Entrepr

eneursh
ip SBA

Jolly Beach Resort

Student Name: Phillescia Jean

Course: Entrepreneurship
Lecturer: Ms.O’Mard
School: Antigua State College
Date Submitted: 03/12/14
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgement

Name and description of the venture…………………………………………………………………………………………………....1

Background of entrepreneur……………………………………………………………………………………………………….…………2

Characteristics of entrepreneur……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..3

Origin of the venture……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...4

Industry and market description……………………………………………………………..…………………………………………..5-7

Historical events……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..…..8-9

Present state of the venture………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….10

Challenges and opportunities………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..11

Analytical questions……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….12

Conclusion on findings………………………………………………………….………………………………………………………….13-14

Reference
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

It is with a great sense of profound gratefulness and humbleness I take this opportunity in
acknowledgment of the many benefactors who have helped stirred this school base biology project to
completion.

In a special way I would like to thank the selected entrepreneur Mr. Alex Brown, who has provided me
with substantial material and her enthusiasm and support towards the project. Despite his ongoing busy
schedule he remained devoted.

In all assign tasks, we always seek to have an anchor, thanks to my dearest uncle Thomason Francois for
his ever growing love and commitment he executes in my work and the standard that he wants me to
keep. His constant support in researching data and guidance towards the project is unmeasurable.

Have it not been for my Entrepreneurship lecturer Ms. O’Mard innovativeness to this deep and
informative interview report on my selected venture, Jolly Beach Resort, I would not have had this
empowering experience. This assign task has allowed me to prioritize and undergo research and in the
process strengthened my knowledge base on the hotel. I am indeed indebted to you Ms. O’Mard.
 NAME AND DESCRIPTION OF THE VENTURE

The Jolly Beach Resort & Spa, is a 464 room resort hotel that is presently situated on the south west
coast in the Eastern Caribbean country of Antigua. Its actual location is in the St. Mary’s Parish of Bolans
lower down from the Jolly Harbour’s company. In the year of 1999, the resort hotel which was known as
Club Antigua before was purchased by its current owners and was established as a partnership firm ever
since. Jolly Beach is an entirely all-inclusive hotel predominantly in quest of attracting and appealing to
the leisure visitors, including incentive groups and therefore is actively involved in the hospitality
industry, that is the tertiary and tourism industry. The hotel caters specifically to guests that seek
medium to lower high end prices and aims to distinguish itself from its competitors by providing 4 star
amenities though the hotel is rated 3 star due to the comparative minuteness of 79% of its rooms. The
resort hotel is spread over 38 acres and is bordered by a ½ mile of white sand beach that is washed by
the Caribbean Sea and it is the only resort in Antigua to have a cricket pitch on its complex. Ultimately,
Jolly Beach Resort & Spa derives the revenues from the sales of products and services in the following
categories: Rooms, Food and beverages, Conference and meetings, Water sports, Entertainment, Gift
shops and premises, Palms Wellness Centre, and Concession Rentals.

1
 BACKGROUND OF ENTREPRENEUR

The entrepreneur that was selected was Alex Brown. Before he became a part of the partnership in Jolly
Beach, he was actively involved in the education field as an educator and owned his own bus business.
Therefore Brown is looked at as a portfolio entrepreneur as he is involved in 2 independent firms at the
same time. In addition Alex claimed that he got involved in the firm by luck and by accident. According
to Mr. Brown “ I remember I was on the beach one afternoon and this guy came up to me. We started
talking on the beach and he asked me what I did in the evenings, and I’m like nothing. Then he asked me
if I’d care to maybe do some work with him. I mean this guy was young and in a piece of shorts and we
was just relaxing and I had no idea that he was the owner of a property; and that is when I went and
started to work in the business part-time. However, my part-time business was paying me more than my
full-time job and I came to a conclusion where I left the education field to become more involved in the
firm.”

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ENTREPRENEUR

 Fun- “If it’s one thing about being an entrepreneur is that it is very stressful. Nevertheless I still
try to outlook the stressful part and try to have fun with my workers and also develop a
relationship with the employees because I want them to be free to tell me anything.”

 Risk- taker- “Being an entrepreneur calls for being a risk-taker as you are not aware whether or
not the business will succeed or fail. Therefore it is important that entrepreneurs do their
research and learn the market before taking money from investors and also spend their money
in hopes of getting back some in return.”

