It may seem strange to even mention the blue ocean while seated in the middle of the great American Midwest. But one lens by which an entrepreneur can look for new opportunities and find strategic advantages is to do frequent analysis and mystery shopping yourself for your products and your competitors. Additionally, some self introspection would not hurt either. Who are your ideal customers? Other than your own venture, what competitors are knocking on the same doors for business?

Your small company can view itself through an analysis process developed in 1981 at the Harvard Business School called strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threat analysis ( or SWOT). 

Another helpful model is the Blue Ocean Strategy. The Blue Ocean marketplace is a relatively new marketing strategy (Kim 2005). Blue Ocean is a “marketplace focused strategy” that is created by identifying an un-served set of prospects or customers, then delivering them a compelling, new value proposition. Blue Ocean Strategy was first published in 2005 by researchers W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne at The INSEAD Business School in Paris, France. The authors believe the high growth and revenues for a venture are generated by creating new demand in an uncontested market space, or a “Blue Ocean”, rather than by competing head-to-head with in the same market with known customers. Red Ocean is markets were all major competitors discount or compete by cut-throat tactics. (Mauborgne, 2005)

Looking for new, untapped markets for customers is analgous taking a dip in the blue ocean. The waves may be scary, but the ride can be worthwhile. I highly recommend trying it.