Entrepreneur in the Hospitality and Resort Industry - Assignment Example

Entrepreneur Interview Name: Professor: Course: Due Date: Introduction The success of the entrepreneurs depends on the skills of the entrepreneurs. Before staring and entrepreneurship venture, it is important to interview the successful entrepreneurs in the relevant field so that the entrepreneur can understand the skills and techniques which are required to make the entrepreneurship venture a success (Timmons & Spinelli 2007). In this regard, this report will provide the interview conducted on the entrepreneur in the hospitality and resort industry. Step I The researcher aims to find the concepts regarding the success of the resort. In this effect, the entrepreneur wants to collect some important ideas regarding the hospitality and resort management. In this context, I seek your appointment so that I can interview you regarding the basic facts about the success of the resort because the interviewer is also interested to start the resort organization. I will only need one hour between 5 o’clock and 6 o’clock. Step 2 The questions that will be asked will be directly related to the entrepreneur and they include how the venture started and the resources that were required to make it a success. Moreover, the questions regarding how the entrepreneur managed to identify the business opportunity will also be asked as well as the critical success factors. Step 3 The interview was conducted according to the agreed questions as follows. Q 1 The interviewee responded that before starting the venture he was just a student when he was inspired by someone who was successful in the resort industry. The inspiring individual was success in the resort industry because he had collected adequate data regarding the resort management. In this effect, before starting the venture the successful resort organizations influenced the decision of the entrepreneur. At the start time of the project, the parents of the entrepreneur of the entrepreneur had no skills and experience in the resort and hotel industry but the experience from the mentor and the theoretical skills in the entrepreneurship education helped to start the venture and make it successful. The interviewee also had role models at the time of starting the venture. The entrepreneur visited the entrepreneurs who had succeeded in the resort industry who acted as role models and helped to provide basic skills for the entrepreneur. In addition, at the start of the business, the entrepreneur responded that he had no much experience but had theoretical experience. The education level possessed was the first degree in entrepreneurship. The education level was so helpful because it helped the entrepreneur be able to implement the theoretical skills into practical experience and this helped to identify the business opportunity. At the time of the start of the venture, the entrepreneur responded that had little experience in marketing. However, the entrepreneur had learnt some skills in marketing which had to practice to ensure that the venture was a success by creating its awareness to the customers. Based on the role models, the entrepreneur managed to become interested because of the income the entrepreneurs were making as well as how the venture was being managed effectively. This made the entrepreneur to be interested in entrepreneurship so that he can be self employed. Q 2 In addition, the entrepreneur went ahead to answer how he managed to spot the business opportunity. The entrepreneur said that he spotted the business opportunity because of the number of tourists including local and foreign tourists who were not able to secure the places where they can spend their time. This mean that the resort ventures were not enough to provide the services to the customers and this meant there was an opportunity to that can help to provide recreational services and accommodation. After identifying the business opportunity, the goals were to provide hospitality and resort services to meet the needs of the customers. The interviewee went ahead to evaluate the critical success elements. These elements included the competition which was not stiff at the time of the start and this means that there was market for the resort. However, in meeting the needs of the customers, the entrepreneur conducted some survey regarding the needs and expectations of the customers and managed to offer services that help to improve customer satisfaction and subsequently beat the competition in the market. Furthermore, the entrepreneur did not find the need for partners since he came from financially stable family and had worked for some time hence he had the ability to raise the finance to start the business. The entrepreneur also responded that he needed and managed to raise $10,000 to start the business. The entrepreneur went ahead to get the outside help from the role models and also sought legal knowledge. The strengths of the venture at the time of the start include its location since it was located in a place with space for expansion and the prices charged were affordable to both local and international customers. However, the weaknesses included little financial capital and little market scope. Therefore, there were no partners who were required to help in staring up the venture. Q 3 As the business started to grow, the difficulties encountered include higher demand for the customers. The demand was higher than the supply and this means that the recreational facilities of the resort were not adequate to meet the needs of the customers. The other difficult that the entrepreneur faced as the business started to grow is lack of space for expansion but this problem was solved by buying the nearby land to increase the space for expansion. The entrepreneur searched for the employees who had entrepreneurial skills in the resort industry and who were motivated to provide quality products and services to the customers to improve their satisfaction leading to competitive advantage. However, the attitudes of the employees that were avoided include money oriented employees. In addition, the entrepreneur went ahead to explain that he could like to work six days in a week and make Sundays the day of rest. In future, the entrepreneur intends to expand the business to viable business opportunities to improve its market scope. For instance, the entrepreneur plans to expand the business to Sydney and to Queensland State. The skills the entrepreneur leant from managing the resort include identifying the