 Flexible - “I have to flexible because sometimes to get where you want without breaking the
law, you have to be creative and find ways around problems you have. Even in work hours and
meeting deadlines you have to be able to juggle ideas quickly.”

 Perseverance - “If you’re not willing to persevere it’s pretty much hopeless and even when
people will think that you’re crazy, you don’t have to stop because literally you have to be able
to see the light in the tunnel when nobody else sees it. Therefore you have to be preserving and
knowing what you’re doing is going to be fruitful in the end.”
 3

ORIGIN OF THE VENTURE (WHY WAS IT STARTED?)

- Financial independence – Mr Brown stated that “the ultimate goal of opening this firm was to
make money because you can then depend on yourself and not on someone else to pay you.
You are your own boss.”

- To provide all inclusive services to guests at cheap prices – “It was decided that we will start this
firm in order to provide all inclusive packages at cheap prices because usually when other hotels
provide these services they are normally expensive.”
 4

INDUSTRY AND MARKET DESCRIPTION

Jolly Beach is involved in the hospitality industry which incorporates the tourism and tertiary industry.
Under the hospitality sector the resort hotel provides accommodation, taxes, activities, and food and
beverage. The food and beverage basically boosts the guest general experience by offering exceptional
customer service and delicious meals, the accommodation section seeks to provide luxury so that guests
may feel valued and may inform others about their experience, the activities makes the stay at the
resort a memorable one and the taxes gives guests the opportunity to save their money.

The firm seeks to offer an enjoyable “jolly” all inclusive vacation to all leisure visitors and valued focused
all-inclusive vacationers. Therefore the firm does not have a specific demographic segment as its
products and services are offered to any and every one. From a consumer market segmentation
perspective, 4 main categories were created: By yourself, Families, Group and Couples.

Benefit Segmentation Table:

Segment Name By Yourself Couples Families Groups

Main Soothing Time to relax, Need to create Need to
Advantage experience desire alone time a memorable create a
Wanted away from the moment memorable
children moment
Demographic Young singles Young, middle- Families Wide variety
Strengths aged, or older of persons of
couples all ages
 Personality Highly sociable Concentrating on Seeking to Focusing on
Traits love and being have fun work or
active socialization

Behavioral Outgoing and Seeking a stress- Want to make Normally

Traits enjoy being in free experience kids happy busy and
a crowd without worrying always in and
about children, out of the
focusing on hotel
revitalizing their
marriages

Jolly Beach utilizes several methods of marketing including advertisements and public relations.
Advertisement is the hotel’s great source of marketing via the use of tradeshows, mass media, word of
mouth, and using travel agencies to ensure that consumers are being made aware of what the hotel has
to offer. Additionally, the hotel offers 50% off on rooms’ rate.

The products and services that the company offers are:

ROOMS

TYPE NUMBER OF ROOMS DESCRIPTION

Supersaver Ocean view 83 Intimate rooms similar in size to a large

cruise ship cabin, one double bed with a
shower and a balcony or patio. – Best
suited for singles.

Standard Ocean View
284 Larger than the supersaver room. 170
rooms have king size beds, 100 rooms have
twin beds and 14 rooms have triple beds.
Each room has a shower and a balcony. –
Best suited for singles or couples.

Queen Superior Ocean View 58 All rooms with two queen beds, shower
and bath, balcony and patio. – Best suited
for couples, three to four friends and
families.

Junior Suite Ocean View 16 All junior suites have a separate living area
with king size beds with a shower and
 balcony. – Best suited for couples.

Cottage Suites 2 1 with 2 separate suites

Category Type

Other Facilities and Services Restaurants (5) Lydia’s, Ustav, Hemispheres,

Bocciolo, Coconut Grill, and Afternoon Tea
Bars (5) Caribbean, International, Grill, Indian,
Italian
Pools (2)
Cricket Center
Cyber Room
Games Room
Palms Wellness Centre (Spa, Salon, Gym)
4 tennis courts
Water Sports Centre
Nightly Entertainment
Daily Activities

In the marketing industry that Jolly Beach follows, there are many hotels offering the same products and
services, but some of them are:

- Veranda in Saint Phillip

- Cocobay Resort in Bolans
- Hermitage Bay in Bolans

Below is a competitive profile matrix summarizing the ratings of the competitors and Jolly
Beach( taken from Trip Advisor). The ratings are as follows:

1. Terrible
2. Poor
3. Average
4. Very Good
5. Excellent

Ratings Jolly Beach Hermitage Bay Verandah Resort Cocobay Resort

Location 4 5 4 5
Sleep quality 3 4 4 4
Rooms 3 4 4 4
Service 3 5 4 4
Value 3 4 4 4
Cleanliness 3 5 4 4
Total 19 27 24 25

As noticed, the Jolly Beach hotel is far behind the consumer expectations as it was illustrated in their
ratings and the highest competition is experienced by Hermitage Bay which got an overall rating of 27.
Therefore this suggests that the resort hotel may have been obtaining low profits or if none at all.

