Entrepreneurship

Due to the hazards, starting a business is a difficult process that many people avoid. In the same way, economies would not advance if there were no entrepreneurs. The economic progress of each nation's economy is significantly influenced by its entrepreneurs. Although I had no notion what industry I wanted to enter, I knew from the time I started senior high school that I wanted to be an entrepreneur. This is a common dilemma in many students in their early career stages mainly contributed to by lack of exposure, inadequate knowledge and information and somewhat immaturity at this stage (Lashley and Rowson, 2010). My parents, themselves, restaurants operators are very successful in their business, and I admired them a great deal. I felt that I should do something different from what they are doing currently by diversifying my ideologies and creativity beyond what I can see. My life dreams would later lead me to entrepreneurship in the tourism and hospitality industry. The following report is a reflection of my personal entrepreneurship skills and abilities to justify my competency as a budding entrepreneur in this sector.
As I progressed in learning, my dreams become clearer and more conceivable than in the past. I consider this learning approach and self-awareness to be a reflection of Bernett and Coate (2005) model of knowledge and professional development. Bernett and Coate (2005) described the domains of 'being,' 'knowing,' and 'doing' as an overlapping concentric circle of equal importance and professional programs. The domains described by Bernett and Coate (2005) are analogous with Aristotle's three competencies of learning. Consequently, one stage of learning and knowledge often affect and influence knowledge in other areas of development. To settle on the tourism sector as my preferred area of entrepreneurship, I integrated bits from my classroom learning, travels and free observations of the movement of the tourism industry at the time and used this data to anticipate the future. Further consultations with my seniors and parents helped to give more insights into the matter.
Personal skills and qualities
The tourism sector is characterized by many smaller owner-managed hospitality businesses with joint branches in different strategic locations. As a result, there is abundant information and people to consult when one wants to start up a tourism and hospitality business, especially in the majority of the western countries. According to Tinsley and Lynch (2007) and Shaw (2004), the availability of information in the hospitality industry has led to the widespread recognition of the significant role that entrepreneurship has played in this sector and the need to be more creative to succeed. When I developed an interest in this sector, I had a lot of people to consult. However, I realized that many of the companies were so mean with the information and weren't willing to dispatch as much information as I needed.
We live in a digital era where sufficient information is available online, 'cloud information.' This makes things a bit easier. I consulted 'Mr. Google' and my teachers a couple of time regarding the knowledge areas required and the subjects to take at senior high school to be well-equipped with the necessary knowledge to be able to run the business in a more professional manner. At college, it was and has been clear to me that my ultimate career would be an entrepreneurial venture in the hospitality industry.
The hospitality industry, just like any other entrepreneurial businesses is very challenging as competition in this sector is rife. Being smart, strategic and knowledgeable is essential for success. However, there are some factors which keep one driven and urged to achieve the best from the possible means. For instance, Shaw and Williams (2004), noted that the concept of lifestyle is becoming a permanent concern in exploring entrepreneurship within the hospitality sector. Their study identified certain factors to be associated with the entrepreneurship phenomenon. These include the desire to retain control over the working lives and draw clear lines between work and private leisure times, the desire to be one's own boss and to exit from stressful employment sector.
Lashley and Rowson (2010) on the other hand pointed out the desire to and keep united with families at will as the key driving factor in entrepreneurship. All in all, an individual needs a motivating factor to keep wanting to do more in the business sector as opposed to the employment sector. For my case, I am motivated by the lifestyle tourism (lifestyle motivated tourism). According to Morrison et al. (2001), lifestyle motivated hospitality and tourism entrepreneurs are the types of business people with multiple goals to be achieved from their businesses; profitability in the business is just one among these many goals. Lashley and Rowson (2010) on the other hand envisions these people as the individuals who are motivated by the desire to achieve satisfaction in themselves while providing services which suits the lives of their clients. Presently, I am not only motivated by the viability of success in this industry but also by the desire to bring a change in the hospitality industry. I am looking forward to adopting a new service domain that would enable me to provide satisfactory standards of lifestyle-oriented hospitality products into the industry.
The western economies have a very strong belief on entrepreneurship activities as the driving forces behind creativity, innovation, and stimulation of growth, employment gaps, venture creation and overall economic and technical developments. In fact, throughout the education systems in the western worlds, the curriculum is tailored objectively to develop entrepreneurial skills in students; right from inception all the way to college (Anderberg, Norden and Hansson 2009; Bridgstock, 2009; Wu and Zhang, 2006). There is also a lot to learn in the immediate environment as the western economy is hinged largely on entrepreneurship ventures in the region (Bridge and O'Neill, 2012; Burns, 2010). This is very different from the development ideologies of the former socialist economies which were driven by the communist dictatorial governments. For instance, the socialist societies worked to eliminate and frustrate the development of the major private institutions thereby derailing the conditions for entrepreneurial developments (Manolova et al. 2008; Aidis et al. 2008). I must a appreciate the much I have learned and achieved during the past.
I have been part and parcel of the family's restaurant business which has helped develop my entrepreneurial skills a great deal. In fact, my father often told me that I would take over from him when he retires. For this reason, he spent a lot of efforts in me, hoping to equip me with adequate entrepreneurial skills in the restaurant industry. He wanted me to expand the business later in life and go beyond what he had achieved previously. This is where I gained interest in self-employment and honed my leadership and entrepreneurial skills. At the restaurant, I got engaged in a series of responsibilities, a fact I attribute to my current success. Aidis et al. (2008) for instance observes that the entrepreneurs in the western economies work to transform the structures of the working environment based on novel, and non-routine structures to enable them to solve certain emerging problems. This is often fulfilled by being able to perform a variety of roles for every profession or working position. That is to mean, the western model of entrepreneurship favours diversity amid specialization as the means to achieve better performance in any sector.

