Entrepreneur in Travel and tourism

LO1: ENTREPRENEURIAL AND BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY

Entrepreneurship is the procedure of inventing new ways of combining resources. In addition to this it is the process of starting a business by using unique business model, available resources and knowledges. Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson is one of the best and popular entrepreneur who have developed Virgin Atlantic Airways limited (Covin and Slevin, 2002).

Family background of Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson

Richard was born on July 18, 1950, in Surrey, England in middle class family. His father Edward James Branson was a barrister and his mother Eve Branson was worked as a flight attendant. She was former ballet dancer and air hostess. He was the eldest son of three children born to Edward James. Richard, who battled with dyslexia, had a complex time with educational institutions. He nearly failed out of the all boys Scaitcliffe School which he attended until the age of 13. After this kind of performance he was transferred to Stowe School which was the boarding school of Stowe, Buckinghamshire, England. Richard Branson is married to his second wife Joan Templeman with whom he has tow children: Holly and Sam (Shane and Venkataraman, 2000). Entrepreneur Richard Branson launched Virgin Records in 1973. Today Virgin Group holds more than 200 companies in more than 30 countries.

Practical life and contribution in business

At the age of 16 has has started youth culture magazine called student but Branson dropped out to start this magazine. After hard struggle, ha has covered the costs of the magazine by selling 50000 copies and advertising (Shapero and Sokol, 2005). In the year 1969, he was living in the London commune surrounded by the British music and drug scene. Here, he has got an idea to start a mail order record company named Virgin. The main purpose of this entity to help fund his magazine efforts. After developing this association he got the confidence to expand his business and he opened record shop in Oxford Street, London. His first artist on the Virgin Record Label, Mike oldfield, recorded his single Tubular Bells in the year 1973 by using team of Branson. After success of this recording, he signed other best and famous musical groups such as Sex Pistols, Culture Club, the Rolling Stones etc (Drucker, 2014).

Business expansion and development

After the successful start of Virgin Record company, Branson wanted to develop his entrepreneurial skills. In the year 1980 he established the travel organization named Voyager Group. In the year 1984 he created Virgin Atlantic which was the airline company. The name Virgin was recommended by one early employee of Branson because they were all new at business. They faced very struggling life till year 1992. In the year 1992, he sold the Virgin Label To EMI for £500 million for keeping his airline company afloat. In the year 1996 he developed V2 Records in order to re start his music life. In the year 1996, Branson has decided to buy European short haul airline Euro Belgian Airlines and renamed it Virgin Express (Baloglu and Mangaloglu, 2001). Now he decided to continue working with travel and tourism sector by opening ranges of units such as Brussels Airlines, Virgin Nigeria, Virgin America, Virgin Atlantic etc. In the year 2004, he announced to start new space tourism entity called Virgin Galact. Branson develped ranges of companies such as Virgin Fuels, Virgin Mobile, Virgin Comics and Animation etc. He was ninth in the Sunday Times Rich List 2006, worth slightly more than £3 billion.

Tour and travel businesses of Branson

Virgin Atlantic Airways Limited is one of the most popular company of Branson. This is a British airline with its head office in Crawley, West Sussex, England. This entity utilizes a mixed fleet of Airbus and Boeing wide body jets and operate its businesses between the UK, North America, the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East and Asia from main bases at London Heathrow and Gatwick (Pansiri, 2008). In the year 2012, it carried 5.4 million clients and it was the seventh largest UK airline in term of passenger number. The major aim of the entity to fly a profitable airline which people love to fly and where people love to work. The entity focuses is on improving consumer services for leisure travellers as well as setting new benchmarks for the rest of the sector to follow.

Current activities of Branson

Branson is still the major shareholder in VAAL and Virgin Group, and he took the activity to unfold the Virgin mark into a differentiate entity on which he had private responsibility for. Presently, Richard is owing and managing 400 companies worldwide, in different areas such as travel, entertainment and lifestyle, financial services, transport, health care, food and drink, media and telecommunications etc (Sheldon, 2008). Branson is positive and powerful entrepreneur who play very significant role in today's aviation industry. The major competitor of his in this sector is British Airways. He has big team to manage the business of aviation companies and they provide best and unique services to their clients. He enjoy his work and does what he want to do. Currently he is one of the powerful businessman who play very crucial role in world economy.

