According to inc, the 5 ways to identify a business opportunity are:

1. Identify problems.

Most opportunities disguise themselves as problems. They can arise from new technology or products entering the marketplace where other people may not yet know how to harness those technologies, think chatbots, cryptocurrency and AR.

As Mark explains, “any business opportunity that comes my way, I look to the DNA of the problem and where the opportunity stems from. I dig into the problems that have created those opportunities, to figure out if I can provide the proper solutions to those problems. If so, I act quickly and move fast on seeing where I can create value and potentially be involved in the project.”   

2. Position & timing.

Matt is adamant about position and timing. He says, “it’s important to be prepared and plan. Once I identified a potential opportunity, I was already prepared as I had started and ran startups and businesses before.

I knew exactly what I needed to do, it was just a matter of executing. I leveraged my skills and experience to bring in the right resources, and was perfectly positioned to move quickly, as the timing was already right.”

3. Be quick, but do not cut corners.

As Matt explains, “This opportunity had a window of time. I had to be quick, but I never rush as that leads to issues like poor work and overlooking pitfalls. Rushing can cause big mistakes and is a sure way to fail. Cutting corners is a sure way to deliver subpar product or service and lead to poor customer satisfaction and/or legal issues.”

4. Team.

Time is short, you can’t do it all on your own. It doesn’t work in any business. Assemble the right team that understands the opportunity and can help you meet those goals on schedule. Mark’s counterpart is his good friend, Jeff Cole. Jeff is a talented designer, who handles a lot of the creative side, which allows Mark to focus on the business side.

Together, they’ve built a rapidly growing business and team, and have established themselves as the market leaders. 

5. Execute.
See source here. https://www.inc.com/andrew-medal/5-tips-to-quickly-identify-business-opportunity-execute.html
There is also a similar entry here: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/325922