Did your holiday make you think living is easy? Did it make you want to start a business and do so in a lovely location?
Did your holiday make you think the living is easy? Did it make you think of all the different businesses you could start and run and do so in a lovely location?
“Holiday experiences are one of the reasons why people start businesses!”
And why not? Some extraordinary businesses have been started because someone saw an opportunity. If you don’t have the experience that makes you think about how to do things differently, then you often can’t see the opportunity!
Sometimes what you see is the opportunity, a way to do something that isn’t currently being done. Other times what you see is bad services and a way to do things differently and much better. Sometimes it is just being in the right place at the right time.
A great example of bad service, being in the holiday moment and seizing the opportunity, is provided by Richard Branson and the very first Virgin Airlines flight. Richard got stuck in Puerto Rico when his flight got cancelled. Instead of just accepting it or whining about it, he did something about it!
He hired a whole plane and a pilot … then went around the airport selling tickets until he had a plane full of paying passengers. He got to his destination, which was his immediate goal. Made some money at the same time and decided that there was an opportunity to start a business.
When Virgin airlines started as a full-time business it went in a different direction from that first flight. Richard Branson took the principles of the business idea – providing excellent not poor service – but then looked for a marketplace that would provide substance and viability.
He also started the business with one foot in the UK and the other in the USA, where he understood the business place. Equally importantly he started Virgin Airlines against a slow-moving opponent and did things differently.
“He became a business disruptor!”
No doubt there was plenty of planning and research in taking the core idea of Virgin Airlines and turning it into the business we know today though starting a business does mean you need to plan and research things down to the last detail.
Just to show you how simple it is, another example of a holiday-inspired business is Pops, with their alcoholic lollipops. Co-founder James Rae said: ”We were in the Balearics when we came up with the idea. We wanted a quality product. We use real strawberries whereas our competitors would use artificial flavours. Our Classic product contains half a glass of champagne!
But what about you? Have you been inspired by an opportunity? In which case take notes, make plans, and use some of your holiday time to flesh out your idea.
