Right Here, Right Now : Travel Entrepreneurship is the Word for BAME Women!

Picture this: A beautiful hotel, Georgian House in London, a room full of empowered, enthusiastic, travel-passionate ladies and four successful, highly energetic female BAME entrepreneurs as panelists. The result can be only one of uplifting, joyful networking and knowledge sharing! This is exactly what we experienced last night at the Women in Travel Celebrates Black History Month event. The theme was diversity in travel, but the discussion moved between diversity, entrepreneurship and women empowerment, with a keen focus on business. I am not surprised in all honesty, as the panelists' combined expertise, knowledge and 'esprit' for life was second to none. The audience did not miss a beat and a string of questions poured onto the panel for well over an hour...and they responded so generously!

So who was the audience and why does it matter to Women in Travel? I think I can safely say that for the first time in travel and tourism industry history (well, at least in the UK) an event was dedicated to the BAME community. Women in the room came from different background, some worked in corporate, some were still studying, some had already started a travel related business, but all had in common ambition, desire to achieve in their area of choice and a passion for travel and tourism.

In turn our panelists shared their travel knowledge, from digital marketing to print, from blogging and influencing to running campaign for large travel clients. This was particularly important for the audience, as many disclosed an interest in setting up or already run digital businesses, blogging or experience-based activities to market on line.

They also spoke about what it takes to set up your business and succeed; why authenticity in business is your best passport to success; why you should have 'tunnel-vision', i.e. believe in what you do and go do it!

There were many tips shared over the course of the evening, and I could not possibly cite them all, but here are is a hopefully faithful summary of the ones that truly resonated :

On life and being a BAME woman travel entrepreneur:

• Be confident in who you are and what you stand for. Don't compromise or hide hoping to be more successful. On the contrary, the best thing you can be is yourself. Some people may not like it, but others are looking for somebody just like you.
• You can be successful and friendly and a nice person. In the longer term these qualities are the ones that can make you stand out and succeed especially in a people's business such as travel and tourism.
• Don't compare yourself to others. There will be always somebody better or more successful, but they are different from you. Just keep going and stay in your lane.
• Find a mentor or maybe more than one. They can be for something specific or for the longer term. Mentoring can also come from videos, tutorials and books. One panelist said she wished she had had a mentor at the beginning, when she switched from corporate to entrepreneurship...so go out find one!

On business and entrepreneurship:

• Follow your passion, do what you love and be prepared to work hard particularly at the beginning. Rewards will come!
• Find your niche, it is a clattered market with many voices competing for the customers' attention. Make sure you know your USP (unique selling point) and what is it you can provide that offers real value to your customer(s).
• Think money! Don't quit your job unless you know how you will monetise your 'passion'. You may need to contract or have more than one job to make up the income and that is ok for a while, until you are confident you have enough resources/revenues to enable you to be fully dedicated to the business.
• Plan! There is a difference between having an idea and making it happen as a business. You need to explore and work with your idea so that you can clearly articulate what you want to do and why and how. There will be organic growth, but you need to know what need you are serving and indeed create the need you aim to serve.

Networking was enjoyed by all pre and post debate. Many women asked to remain in touch. Something tells me we have started something good. I look forward to continuing the conversation around Women BAME travel entrepreneurs in the months to come!