How do you choose an industry or business to enter?

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There are so many business areas to choose to enter, how would you choose?

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When forming your own business, you would not typically look to choose an industry as your first decision. Most of the time, great business ideas come from some personal experience, either an existing job, something you use, something you want to use, a problem that seems to need solving, etc. In effect, the business or industry chooses you through your creative elements. Once chosen though, it does help to get to know the inner workings of the industry you might sell into -- which can either come from your personal experiences, those of the people who you involve in your business, or the hard work you put into finding out and researching.

Keep in mind that you should always do some competitive research as part of forming a business - don't shy away if you find that someone seems to be doing what you want, it may likely be that they are not good at it, or have some gaps you can exploit. As we talked about in the panel, great businesses are often more than just about technology but also the sales and marketing techniques used to reach the audience, excellence in customer support, etc. Sometimes people buy your products because of your reputation -- there are many examples of companies who leverage their reputation to overcome mediocre products -- perhaps Microsoft is a good example as are many of the largest companies who often enter markets as the last players and copy the paths of the trend setters.