Business touches every part of our lives: you can make a living from every moment, cradle to grave (and beyond). Wherever there is a market, or might be a market, there’s a business opportunity.
Business is industry (making things), trade (buying and selling), commerce (the other bits). And human nature is infinitely diverse, which means that while one person might be fascinated by sport or music, another is consumed by building bridges, or grafting trees, or inventing intelligent textiles. The possibilities for an entrepreneur are limitless, and growing by the day: from the most basic to the most sophisticated, from the everlasting to the ephemeral.
Look at this picture. Most people would see a cocktail and nibbles. They might not see any business here at all. But it took at least a thousand businesses to create this image. What’s on the table: olives, crisps, spirit, cherry, table linen, paper napkin, glass, bowls, saucer, menu, table, chairs. All of those are supplied by different businesses; they in turn are supplied by others, and those suppliers by their own suppliers. Take the crisps: ingredients are potatoes, salt, oil, flavouring; the packaging they came in (bags and cardboard carton, which are printed, assembled, packed and transported). This is all brought together and served by the restaurant. Suppliers feeding into those processes range from the potato farmers to the makers of the kitchen equipment to cook and process the spuds; the makers of the vegetable oil and flavourings; the logistics software designers and the truck manufacturers……………
