In my opinion, hotels are the perfect playground for wannabe entrepreneurs.You're probably wondering why and this piece answers that for you. I'll begin however, with a little about me.
I come from a middle class family, son of a bank manager. I went to hotel management school and like everyone else dreamed of becoming a hotel general manager one day. I schooled at IHM Aurangabad (the Taj School of Hotel Management) and later joined Taj Hotels (One of the finest hotel chains in the world, part of the TATA Group ).
My rise and the ride was fantastic, scope of work brilliant. The one thing however, that made it a perfect training ground for entrepreneurship was people and managing relationships. Hotels are a like a beehive, albeit with one difference. The bees aren't from any one culture, creed, nationality, industry, age, demographic or colour. There are a myriad of people from all over, of all kinds. Unlike other industries where you might not get the significance of this mighty skill from the word go, hotels teach you very early on, that people skills trump all other skills. If you can work with people, care for them, listen, understand, respond, fulfil, manage, control, grow and love people, you can become a successful hotelier.
I became one. And just as I was becoming used to being good at my job, the desire to challenge myself a little bit more, the desire to create something became to acute to ignore. As this led me to realize that I needed to do something on my own, an epiphany hit me - as I set out on my entrepreneurial journey, I was going to need the very same skills that aided my success as a hotelier - people skills. It took me 3 years before I finally took the plunge, but not before dedicating a decade to learning the trade and the nuances of the industry. If I wanted to succeed as an entrepreneur I was going to need more than good looks and luck.
The transition was in no way easy; as a senior manager in a hotel, you tend to forget that real life out there is tough. The hospitality environ one works in gives one just about everything on a platter; but the real world, you need to carry lunch to work and you've got to pay for your internet connection - small things, but they add up. Office space, equipment, back up power, air-conditioning, etc. There is so much that is taken for granted in a hotel. My uncertain path of setting out on my own had but just one guiding light and motivation - that I could finally do things my way. I think that was the biggest reason for wanting to become an entrepreneur. Doing things my way. This is not to suggest that I knew how everything should be done. On the contrary, I still seek advice from people who I think know better than me. Its the daily in & outs of running a business that I could do my way. I wanted to choose the services, delivery, pricing, marketing and eventual joy at having created something.
The need to create is the common thread binding the stories of most entrepreneurs.
At the outset, the road to successful entrepreneurship is bumpy and one of the biggest and most recurring one being funds - a resource always in short supply. I realized I'd need an investor and found one for my first venture. I designed, created and then sold a website for hotel jobs, six months after launching it.My first lesson learnt: Money returns more money.
My second outing with a partner ran aground due to differences.
Second lesson learnt: values are more important than opportunity.
My first real success as an entrepreneur came with my third attempt. I started an online business, creating industry specific sites, content and communities. I employed my first employee!
Third lesson learnt: Find something your are passionate about, learn a lot about it, find a need not being fulfilled, find a niche, deliver consistently, add something unique if possible, grow and delegate.
The online business still exits and I love the medium. Meanwhile, I also took on consulting assignments, completed some national level training assignments, but these were more in the nature of self-employment rather than entrepreneurship. I had tasted success and was hungry for more. This time I started another business in hospitality education and sold it after 2 years with a profit. Lesson learnt: People buy running businesses and proofs of success more than just bright ideas. The wave of confidence and belief led me to my current stint - something I started in the talent acquisition space that has gone from strength to strength. We now employ more than 10 consultants, are the largest & only national player in the Hospitality Job Fairs space, run the world' s most popular hospitality career e-mag and work with some of the best brands in the world.
I still practice as an independent consultant, but the real thrill is in creating value from an idea. We employ people today, and I am proud that we generate employment and add to the economy. Every week we evaluate new ideas and discuss ways to see them come alive and go out doing, learning and becoming better. To out it in a nutshell, I love starting new things. Ideas excite me and this coupled with my early learning at hotels, makes me successful as an entrepreneur.
Oh, by the way, people skills were not the only tools I gathered while working in hotels.
A quick list of what I learnt:
1. Every job, low or high, small or big is valuable.
2. Hard work, really hard work and even manual labour is vital.
3. Long hours or as any hotelier will tell you - double shifts! are a par for the course.
4. Detailing and how to make a winning difference with the minutest of differentiation.
5. Teams; that each member brings unique talents to the team; that interdependency is required to succeed.
6. Value of money, that customers would part with it if they got what they wanted and at times paid premiums to get what they didn't even know they wanted.
7. Processes, and the value of consistently producing results.
8. Wow moments; how to create them, package them, sell them and create them again and again
9. Appearances - what looks good, usually sold good.
10. The last but not the least, the value of a brand! Invest in it, hold it dear, make it stand for something and sooner than later you will get the premium you deserve.
I learnt everything you need to become a successful entrepreneur while working at hotels.
- Prabhjot Bedi
Post a Comment