Starting a tourism business

One of the best way to get rich is to have your own business in the service sector. Why does the service sector have highest yeild of profit compared to other sectors? Its simple. Comparing with the same business size , the service business uses the least amount of capital. product purchase is not part of the expenditure of the business unlike the manufacturing or agriculture business where cost of business includes the raw material

Among the exciting service realted business, tourism has big potential. So this is how you do it in a nutshell:

Step1

Research the market to learn whether there is a local need for your business, so you can focus on that area. If not, you will need to rely heavily on the Internet to promote and obtain clients. Knowing what to expect from the market will help you better prepare your tourism business before you start.

Step2

Start with a business plan. If you are writing the plan as a personal guide, include details on how you plan on developing the business (location, advertising, employees) and roughly calculate how much money you need to start. Having a day-to-day plan of action is also important, especially if you have no previous experience with running a tourism business.

Step3

Check with your city authorities about regulations, licensing, fire safety and other laws regarding a new tourism business. Some permits may be required even if you run your business from home, so it's important for you to start the research as early as possible.

Step4

Determine what type of services you will offer. You need to decide whether you will provide local tours, group packages or ticket reservations.

Step5

Find funding. Even if you have the capital to start your own tourism business, it makes sense to look for financial support. Investing all your savings may not be the smartest move, especially if there are other options available.

Once you understand the principles you can be rich while sipping wine in Bahamas or enjoying the sun at Gold Coast

Business branding

Brand is gold in business. You can have a good product but without proper branding your business will fail. Hence a good branding is important in order to attract customers. Brand too creates customer loyalty. Once you have quality and that niche that is associated with the customer's heard, I can assure you that profit would be a steady or even exponential flow and you are on your way to being a rich man.

Here are some ideas to enforce an effective branding for your product:

Step 1. Set Apart your brand form the ‘herd’

With all of the choice consumers have on the market these days, it comes as no surprise that we hear so much talk about operating in a “niche market” or as a ‘Purple Cow’. Now, what about those businesses who have really similar products competing against them – how do they profit? Well, they set themselves apart from the competition. This can be done by having a competitive advantage – or having something of value which is hard for competitors to imitate. So, how can a marketer do this? For starters, you can position it away from your competitors using four different ways:

• By Image: If you happen to own a small restaurant in a more lively suburb, you might decide to give your brand the image that it’s an extremely valuable and open place to go – just like Starbucks. This will allow you to attract more people of your targeted audience to your business.
• By Category: An example of this might be if you are a personal coach, you might be “THE personal coach to see”, if you are a young entrepreneur. Whilst this may disregard any older entrepreneurs, it will create a much stronger relationship between young entrepreneurs and your brand.
• By Features: Say that you own a VoIP telephone company like Engin, Skype or Vonage, you could differentiate your brand by offering a unique feature with your service – like an informational product which tells you the news over the phone. This will give your brand the identity of being an informative, business-like brand which is more likely to attract those sorts of customers.
• By Benefits: A good webmaster might differentiate their product by the benefits their visitors receive by going to the website or signing up for their product. Like, how signing up to learn about Real Estate will improve their quality of life. This will target people who would like a job where they can relax and enjoy life.

These basic types of positioning differentiate your brand from rivals and offer a counter-intuitive way for you to increase consumer trust and their perceived value of your brand. I would highly recommend that you sit down and analyse your strengths and weaknesses within your business then identify your opportunities and threats outside of your business for developing this step. Then you will be able to brainstorm a lot of valuable ideas and use those ideas to help position you away from your competition. Once you’ve got this sorted, you can then move on to reap the benefits of communicating more effectively with your target market - or in other words, get more business.

Step 2. Give your brand it’s very own identity.

Think of your brand like it is a person. What characteristics do you want people to associate with your brand? Here are some ideas to get your mind going…

• Use Symbolism and imagery to show your product effectively.
• Take Google for example, their multi-coloured logo is symbolic of their fun-filled organisation, meanwhile the name Google (derived from googolplex) suggests the calculating and complex nature of the search engine’s job is ultimately to simplify information for its customers’ consumption.
• Identify values which your target market share and then incorporate them into your brand.
• Coke did a fantastic Job with this when they launched the Coke Zero brand. With their slogan, “Why can’t life have a whole lot more Zero…”, they effectively outlined what the brand’s values were and marketed it to consumers with similar values in a unique and creative way.
• If you can get in touch with what your customers value, then you have a good chance of communicating with them on a similar level. Try and develop advertisements and products based around what your consumers value, for more on targeting consumers by their values, check out these Roy Morgan Values Segments.
• Get an effective brand name which is simple, distinctive and uses symbolism to help convey meaning about the brand itself. Otherwise stating the brand’s benefits in the name also works well – especially in the case of Email Cash.
• The Popular TV Series ‘Big Brother’ is a simple and effective name which implies that there is always someone watching you no matter where you go.

