Those who have had me for class know about the 3M’s for assessing an opportunity — market, margin, and me. For a business idea to be worth pursuing there needs to be a big enough market with enough “pain”, enough margin to make the business viable and to cover all of the surprise costs that inevitably pop up, and it needs to be something you know about and have a passion for.
John Bradberry takes a similar approach in his post at OPEN Forum when assessing the roadblocks, or what he calls bottlenecks, that get in the way of successful growth for start-ups. His three factors are the market, the math and you the entrepreneur. He correctly argues that these same three critical elements remain important even after the venture has been launched:
If these limiting factors seem basic, it’s because they are. They are just as basic as picking up a twisted hose and straightening it out, so that the water can surge instead of drip. These are a few of the fundamentals that govern the healthy growth of any venture.