People reject important opportunities.

Look for reasons people will reject your idea or opportunity.

After reviewing thousands of ideas and opportunities over the years and listening to countless pitches, you get an instinct for those people to reject. They are either pie-in-the-sky or are not ready to commercialise. It doesn’t mean it’s not an excellent opportunity, but it does not measure up to other available opportunities.

Here are some reasons for rejection.

• They have no experience or knowledge of their chosen industry, but they thought their passion would make their idea work.
• The whole scheme seems to suggest that they hated their job, decided to start their own company, and came up with some crazy idea.
• The language they are using is inappropriate or too hard to understand.
• They can’t tell you what their product is. There is no clear path or message.
• Their presentation is so mixed up that you can’t figure out what it is or what it does.
• It’s just an idea and no product yet.
• Little understanding of potential customers.
• They do not understand the market, its size or its potential.
• They do the same thing as other big companies, but will “offer a better user experience.”
• They didn’t know that their product already exists on the market.
• You know the market is too small or saturated.
• It’s a product that relies too heavily on advertising or personality to generate revenue.
• The idea or opportunity depends too much on the expertise of the founder.
• While there will always be some risk, this opportunity has too much risk.
• The founder spends all his time telling me how big and terrific the market is.
• They think they are entrepreneurs when they are not.
• The idea or opportunity is not scalable.
• They tell you this is a significant investment, and you’d better get in on the ground floor.

Use the Knowledge Base to avoid rejecting important and worthwhile opportunities, which happen far too often in regional, rural, and remote areas.

Quotable quotes.

“Time and investors’ dollars are scarce and finite. The competition for a person seeking advice or funds can be intense. Peter Sergeant

“You have to put together an opportunity with all the elements because if you don’t, you are too reliant on luck, which is not good business”. Peter Sergeant