This step is very subjective, and you may want to do some research before putting your foot down. Find out what people associate with your particular industry or niche. If you’re in doubt, look at your competitors to see what else you can do, but be careful trying to imitate them - Although your competitor’s brand attributes may rub off onto your brand, your customers may be confused between your brand and that of your competitor’s.

Step 3. Create and maintain your Brand’s image.

As I said above, EVERYTHING a brand does and doesn’t do can have an effect on what your customers think of you - and this final step is the most crucial step for bolstering your brand in the business world. So by this stage you should have set your brand away from competitors and given it an identity. Now you have to put everything together and give it an image which you will use for everything in your business that your customers come into contact with.

Just think about this for a moment – You’re walking through the city and brands are looking to grab your eye but none of them do… Suddenly there is one which commands your attention. It has everything together, everything matches, it sends the same message in every part of it and it is exactly the type of brand you like. As you keep going to the city, you may even keep seeing the same brands which didn’t get your attention, however when you see that clearly defined brand once again, you recognize it instantly and you begin to trust them more. Just like that old proverb - Familiarity breeds trust.

So if you’re able to coordinate your advertising, your product packaging, your corporate values and anything else a customer might come into contact with, with your brand on it, not only will it be ‘bolstered up’ in their minds, but they will like it more, out of increased trust and similar values to their own. If you haven’t got a powerful brand, then maybe this might be the trick for you…

Starting a business

Doing business is no doubt one of the best ways to get rich. In order to do business, you have tp have the entrepreneurial spirit.

Entrepreneurial spirit is what distinguishes successful business ideas from failures. You need to have the internal desire and drive to turn your business from nothing , into a profitable and worthwhile company.

Several aspects of your personality affect how well you will adapt to being the master of your own fate. Before starting anything, ask yourself why you are leaving the security of your desk job, and outline the benefits you are looking for. You may want to escape the monotony of the nine to five schedule, but you must realize that along with the freedom, you may also find yourself working very late hours, starting early in the morning and working weekends.

The lure of being your own boss is something that most of us often find attractive, but not everyone is cut-out for it. One of the most important personal characteristics to search in yourself are leadership skills. You must be a take-charge type of individual, one who will go out and take the proverbial bull by the horns . The success of your business will depend on this aggressive character.

confidence

You must also be a firm and self-confident individual. Your business will require you to make many decisions, often with little time or information on which to base your decision. Indecisiveness will lead to lost opportunities. You must also be willing to stand behind your decision, and not have second thoughts or doubt yourself.

Discipline is also crucial, since you will need will-power and self-motivation in order to continuously work hard and succeed. Since there will be no one watching over your shoulder, you will need to look within yourself, ensure that you get your work done, and refrain from slacking. Along with the ability to leave work whenever you want comes the temptation of leaving when work needs to be done.

Your people skills must be top-notch, as you will be the main representative of your company. The image you portray will be a direct reflection of the company itself. Also, you will come in direct contact with suppliers, customers, employees, media, as well as the competitors.

Having highly developed social skills will be a major asset, since connections are an extremely important aspect of business. Think of your personal contacts, and determine how well you interact with others. Not only should you be good at networking and being sociable, you should also enjoy dealing with people on a regular basis.

The strain of running your own company can be quite heavy; emotionally, physically and financially. It can be tiring to say the least, as running your own business may require working 12-16 hours a day, six days a week, maybe even Sundays and holidays. It will require physical stamina, and your sleep, eating, and exercise habits will be altered.

Financially, starting your own company will be a burden until the firm is established and has a steady stream of income coming in. It will also require an initial outlay of cash, which may force you to have a tight budget. This decrease in your current standard of living may be difficult for you and your family to handle

self-evaluation

You will also need to do a self-evaluation and analyze the skills you possess. All too often, entrepreneurs try to do everything themselves, and are often not really skilled enough to handle these jobs. You should ask yourself whether or not your skills are adequate. Do you need to hire people to handle certain jobs that you are unable to perform yourself? If so, you should also be able to determine if the applicants' skills meet the requirements for the positions you are filling.

Employees pose another situation that will need to be addressed. If your company is going to grow, you will eventually need to hire some people. These people will need to be supervised, and will require you to take on a managerial role. This means that you will be spending time supervising in addition to your regular duties. It may even entail bringing in a management team.

The bottom line is that self-employment is not for everyone. It is vital to evaluate yourself in an honest and critical manner. Put your ego aside, and determine if you can realistically succeed as an entrepreneur, and if you are willing to make the sacrifices necessary to survive. If you do have all these aforementioned elements in place, you then have a good foundation for staring your own business. So when your little start-up becomes the next Microsoft, remember who helped get you started