Over the past, I have not had any specialty since I did not possess adequate learning. However, I had passion in developing good relations with the clients and the employees of the restaurant. Although I did not hold a distinct position at the restaurant throughout my stay, I performed my duties excellently. I transitioned easily from overall supervision in the absence of my father to management, to sores keeping and accounting matters. I read programming languages such as HTML, and MySQL on my own just by reading online and doing practice at my free times. From these reading, I have managed to create a website for the restaurant and put in place an online purchase and delivery system that can be used conveniently by our clients working in the nearby offices within London. Since the launching of the website two years ago, our restaurant has seen growth of online customers by 20% each year. It is believed that the internet is the next business frontier in the coming future (Mudambi and Swift, 2011). With good knowledge in website development, I will not have problems developing a good website and marketing my company online once I set it up and running.
Educational breakthrough
The tourism and hospitality industry rely greatly on the education institutions and students with adequate creative skills to produce the greatest levels of development needed for growth of the industry. According to Spowart (2011), the most desirable skills are those relating to independent thinking and ability to adapt to new and challenging working situations. Other skills such as communication and interpersonal skills, teamwork and problem-solving skills are equally necessary for success in the tourism and hospitality industry (Gamble, Patrik & Peach, 2010; Venables & Tan, 2009). For effective learning and education systems, the students should be exposed to the situations which allow them to implement the theories they learn in class under practical vocational contexts. As part of my internship program, I was selected to participate in a tourism regional immersion project (commonly known as TRIP). TRIP is a competitive project in which the students are recruited based on their academic achievements, their interpersonal skills, and entrepreneurial capabilities. To be selected to take part in this project alone, I believe that I possess the necessary skills and capabilities which my teachers deemed fit to be sharpened further for the benefit of the society and my future career.
The TRIP project involves living in a regional destination alongside other students, for about five days. During this time, the students need to work as a team to conduct projects that would benefit the local communities as well as the tourism sector. I was glad to be chosen as the team leader of my group (comprising of 5 members). I spearheaded the planning and development of the project which included conducting community shield surveys and audits to determine what we needed to put up as far as tourism is concerned in the region. Such projects as very challenging (Stone and Stone, 2011; Zapata et al. 2011) and require special attention to be invested to ensure that the projects developed are congruent with the community's demands. This requires that the team works in close relationship with the community around to identify the most appropriate thing which is lacking in the region (Sebele, 2010; Lapeyre, 2010) and which when uplifted would improve tourism and benefit the locals.
Our group was assigned to a rather urban community in Westminster so that we could employ technology very easily. After surveying and auditing the community, we noticed that there were so many hotels and restaurants in the area and thus competition was very high. However, these people relied mainly on convenient customers visiting their stores, and none had taken their businesses online despite UK being one of the regions in the EU with the highest number of internet subscribers. We worked with two hotel owners to launch two different websites for them. Again, I found my knowledge in programming playing a very key role here. On the concluding day of our five-day stay, my group created a day trip itinerary for tourists visiting the region. Part of the itinerary were details informing the clients of available refreshment points with their websites and Google Maps to direct them to their destinations. The itinerary also provided visitors with contacts information including website, emails and phone contacts to enable them to reach out to the service providers directly without relying on travel guides to direct them to their destinations. I felt that this approach would be cheaper to the tourists and may improve tourism in the region if utilized properly. The TRIP project enabled us to integrate theory and content in a very practical manner. Through such practice, Lee (2008) notes that students can learn the insights in tourism management in very creative ways.
Conclusion
The tourism sector is one of the most competitive sectors in the world today. A lot of creativity and innovation is required besides leadership and entrepreneurial skills. From my senior high school days, I knew that I wanted to venture into entrepreneurial business, preferably, the tourism industry. My journey to conceptualize this dream and convince myself about its viability as a possible business enterprise has involved a lot of research and knowledge development. With my experience and work in the family restaurant business, I developed the passion and skills in entrepreneurship development, management, and accounting to enable me to start up a profitable business in the future. Also, my past learning has equipped me with the necessary skills and expertise I need to excel in the tourism and hospitality industry despite the challenges associated with it. I believe that once in place, I will be in a position to achieve the best outcome from the business.

References
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