HISTORICAL EVENTS IN THE START AND EXISTENCE OF THE BUSINESS

The 464-room Jolly Beach Resort Hotel was purchased by the present owners in 1999. The hotel was
opened in 1968 a 78-room Holiday Inn. In 1979 it was expanded by 384 rooms and was operated as a
three start all-inclusive property with 464 rooms.

Prior to the 1999 acquisition it operated as Club Antigua, which specialized in targeting visitors in the
low price range charters from the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, and Europe. These guests
came primarily on.

The hotel operated briefly in 2000 from January to June as Jolly Beach Resort, which was the successor
to Club Antigua. In that same year of 2000, Simone Roeder, the first guest arrived to the resort hotel on
December 19th. Additionally, Jolly Beach is the first resort hotel that is solely owned by all Antiguans.

In August 2000 the hotel was closed for a major renovation, which cost US15 million and involved
providing air conditioning, telephones, televisions, and radios for all rooms building a 500,000-gallon
fantasy pool and generally upgrading and renovating all rooms and facilities.

From January 2000 to December 31, 2001, the resort operated in a difficult economic environment and
incurred substantial losses. In December 2001 a business plan was designed and approved to turn
around the Jolly Beach Resort. The execution of the business plan in 2002 through 2006 produced an
average annual compounded rate of growth, in revenues, of 22% over this 5 year period. Gross
Operating Profit improved steadily over this period and in 2006, the resort was profitable for the second
consecutive year. It must be noted that 2005 was the first time in its history that the property had a
positive net income.

In 2007 and 2008 the hotel showed a decline in revenues reflecting increased competition in Antigua
and adverse economic conditions in the hotel’s primary markets. Consequently net losses were incurred
in both years.

Additionally, Jolly Beach stresses the fact of their saying “Do as much or as little as you like to make your
stay with us the perfect all-inclusive and room-only vacation experience.” To make their guests stay as
comfortable and welcoming as possible, they seek to provide a wide variety of activities every year.
Initially, in terms of sports, the hotel developed its own Jolly Beach Olympics as well instructors who will
teach guests as to how to play cricket, rounders, and some more of Antiguan favourites. Fortunately, the
children are not forgotten as the hotel has its own Jolly Clubs, Teenz Club (13-16) and Kidz Club (3-12),
with day and evening activities created just for them. The hotel then moves it way to the relaxation and
music category by having dance classes for guests seeking to learn calypso and reggae moves, and also
yoga to attain balance and relaxation. In the evenings, performances from Caribbean steel pan bands,
local dance companies are done, and bon fire featuring limbo and fire show are done.

Furthermore, the special occasions come into play where the beach hosts a week of entertainment and
events to celebrate the music and spectacular costumes of Carnival in Antigua during July and August.
During independence, the employees and employers share the culture by attiring themselves in the
lovely national dress showing off the true colors from October 27 through November 1. Ho, Ho, Ho, the
time to be merry arrives! Santa reaches via boat on the snow white beach at Christmas when it’s that
time of year to be ‘JOLLY ’ with the family and the hotel has fun-filled activities from December 22
through December 31. Live bands, boogying, fireworks and the customary “dive into the Fantasy Pool”
occur in the New Year with a big splash on December 31st.
 9

PRESENT STATE OF THE VENTURE

The firm is in a rebuilding state at the moment. Rebuilding suggests that the firm is trying and seeking to
find creative and innovative methods of encouraging more guests in order to elevate their profits back
to the way it was and to escape from the current economic situation. In terms of the structure of the
building, a vast amount of improvement is required due to the aging of the property. In situations where
there is a lot of rain or when a hurricane may occur, the building is at a disadvantage as the roofs
possess leaks which would not be a comfortable and “jolly” environment for the consumers to reside in.
 10

