Career Plan Presentation
Exploring Entrepreneurship
My main aim over the past few years as far as my career had been concerned was to stay gainfully employed. The pressures of studies, and the fears of job down sizing as well as the burden of different kinds of corporate demands from the management have compelled me to consider seriously becoming a successful online entrepreneur. I have been exploring options as to what are the possible courses I can undertake to educate myself in this regard. I have had some experience in running an online resale boutique and the pictures are enclosed above.
Why I chose online entrepreneurship
1.Resale business
It may not look very attractive to an average person but it is a challenging opportunity. You can sell items at cheap prices and you may wonder where is the profit coming from? Actually, if you put in the time and the dedication, you can turn it into a big money making venture. For example vintage items, unused or barely used branded items, chosen with care can bring you great resale values, when you advertise them on your website. Ultimately, what entrepreneurship does is to bring independence to you and helps you to be your own boss and this is the reason, why many want to be entrpreneurs. This is what has motivated me to be an online business owner, selling online items. Of course, there is a kind of investment involved from your own end and initially the cost of investment may be more than the revenues you generate, as it happened with me where the operating costs in 2013-14 exceeded the revenues. But I believe strongly that is just starting hiccups and will change when I dedicate more time and energy on the business.
2. Online travel agencies
Another interesting avenue for online entrepreneurship with scope for growth and opportunities are the online travel agencies. During 2009, this market had taken a hard hit as people were cutting costs by cutting down their vacations and taking time off from work. However the business has recovered and there has been a leap in the revenues by 6.1 % to 4 20.7 billion in 2013. The rise of online travel agencies has ensured that traditional store front travel agencies will become extinct in some time. IBIS world has predicted that there would be an increase in sales of 2.2 % amounting to $ 23 billion from the years between 2013-2014.
3. How to set up as a Travel Agents and setting up Agencies
The startup costs would range between 10, 000 to 50, 000 dollars. Travel agencies can be operated from home and can be franchised out to agents. Both online and offline operations can be conducted.
Before setting up a travel agency or being an independent travel consultant, you need to ensure that your local processes of certifications are available to run the business. You need to decide on the following also:
1. Whether you want to run a general travel agency or specialise in a certain kind of travel.
2.Whether the agency has to be run as a home based business or it should occupy commercial store front space.
3. Whether it is for regular travellers or for those who want to travel on a particular budget.
4. You also need to plan out strategies for marketing, promototing and advertising your business to your target customers.
5. You have to develop a well planned strategy to beat the extensive competition in the highly competitive travel industry.
6. You can start off your business, inspite of the uncertainity surrounding the economy these days. There is never a good or bad time to launch a business.
4. Another opportunity for creating an interesting and sustainable online business is through creation and proviosion of social network games. Social networking has taken over the world and most people spend a lot of time on Facebook, Twitter and instagramm through their devices such as laptops, tablets and mobile phones. A large fraction of these people are very active on online games provided by the social networks. As per trade magazines, the social networking games industry has expanded by 184 percent every year for the past five years and was expected to achieve 32 % growth by the end of 2013 but instead reached $5 billion
There are many opportunities available if you have the eye, the desire and the persistence to work hard. Ultimately, it is my belief that you should do the work that makes you happy.
References:
http://smallbusiness.chron.com/start-resale-business-2100.html
http://www.entrepreneur.com/businessideas/travel-agent
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