Entrepreneurial characteristics and Virgin Atlantic Airways Limited

In order to become best and successful entrepreneur, individual must use some common and major entrepreneurial characteristics. Branson had also followed the following steps in order to become successful in tour and travel sector.

• He was passionate about what he was trying to achieve.
• Branson focused intensely on his opportunities.
• Hard work was the major element that help him in becoming successful entrepreneur.
• The major characteristic of Branson is that he always enjoy his journey.
• The level of confidence of Branson was very high. He regular tried to develop new ideas (Hassan, 2000).
• He believes in his gut, knowledges and experiences, and he was confident to do any kind of business.
• The career of Branson businessman was very flexible and he has done business in ranges of different sectors.
• Money can be earned only by taking high level of risk, and Branson always take risk. He faced so much struggle in starting time but he is successful because of his risk taken capability.
• Creativity and intuition are also major characteristic of successful entrepreneur.

An entrepreneur require to join together the brave of a daredevil and power for the eye getting exposure stunt. He must be ready to take any risk in order to become successful and utilize every opportunity of success effectively (Higgins, 2005). In the present case Branson faced many downward conditions in starting time, but he decided to do business continuously with same passion and confidence. Knowledges and experiences are major factors which must be utilized in positive way by the individual. At the time of acquisition of Virgin Atlantic Airways Limited, Branson had high level of knowledge and experience of aviation sector. He has already owned and managed various other travel and tours entities. Acquiring and owning a aviation company is truly unique and big task. However, it is entrepreneurial drive of person such as Branson which makes entity a victory and its exceptional corporate influence that guarantees entities proceed to be a feasible triumph in the long haul (Ingram and Durst, 2003).

An entrepreneur require to join together the brave of a daredevil and power for the eye getting exposure stunt. He must be ready to take any risk in order to become successful and utilize every opportunity of success effectively (Higgins, 2005). In the present case Branson faced many downward conditions in starting time, but he decided to do business continuously with same passion and confidence. Knowledges and experiences are major factors which must be utilized in positive way by the individual. At the time of acquisition of Virgin Atlantic Airways Limited, Branson had high level of knowledge and experience of aviation sector. He has already owned and managed various other travel and tours entities. Acquiring and owning a aviation company is truly unique and big task. However, it is entrepreneurial drive of person such as Branson which makes entity a victory and its exceptional corporate influence that guarantees entities proceed to be a feasible triumph in the long haul (Ingram and Durst, 2003).

LO2: BUSINESS PLAN

Business plan for tour and travel company

The industry selected by ABC is fastest growing sector in the world, and thus the entity has many opportunities to grow and develop its business. Furthermore, This tourism and travel industry is growing with 4% rate and ABC is growing with 10% rate yearly. This is very positive sign for the future growth and development of the entity. The mission of organization is to become the premier provider of adventure vacations for 25 - 35 year old professionals. The company trades various kinds of adventure vacations including travel  insurance policies and other services (Gartner, 2007). The below chart comprises various financial information of the association, such as sales, gross margin and net profits of last five years. The figure represents that entity is in the good financial condition, and it has capacity to expand and grow the business operations. This also does not require any issues with liabilities or funds as sales, gross margin and net profit of it is increasing year by year with high rate.

Market analysis summary

Service sectors represent the fastest growing sector in the world, and travel and tourism agencies are poised to flourish in this economy. These services are projected to grow at an average yearly growth rate of 4.1 % over the period form 1990 - 2010 (Covin and Slevin, 2002). There are ranges of opportunities for  new and best companies such as ABC Pvt. Ltd. The city of Seattle is the centre for business in King County, with over 400000 people employed in sector like aviation, transportation equipment, health services, tourism etc. The present lack of leaders in the European adventure travel sector shows big opportunity for ABC to develop a dominate presence in this area.

