, plays, having luxurious cars, wearing expensive
jewelry, perfume, living in impressive homes, and others.

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 Needs and wants of people are the basic indicators of the kind of business that you
may engage into because it can serve as the measure of your success. Some other good
points that you might consider in business undertakings are the kind of people, their needs,
wants, lifestyle, culture and tradition, and social orientation that they belong.

Lesson 2 Generating ideas for business

Here are some ways by which you may generate possible ideas for business.

1. Examine the existing goods and services. Are you satisfied with the product? What
do other people who use the product say about it? How can it be improved? There
are many ways of improving a product from the way it is made to the way it is packed
and sold? You can also improve the materials used in crafting the product. In
addition, you introduce new ways of using the product, making it more useful and
adaptable to the customers’ many needs. When you are improving the product or
enhancing it, you are doing an innovation. You can also do an invention by
introducing an entirely new product to replace the old one.

Business ideas may also be generated by examining what goods and services
are sold outside by the community. Very often, these products are sold in a form that
can still be enhanced or improved.

2. Examine the present and future needs. Look and listen to what the customers,
institution, and communities are missing in terms of goods and services. Sometimes,
these needs are already obvious and felt at the moment. Other needs are not that
obvious because they can only be felt in the future, in the event of certain
developments in the community. For example, a town will have its electrification
facility in the next six months. Only by that time will the entrepreneur could think of
electrically- powered or generated business such as Xerox copier, computer service,
digital printing, etc.

3. Examine how the needs are being satisfied. Needs for the products and services are
referred to as market demand. To satisfy these needs is to supply the products and
services that meet the demands of the market. The term market refers to whoever
will use or buy the products or service, and these may be people or institutions such
as other businesses, establishments, organizations, or government agencies.

There is a very good business opportunity when there is absolutely no supply

to a pressing market demand.

Businesses or industries in the locality also have needs for goods and services.
Their needs for raw materials, maintenance, and other services such as selling and
distribution are good sources of ideas for business.

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 4. Examine the available resources around you. Observe what materials or skills are
available in abundance in your area. A business can be started out of available raw
materials by selling them in raw form and by processing and manufacturing them into
finished products. For example, in a copra-producing town, there will be many
coconut husks and shells available as “waste” products. These can be collected and
made into coco rags/doormat and charcoal bricks and sold profitably outside the
community.

A group of people in your neighborhood may have some special skills that can
be harnessed for business. For example, women in the Mountain Province possess
loom weaving skills that have been passed on from one generation to the next
generation. Some communities there set up weaving businesses to produce
blankets, as well as decorative items and various souvenir items for sale to tourists
and lowland communities.

Business ideas can come from your own skills. The work and experience you
may have in agricultural arts, industrial arts, home economics, and ICT classes will
provide you with business opportunities to acquire the needed skills which will earn
for you extra income, should you decide to engage in income-generating activities.
With your skills, you may also tinker around with various things in your spare time.
Many products were invented this way.

5. Read magazines, news articles, and other publications on new products and
techniques or advances in technology. You can pick up new business ideas from
Newsweek, Reader’s Digest, Business Magazines, Go Negosyo, KAB materials, Small-
industry Journal. The Internet serves as a library where you may browse and surf on
possible businesses. It will also guide you on how to put the right product in the right
place, at the right price, at the right time.

Listing of possible businesses to set up in an area may also be available from

banks or local non-government organizations.

Lesson 3 Selecting the Right Idea

Once you have embarked on identifying the business opportunities, you will
eventually see that there are many possibilities that are available for you. It is very
unlikely that you will have enough resources to pursue all of them at once. Which
one will you choose?

You have to select the most promising one from among hundreds and one
ideas. It will be good to do this in stages. In the first stage, you screen your ideas to
narrow them down to about five choices. In the next stage, trim down the five
choices to two options. In the final stage, choose between the two and decide which
business idea worth pursuing.

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In screening your ideas, examine each one in terms of the following factors:

1. How much capital is needed to put up the business?

2. How big is the demand for the product? Do many people need this product and
will continue to need it for a long time?
3. How is the demand met? Who are processing the products to meet the need
(competition or demand)? How much of the need is now being met (supply)?
4. Do you have the background and experience needed to run this particular
business?
5. Will the business be legal, not going against any existing or foreseeable
government regulation?
6. Is the business in line with your interest and expertise?

Your answers to these questions will be helpful in screening which ones from
among your many ideas are worth examining further and worth pursuing.

Lesson 4 Environmental Scanning

There is a need to conduct environmental scanning to identity the needs and

wants of people, the niche for your business mission, and to give attention to trends
and issues. This may also serve as an evaluation of the type of the entrepreneurial
activity appropriate in the community.

Environment= setting, atmosphere, location

Market = marketplace, shop

Environmental scanning is defined as a process of gathering, analyzing, and

dispensing information for tactical or strategic purposes. The environmental scanning
process entails obtaining both factual and subjective information on the business
environments in which a company is operating.

