Since some of the biggest companies in the world have entire risk management divisions dedicated to ensuring they have a solid risk planning strategy, it’s safe to say that the ability to assess risk is a highly valued skill indeed. This is further attested to by whole companies that have sprouted for the sole purpose of providing risk assessment services and the way in which they go about their business leaves glaring clues as to how you can hone your own risk-assessment skills so that you can possibly take advantage of some money-making opportunities you might have previously unaware of. It’s a simple three-step process, but a very effective one you can use over and over again to not only effectively assess the risk associated with starting a new venture, but also to possibly uncover new opportunities where there were seemingly none to speak of.
Step 1: Data Mining
In the world of emails, spam and unsolicited marketing, data-mining is painted in a negative light, but for someone who is eager to beef up on their risk-assessment skills, data mining is where it all starts. You don’t have to (in fact, you shouldn’t at all) become a spammer to start seeing the value of collecting and organizing raw data with the help of data mining tools like the offering from KNIME. All you have to do is shine your opportunity-seeking spotlight on readily available data, such as what people readily and freely share on social networking platforms. If it comes to it, raw data is available for sale, but pay attention to people’s interests, their hopes for the future and even what they’re currently spending their money on. One specific data mining method is Statistical Regression Analysis.
Step 2: Crunching the Numbers
Raw data comes alive when you start organizing it into more readable graphs and statistical deductions. This is how opportunity best presents itself because you can identify a target market hungry for a specific product or service and sell that product or service to them, even if you don’t manufacture or render it yourself. Hint: That’s how the best affiliates make their money; if for example 1,000 people in your neighborhood buy a certain brand of yoghurt every single month, you could quite easily acquaint yourself with them and then offer to take over the supply of their yoghurt each month, for a marginally reduced price, quite simply because you get things cheaper when you buy in bulk.
Step 3: Weighing the Odds
The yoghurt-procurement example was a very simplistic one, but the gist of the process is where your risk-assessment abilities hold the potential to be sharpened to the point where you can effectively assess the risk associated with just about any venture you’re planning on getting off the ground. Constant practice will have you so good at it that you can even spot opportunity in otherwise simple engagements, like just how good your odds of winning actually are if you regularly play bingo at Gonebingo and a few similar sites, by mere virtue of how their online gaming platform is set up.
The killer-blow you’d then apply takes the form of how you go about weighing the odds of success associated with the risk you’ll inevitably have to take. If the possible outcome of taking the risk prospectively has rewards that are greater than what you’d otherwise stand to lose, go for it and take the risk. Otherwise if your potential losses are greater than what you stand to gain, it’s probably a risk not worth taking.