Market segmentation

The labour force force of Seattle and King county is highly educated, skilled, productive and stable. Hence, the unique lifestyle and unique environmental qualities attract individuals. ABC will target individuals who are professionals with incomes of $40,000+, ages 25 to 35, single or married, without children, and college educated (Shane and Venkataraman, 2000).

Target market segment strategy

In order to target its consumer, company will make effective strategy. The entity wants to attract people of the nation. Hence, the consumers of this area can be divided on the basis of physical area. The Greater Seattle region includes King, Pierce and Snohomish nations and hence, manager will target their consumers on the basis of market. The client are divided into zone such as King zone, Pierce zone, Snohomish zone etc. The big nation will be also divided into some sub parts such as King zone A etc (Shapero and Sokol, 2005).

Operational plan

The market research shows that publicity has the greatest impact on choice and behaviour of  an adventure vacation travel agent, followed closely by having the right location and having a suggestion from friend, relative and colleague. Company will focus on public relations by providing  best quality services. In order to promote the business, there will be video display which shows adventure vacations in progress. On the other side, company will provide internet website through which people can book their tour and find out every information. In order to buy desks, chairs, and office equipment, company needs $4175, and also need to spend $25,050 for development (Drucker, 2014). The funds will be availed with the help of bank loans, investors sources. The new staff will be recruited in order to manage every work perfectly.

Financial plan

ABC tour and travel has decided to expand and develop its business, and for this purpose they must make effective financial plan. The above task represents that the entity is in good financial condition and above to expand business in tour sector. The financial statements of the entity represents that entity has enough cash and bank balance to face any kind of financial conditions (Baloglu and Mangaloglu, 2001). Payment of salaries to staff is the major cost of the company and human resource manager have made effective and best monthly salary plan for employees. Thus, it can be said that ABC has sufficient money to bear the negative money stream circumstance which it might experience at first.

Break even analysis

It is the economical techniques through which company can find out no profit no loss position. By finding out BEP, entity can make high level of profits by providing big amount of services (Pansiri, 2008). To break even ABC will require to sell between 2 and 3 vacations per day. This compares with present sales of 1.3 vacations per day, based on part time effort out of the sector. Management is confident that BEP can be attained within reasonable time period.

CONCLUSION

On the basis of above research study it has been resulted that entrepreneur should be very creative, confident and innovative. He must use his experiences and knowledge in positive way in order to grab every opportunity of the market.  Branson faced high level of ups and downs in his business career but now he is one of the most successful businessman in the world just because of good entrepreneurship qualities. On the other side third task of the study includes full business plan of ABC tour and travel Pvt. Ltd. By using this plan it will become successful in this high competitive and innovative world (Hassan, 2000).

REFERENCES

• Baloglu, S. and Mangaloglu, M., 2001. Tourism destination images of Turkey, Egypt, Greece, and Italy as perceived by US-based tour operators and travel agents. Tourism management, 22(1), 1-9.
• Covin, J. G. and Slevin, D. P., 2002. A conceptual model of entrepreneurship as firm behavior. Entrepreneurship theory and practice, 16(1), 7-25.
• Drucker, P., 2014. Innovation and entrepreneurship. Routledge.
• Gartner, W. B., 2007. Is There an Elephant in Entrepreneurship? Blind Assumptions in Theory Development*. In Entrepreneurship (pp. 229-242). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
• Hassan, S. S., 2000. Determinants of market competitiveness in an environmentally sustainable tourism industry. Journal of travel research, 38(3), 239-245.
• Higgins, B. R., 2005. The global structure of the nature tourism industry: ecotourists, touroperators, and local businesses. Journal of Travel Research, 35(2), 11-18.
• Ingram, C. D. and Durst, P. B., 2003. Nature-oriented tour operators: Travel to developing countries. Journal of Travel Research, 28(2), 11-15.

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