MAJOR PRESENT AND FUTURE CHALLENGES AND EMERGING OPPORTUNITIES

Present:

- High maintenance cost- the property is old and simple cosmetic maintenance which are
adequate for newer properties are insufficient to make significant changes to the general
appearance of the property; the immediate capital for mass refurbishment is not available at
the moment

- The rooms are dated and generally fall below guests expectations

- Reputation of the firm- negative comments were posted online by Trip advisor ad on the online
travel companies

- Not able to buy everything local that is supplies and other materials as prices are ridiculous
therefore there is a change in course which causes the company to import required materials

- No internet access in the rooms

Future:
 - Competition from new properties

- Emerging markets such as Asia, the Pacific, etc with lower costs and price structures

Opportunities:

- The Palms Wellness Centre, spa, gym, and beauty salon offers four treatment rooms; full salon
and gym will greatly assist in adding value to a vacation at the resort.

- Increased profitability through cost saving initiatives such as decreased energy consumption and
rigid operation procedures

- Improving service standards through better training and recruitment

11

ANALYTICAL QUESTIONS USED

1) What would you say are the top 3 skills needed to be a successful entrepreneur?
“Risk Taker”
“Market Research”
“Good Location- Most 3 important things in creating a venture is Location, Location,
Location”

2) What 3 pieces of advice would you give to college students who want to be become
entrepreneurs?
“Ensure that your business has copyright”
“Do the research”
“Never use your own money”

3) What sacrifices have you had to make to be a successful entrepreneur?

Family and Friends
Sports

4) In one word characterize your life as an entrepreneur?

Crazy/ Certified Lunatic
 5) What kind of culture exists in your organization?
There is a huge diversity in the firm. There are employees from different villages in the
firm and different countries (Dominica, Guyana, and Jamaica) and they carry their
cultures with them. Therefore the company uses these cultures from everyone and
recognizes their strengths in order to ensure the success of the firm.

6) How did you decide on the location for the business?

“The crystal waters with the white sand and the mile long beach spells out the name
hotel.”

12

CONCLUSION

To be honest, at first my findings did not make me feel as if I should have a positive attitude towards
creating my own venture because:

1) I would not be able to cope with all the negative comments bashed at my company and also
cope with the fact that the guests were not actually satisfied.

2) After being through more than 2 years in an insecurely financial situation, I would have come to
a point where I would have already given up

3) It’s too stressful because if the firm is not obtaining enough capital then that means that
employees cannot be paid which would further result in disagreements and conflicts

4) I would be too coward too start after seeing all the competitors

Nevertheless, though I developed a negative attitude towards creating my own venture that does not
mean that I won’t or can’t give it a shot. I still felt inspired that I can establish my own firm because Alex
Brown taught me that:

1) Nothing in life comes easy

 2) You have to accept your failures in order to learn from them because he does not hide the faults
of the hotel. He is aware that the condition of the hotel is not 100% and that the hotel may fall
below guests expectations, he is not afraid to say that the company is going through rough times
right now. What I learnt from him is that no matter what obstacles or challenges you may
encounter in your entrepreneurial lifestyle, you must never give up because that moment you
choose to give up is that moment when something surprising might occur. Mr. Brown along with
the other managers is seeking to make a change and bring Jolly Beach to the next level which
makes them goal oriented and persevering entrepreneurs.

13
3) You need to be “crazy” to be an entrepreneur or “certified lunatic” as he claimed. Honestly
speaking that was my favorite learning experience in this assessment. Many people might
wonder how being crazy as an entrepreneur helps you in any way. But I clearly understood what
Mr. Brown was suggesting, entrepreneurs are crazy because it only takes an individual who is
not normal to go through so many travails and still be able to compose something out of
nothing- you may call it creative or perseverance but he identifies this personality as crazy.
Another point that he mentioned was that in order to be able to cope with all types of
employees is not easy as they can be very annoying and troublesome at times. It does not take
anyone to be able to achieve this goal of “craziness” as many entrepreneurs cannot deal with
agitating employees and immediately get rid of them if they push their luck.

Ultimately, I can fairly say that indeed I have been inspired by this entrepreneur and even though I may
have developed a negative attitude towards entrepreneurship, I can proudly say that my level of
inspiration has definitely outweighed my fright towards creating my own firm.
 14

REFERENCE

(A. Brown, personal communication, November 7, 2014)