Entrepreneurship: Where to Get Started?

THE JOURNEY: From graduating, to planning, to making your first deal, entrepreneurship is a process

Entrepreneurship is an ability that can be cultivated through your every day interactions, through studying at school or through work based learning. However, before committing to it, there are a few things to consider.

Considering whether and when to branch out and embrace entrepreneurship is something that should be weighed up by using two measurements; assessing yourself and assessing the market:

• By assessing yourself you can examine where your passions lie and therefore create something that you are invested in and motivated by.
• By assessing the market, you will be able to determine what the market needs and in turn, create something that there is a demand for.

It's often said that it is easier to invest when your investing in something you are passionate about. This is because, generally you have a better understanding of the subject and it is something that you enjoy. Recently, in an article published by Virgin, Virgin Group founder, Richard Branson said 'loving your work tends to lead to more success'. This is why finding a passion project that you can invest in and grow is important before starting a journey towards entrepreneurship. What is also important is to try and determine what the market is missing. It's much harder to create something that is established unless you have a better product and/or service, and even then it can still prove difficult. However, it may be easier to break into the market by forming a business from a niche idea, something specialised, whereby you are offering the market something different that there is still a demand for. By assessing these two areas you can build on what could form your business plan.

Entrepreneurial thinking is developed in a number of ways. For example, if you were to visit your favourite shop and identify a general problem with it and then come to the conclusion that the shop would be better if ... this is the basis of entrepreneurial thinking. It can also occur at school; if you look carefully, developing an entrepreneurial mindset is all over our CTH qualifications. Units such as the Global Tourism and Hospitality unit of Level 4, the Emerging Issues unit of Level 6, or the Managing Hospitality and Tourism Projects unit of Level 7, all encourage entrepreneurial thinking. Identifying the scope and sub sectors of the market you are trying to break into are helpful when trying to figure out where in the market you should target. Likewise, identifying emerging issues are helpful so that you can establish where a need can be met. Developing project management skills are also useful as managing a project is essentially what we will be doing by starting up a business. The knowledge is all there for you to develop your entrepreneurial skills under the units we offer. Being an entrepreneur isn't for everyone but if you've developed the right skills and found something your passionate about, that the market needs, there is an option there to invest in yourself and you're idea.