Environment in the community can be viewed according to its technological,

political, economic, and social aspects. For example, in the past, people in the
community used personal computers but the transmission of development in terms
of technology was interrupted because people were not satisfied with what they
have today. They still look for the changes in their life and the corresponding in their
environment.

As a future entrepreneur, you must be well-versed in this kind of

advancement and progression of your environment particularly in technology so as
to secure the success of your future business. Always think of something new,
something novel, authentic, reinvent the existing ones, and create your new version
of goods/products, and services. For instance, your own hair straightening is herbal,

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 while in the other salons it is made of synthetic chemicals. This kind of changes being
made will affect the existing principles in business and industries that can be easily
adapted to the changes in producing the products/services to meet the needs and
wants of people in the community.

FIRM UP Your Understanding

In generating business idea, you should first identify what type of

business is suited to your business idea. You should analyze and scan the potential
environment, study the marketing practices and strategies of your competitors,
analyze the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and the Threats in your
environment to ensure that the products/goods and services you are planning to offer
will be patronized within the easy reach by your target markets/consumers.

Bear in mind these simple rules for successful SWOT analysis.

 Be realistic about the strengths and weaknesses of your business when

conducting SWOT analysis.
 SWOT analysis should distinguish between where your business is today, and
where it could be in the future.
 SWOT should always be specific. Avoid any grey areas.
 Always apply SWOT in relation to your competition i.e. better than or worse
than your competition.
 Keep your SWOT short and simple. Avoid complexity and over analysis
 SWOT is subjective.

DEEPEN Your Understanding

People keep on searching for new things, new trends, and

new issues. For these reasons, an entrepreneur hurriedly responds to these needs
and wants of people.
As generations come and go, another set of new trends will come or will exist.
In order to adapt to the rapid changes in the business environment, the existing
industries need to improve their products and services. But how can you generate
business ideas with those strong competitors? There are three main sets of decisions
that you need to make - what to produce, how to produce, and how to share or sell out
the product to the market.

Activity 1 Mini survey

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 Directions: Conduct a mini survey in your immediate community. Gather pertinent
data on population across age brackets as suggested in the matrix below. Opposite
each age group, indicate their probable needs and wants.

Age Bracket Population Needs Wants

Example: Wooden toys, glossy
Toys, coloring books, coloring books, etc.
5 and below 35 pajama fashionable pajama
6- 10 years old
11-15 years old
16-20 years old
21-25 years old
26-35 years old
35-45 years old
46-55 years old
56-65 years old
66 and above

Activity 2
Screening business ideas

Directions: After filling out the chart above, try to list down all the probable business
opportunities which you may wish to venture in. Remember to consider the ideas
and suggestions discussed in Lesson 3. Use the suggested matrix below to indicate
your choice. Write your answers in your notebook.

Example: Selling wooden toys

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 Positive Factors
Negative Factors
Strengths Opportunities Weaknesses Threats

TRANSFER Of Learning

Now that, you have all the information, are you ready to test your ability to
generate your own business idea? If your answer is yes, start studying the sample
vicinity map of a community with a population of two thousand people. A new
housing project will be constructed adjacent to Daang Hari St, close to Old Molino St.,
its main road. This housing project targets the homeowners who are young couples
with two kids.

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 In this activity, you need to answer the questions that may lead to the
generation of a probable business. Your answers to these questions will serve as the
bases in formulating your own business ideas.

1. Who do you think are your target consumers/markets?

2. Where is the most ideal location to situate your business?

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 3. Which products or services would appeal to your target
consumers/markets?
4. Can you say that you have seized the most feasible business opportunity?

Post-assessment

6. The following are examples of peoples’ basic needs, except:

a. Recreation
b. Clothing
c. Shelter
d. Food

7. Which of the following should be considered first by a prospective entrepreneur in

choosing the right location for his/her store?

a. Type of merchandise
b. The access of the target customers
c. The attractiveness of the store layout
d. The prevailing prices of goods in the area

8. Thong plans to put a “digi-print” studio in their locality. Which of the following will
help him determine his plan for a success setting up of his business?

a. Survey of consumer associations

b. Checking for similar business to avoid competition
c. Getting feedback on the quality of service
d. Conduct a SWOT analysis

9. Caesar studies the population in his immediate community. He is doing this to –

a. Identify his would be “suki”.

b. Predict his biggest buyer.
c. Select his favorite costumers.

28 | ICT –Environment and Market

 d. Determine whom to sell his product or service.

10. When an entrepreneur improves and alter products to make it more appealing to
target consumers, he/she is doing an -------- of the product.

a. alteration
b. invention
c. innovation
d. improvisation

Feedback
Pre-assessment and Post assessment
1. a
2. b
3. d
4. c
5. b

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