Welcome Ideas

Our certificate programs in Small Tourism Business Entrepreneurship include certificates in: Introduction to Tourism Business Management & Planning, Information Technology in Tourism, Tourism Business Finance & Accounting, Legal Compliance & Human Resources in Tourism, Tourism Operations Management, and Tourism Marketing & Communications. Like our diploma program, our certificate programs were designed to help women and youth of Zanzibar (and others often left out of the tourism economy) build their own small tourism businesses and receive the economic benefits of tourism in Zanzibar. Our certificate programs were designed specifically for individuals who do not have the academic credentials or time to commit to the diploma program. While individuals who complete the certificate program will not be eligible for higher education, they will receive accredited certificates from the Zanzibar Vocational Training Authority.

Our educational programs are designed to help people start or improve their own small local tourism businesses. However, a majority of new small businesses fail within their first year of operation. In order to help our students, graduates, and other local tourism entrepreneurs succeed during their first few years of operations, Welcome Ideas will offer a variety of support programs to these individuals. We hope that these programs will not only help these businesses survive, but help them grow and thrive as they navigate the tourism market in Zanzibar.

Business Planning Services:
Welcome Ideas will help small local tourism business owners review and revise their business plans to better address market needs, differentiate their products & services, and apply for micro-financing.

Welcome Ideas staff will also assist with presentation preparation and financial report review to ensure small local tourism business owners have the confidence and data required to present their plans to investors. Our goal is to help these new entrepreneurs effectively communicate their plan in both written and verbal form.

Technical Services:
During times when the computer classroom is not in use, Welcome Ideas will make the computer lab available to small local tourism business owners who don't yet have the capital or resources to have their own computer. These business owners will be able to use the computer services to prepare financial statements, business & marketing plans, and financing presentations.

Additionally, we will work with small local tourism business owners to help them create a website, provide them with internet hosting services, and assist them in setting up email services. Our goal is to give these new small business owners the technology resources they need to remain competitive and relevant in the tourism sector.

Micro-Financing Support:
Welcome Ideas will utilize our network of Microfinance firms to provide support to small local tourism businesses. We will host office hours for these agencies so that they can better connect with new tourism entrepreneurs. We will also encourage investment in the tourism sector within Zanzibar by building strong relationships with Microfinance firms that tend to operate exclusively on mainland Tanzania.

We will also assist our students, graduates, and local small tourism business owners in preparing for their meetings with Microfinance firms, so that they are prepared to explain their plan clearly and effectively to these firms. Our goal is to connect people to micro-financing opportunities and help them present their plan in the best way possible.

Professional Services
Welcome Ideas will work with Accountants, Attorneys, Insurance Agents, Marketers, and other Professional Service Providers to offer support services to our students and other new small local tourism businesses owners to improve their businesses. We will also arrange for these professionals to provide regular office hours to help support these new tourism entrepreneurs.

New small tourism business owners often don't have the capital or resources to meet with these Professional Service Providers and, as a result, they make decisions that have negative impacts on their business. Our goal is to put these new entrepreneurs in touch with professional services early on so that they can make wise decisions, that have positive impacts to their business.

Welcome Ideas hopes to help build strong tourism professional networks and associations in Zanzibar so that small tourism business owners can pool resources, learn from each other, and contribute together to create a responsible & sustainable tourism master plan driven by small local tourism businesses. In order to facilitate these networks, Welcome Ideas will offer its' facilities to associations that are started by these small local tourism operators. Additionally, Welcome Ideas will help maintain an internet directory and user forum for these small business owners to share their ideas, ask questions, and seek assistance.

Government officials and B2B service providers will be invited to participate in many of these networking activities so that new small local tourism business owners are able to establish good connections with these individuals. Additionally, Welcome Ideas will facilitate international networking for students, graduates, and small tourism business owners through our international strategic partners to provide additional international expertise and perspective. As Welcome Ideas grows beyond Zanzibar, we anticipate networks of small local tourism business owners throughout East Africa will also be established.

A unique component of the Welcome Ideas concept is the incorporation of pop-up facilities that provide beneficiaries the opportunity to test their business plan in a real-world environment. Each student will have the opportunity to test their concept as a short-term operation, testing their ability to gain financing, market their business, operate their business, analyze their financial and operational results, and adjust their business plan based on results. Welcome Ideas will provide the students with the pop-up facility, their fellow students will act as their labor pool/employees, and Welcome Ideas will work with each student to help them secure the micro financing for the pop-up experience. Students will experience a variety of business startups and will learn from the successes and failures of each one. Debriefing each business will be a critical component of this exercise and through this process each student will have the opportunity to test their business in a safe and low-risk environment so that they do not have to invest all of their resources and capital to find out if their business plan will work.

Although initially these pop-up facilities will only be available to students who have completed the certificate/diploma program, there may be an opportunity to offer this service to other small local tourism businesses. For example, a graduate of the program may want to open up a second small tourism business and may want to use the pop-up facilities and services to test their idea. In addition to the facility, Welcome Ideas will also offer cash management, POS services, basic equipment needs, financial reporting, and guest feedback/survey services to participants in the pop-up facility.