How ordinary people and SMEs can see what experienced investors see.
Most people believe that investors have some magical instinct that allows them to smell profits the way a chef smells burnt food. But after decades in entrepreneurship, real estate development, and business operations, you will ultimately find that investing intuition is not mystical, but trained. It’s a pattern recognition skill sharpened by the simple habit of paying attention to the right signals and ignoring the noise that distracts everyone else.
This guide is the blueprint.
Follow the frustration: The market always complains before it pays off
If you want to know where the next opportunity is, look not for excitement, but for discomfort. It is nothing new that every profitable business or investment category today was once a disappointment:
- People hated paying outrageous bank fees and as a result, fintechs exploded.
- The tenants hated terrible landlords and this led to cohabitation.
- SMBs hated the manual inventory that gave us a cloud-based POS.
- Commuters hated traffic and so bike-hailing startups emerged.
The mistake that ordinary people make is to assume that discomfort is a danger. But for an entrepreneur, complaints are the clearest sign of unsatisfied demand.
Here’s how to use this to your advantage:
Spend a week listing the ten most common things that customers, tenants, employees, neighbors, or suppliers constantly complain about. Then ask: What would people be willing to pay to avoid it here?
This question alone can reveal a six- to seven-figure opportunity.
Be aware that behavior is changing faster than the infrastructure can keep up
This is one of the most powerful investment indicators and hardly anyone notices it. When people adopt new behavior faster than systems, regulations, or physical structures can support it, the opportunities for growth explode.
Examples:
- Online shopping grew faster than warehouses and industrial storage boomed as a result.
- Remote work grew faster than urban planning, and suburban housing prices rose sharply.
- Digital payments grew faster than banking penetration, and agency banking exploded.
- New buildings like the Chuan Grove residences are being built everywhere
When behavior exceeds infrastructure, the gap creates opportunity.
Look for markets where customers don’t know how to compare options
This is where the margins are greatest. In highly competitive, well-understood markets (e.g. fuel retail, telecom data, grocery), customers know prices and compare aggressively. The profit is small.
But in markets where customers are confused, overwhelmed, uncertain about evaluating options, or afraid of making the wrong decision, they will pay a premium for clarity and confidence.
For this reason, real estate agents, healthcare services, legal services, insurance technology, B2B software and specialized skills can charge significantly more. Not because they are expensive, but because the customer is afraid of making a bad choice.
If you find a market where people say:
“I don’t even know where to start”
You have found a high margin opportunity.
Recognize the upgrade path (where the money naturally flows next)
Investing is easier when you don’t have to convince the money and it moves naturally in predictable paths.
There is an upgrade ladder in almost every sector.
An entry-level purchase → a mid-tier upgrade → a premium upgrade → a maintenance upgrade.
Example in real estate:
Rental → Apartment → Townhouse → Property → Commercial → Development.
Each rung offers its own opportunities if you know where the customer will climb.
Example in the technology sector for SMEs:
Manual records → Excel → POS → Accounting software → Inventory suite → Automation.
The best B2B companies build products that are one step above what customers currently use, not ten steps ahead.
Question to ask:
What are people already spending money on?
What’s the next logical upgrade they’ll be spending money on soon?
Predict where the money is going, not where it currently is.
Look for inefficient middlemen. Then offer clarity, speed or transparency
Weak markets rely on opaque middlemen. Strong opportunities exist where intermediaries:
- make big margins,
- offer little added value,
- confuse the customer,
- or rely on the way things have always been done.
Examples:
Freight forwarding, property documentation, craft services, auto parts, real estate transactions, cross-border payments.
If you can eliminate friction, improve transparency, or speed delivery, you’ll immediately stand out from the crowd in industries where customers feel helpless.
The rule: If someone says, “I don’t understand why this costs so much, there’s room for a better business model.”
Study what people do, not what they say
Customers lie unintentionally. Not malicious, just human. You could say:
“I won’t pay for that.”
but they will pay if the pain is severe enough.
You could say:
“I’m just browsing”
But they do research because something is about to change in their lives.
The smartest investors will watch out for such behavior.
Small signals that reveal big truths:
- A store with lots of window shoppers but few shoppers = poor positioning.
- A product that people buy even if it is inconvenient = strong value proposition.
- A neighborhood with a lot of renovations = owners are preparing for resale.
- A mobile app with low downloads but high daily usage = deep engagement.
Behavior predicts markets more reliably than surveys.
Look for places where people spend their money out of habit, not logic
One of the easiest ways for SMBs is to identify things that people default to spending money on, simply because that’s how they’ve always done it.
If a customer pays the same provider, fee, or provider for years without considering alternatives, it is a market with defenseless incumbents.
These are markets that are ripe for entry because existing players have become complacent.
Understand that the person who controls a market does not always sell the product
Every market has a hidden decision maker. Sometimes it’s not the buyer, but the influencer.
Examples:
- Developers make the decision, but appraisers and contractors have input into what materials are used.
- Landlords set the prices, but brokers decide which properties tenants actually see.
- Parents pay for school, but students go where they want to go.
- Companies pay for software, but accountants decide which system they prefer.
High potential opportunities come when you build relationships with the true source of truth. A perfect example of this would be information platforms such as the Chuan Grove Residence price list or similar sources.
The reason such opportunities are invaluable is that they allow you to win on a market-shaping platform.
Go where transparency is poor.
When a market is well measurable and publicly understood, competition destroys profits.
Markets with low transparency, such as emerging urban neighborhoods, wholesale supply chains, and B2B businesses, tend to reward those who do real work.
If you can:
- Verify data that others cannot,
- Build networks that the competition doesn’t have,
- or understand the pricing that others find confusing…
…You gain a permanent, unfair advantage.
Opportunities hide where information is chaotic.
Final thought
The difference between the average person and the experienced entrepreneur is simply that most people only look for opportunities when they need money. As an entrepreneur, you need to break the mold and train your eyes to notice these opportunities so that you not only spot high-potential investments, but spot them before the rest of the market wakes up.