business opportunity and critical success factors as well as mobilizing the business resources. Some of the most difficult tradeoffs that the entrepreneur include family issues since the entrepreneur worked for long hours than the family time. This means that the entrepreneur had to forgo other issues like hobbies and family time. Most ventures that do not succeed lack effective planning and lack of identifying the business opportunity effectively. This means that the entrepreneurs plan for the profits before the profits have been realized and this hinders the entrepreneurs from thinking critically. However, in making this venture a success, the researcher was able to plan effectively after identifying the business opportunity and mobilizing the resources to ensure the business opportunity have been captured and exploited. Q 4 The most valuable asset that helped the entrepreneur to succeed in the resort and hospitality industry is the intellectual property. This helped to identify the business opportunity and also the financial resources. This helped to implement the business idea into practice. The entrepreneur also said that if given the opportunity, he could start the business venture differently because he has managed to learn more skills. For instance, the individual will be able to mobilize the resources like finances and increase the facilities which are provided by the resort like the swimming pools and sports arena for playing games like badminton. This will help to improve the competitiveness of the venture. However, managing the venture was not easy according to the entrepreneur. This means that entrepreneur had stress due to complaints from the customers and the long working hours. The entrepreneur works tirelessly to ensure that the venture does not fail and the needs of the customers have been met to improve the market share and the returns on the investment. As an entrepreneur, the most effective reward gained is the profits. The business is making sustainable profits that can help to diversify the business opportunities. The entrepreneur was able to make use of the finances to create jobs and also make returns on the investment. The entrepreneur had some advice to give to the upcoming entrepreneurs. The youth and the unemployed should begin their own entrepreneurship ventures so that they can earn revenue and improve their living and this will help to eliminate unemployment. The business opportunities can only be exploited if the entrepreneurs are able to take risks and enter into business. all people can enter into business entrepreneurship as long they are able to identify the business opportunity and seek advice from the most successful entrepreneurs in the relevant industry. Step 4 From this interview that was conducted, various lessons can be leant. In the first place, the interview has indicated that the entrepreneurial success can be associated with the ability to identify the business opportunity that should be exploited. In addition, the interview also indicated that all people can into entrepreneurial business as long as they have interested and they have the capacity to identify the viable business opportunity (Timmons & Spinelli 2007). Mobilization of the resources is also important as it helps to ensure that the resources have been identified and mobilized effectively. Furthermore, the lifestyle entrepreneurs can also be depicted in this interview. The lifestyle entrepreneurs are the entrepreneurs who inherit the entrepreneurship businesses from their families. However, the lifestyle entrepreneurs have small business venture as compared to high potential entrepreneurs. The lifestyle entrepreneurs aim to meet their goals and objectives by starting a business venture instead of making huge profits (Timmons & Spinelli 2007). On the other hand, the high potential entrepreneurs are the entrepreneurships which are large and employ employees between 20 and 500 employees. These are the companies which have high growth rate and they have easy access to funding. In this context, the high potential entrepreneurs are more complex to manage as compared to lifestyle entrepreneurs. However, the similarity between the lifestyle entrepreneurs and high potential entrepreneurs is that they identify the business opportunity and take appropriate measures to exploit the identified business. From this interview, it can be indicated that anybody can be an entrepreneur. However, there are skills which are possessed by the entrepreneur which make the differences between the entrepreneurs. The entrepreneurs are made not born. This means that the all individuals have the potential to be entrepreneurs as long as they have the entrepreneurial skills (Timmons & Spinelli 2007). Even if the individuals do not have the entrepreneurial skills, they can acquire the skills and become the entrepreneurs as long as they are able to identify the business opportunity and take appropriate measures to exploit the business opportunities. The thing that surprised the researcher most is that an entrepreneur can be anybody who can identify the business opportunity and mobilize resources to exploit the identified opportunity. Moreover, it was identified that the entrepreneur can start as a lifestyle entrepreneur and can finally become to be high potential entrepreneur. During the research it emerged that careful planning is the key to success of an entrepreneur. This will help to mobilize the resources effectively. In addition, marketing function helps to influence the success of the business venture since through effective marketing it is possible to create awareness of the products and services to the customers (Timmons & Spinelli 2007). From the findings of the research, it can be determined that the experienced gained have helped to improve my personality to take up challenges and transform them to be business opportunities that help to improve the business performance. Conclusion This report has presented the findings from the interview that was conducted to an entrepreneur in the resort and hospitality industry. The interview helped to understand how an entrepreneur can identify the business opportunity and the necessary steps that can be taken to exploit the business opportunity. The interview confirmed that an entrepreneur can be anybody who has the ability to identify and exploit the business opportunity. References Timmons, Jeffry & Spinelli, Stephen, New Venture Creation: Entrepreneurship in the 21st Century. McGraw Hill Irwin, New York, New York, 7th edition. 2007. Read More