"Make sure that you know your business from top to bottom including tasks that you do not plan on doing" with Dr. Terika L. Haynes

"Make sure that you know your business from top to bottom including tasks that you do not plan on doing" with  Dr. Terika L. Haynes

Dynamite Travel, LLC is a five-star rated luxury travel consultancy that has been providing travel planning service excellence to clients for over a decade. Dynamite Travel was founded by Dr. Terika L. Haynes in 2008. Dr. Haynes, a savvy business professional, sought out to create a company that would not only assist customers with purchasing travel services and products but would also assist customers with creating unique travel experiences. As such, Dynamite Travel, LLC is a company dedicated to creating unforgettable vacation experiences and making sure that each client’s experience with Dynamite Travel is So Dynamite!

Can you tell our readers about your background?

I have a background in healthcare administration, education, consulting, and sales. While my background is pretty diverse, it has worked to my advantage as a business owner.  

What inspired you to start your business?

I initially started working as a travel advisor to earn extra money to address my student loan balance. After entering the field, I discovered how much I enjoyed the travel industry and being my own boss. As such, I decided to expand my business and work as a full-time entrepreneur.

Where is your business based?

My business is based in the Orlando area; however, I work with clients all across the US as well as internationally. 

How did you start your business? What were the first steps you took?

I did not start as an apprentice or have a travel industry mentor when I started, so I had to work that much harder to teach myself about the travel industry. I took many courses online and attended workshops and seminars. I engaged in professional development courses that allowed me to become certified in many different areas within the travel industry. I also attended local and national conferences and networking events to build my brain trust and gain mentors. I traveled extensively to experience properties firsthand and also to establish local contacts in various destinations.

What has been the most effective way of raising awareness for your business?

Social media has been very beneficial and effective in raising awareness for my business. I am grateful because this is a free tool and all it requires is your time. Word of mouth referrals from clients, client loyalty and testimonials have also been invaluable to our company. 

What have been your biggest challenges and how did you overcome them?

Start-up costs have been a major challenge. You can have many great ideas and solid strategy but without capital it can be difficult to bring your plans to fruition. Also, I entered an industry that I did not know much about from a business standpoint so there was a large learning curve on how to manage a business in the travel industry. I’ve learned to take a step-by-step approach to my goals so that the capital requirements do not seem as overwhelming. Each year I create an annual plan for goals I want to achieve along with a budget with step-by-step objectives and metrics. I also learned to travel more and experience things firsthand  and that has helped tremendously with learning the travel industry and making invaluable connections. 

How do you stay focused?

I use various planners - both electronic and an old school planner that I can write in. I keep my goals on a notepad that I can see frequently. I try to exercise regularly as it helps me to declutter things in my mind. I remember that I am a role model to my daughter and others and use leading by example as a reason to stay focused.

How do you differentiate your business from the competition?

Customer service is very important to me. I try to differentiate my business form others by providing them with high-quality service. From timely responses to personalized packages in the mail I focus on the ‘little things’ that other companies may miss. 

What has been your most effective marketing strategy to grow your business?

Social media has been my most effective marketing strategy. I use social media to highlight trips and adventure as well as client testimonials.

What's your best piece of advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs?

Make sure that you know your business from top to bottom including tasks that you do not plan on doing. I’ve heard many people say “I plan to outsource xyz” and that’s great but I think that you should still have a basic/fundamental understanding of everything related to your business. It helps you as the owner to fully understand how everything operates and is connected. Knowing the entire business from top to bottom also helps you to be an excellent trainer to employees that you hire. 

What's your favorite app, blog, and book? Why?

I really like the ‘4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferris’. While I don’t think the book was exactly applicable to my business and industry it really made me pause and think about ways to further automate my business and do a better job at balancing work and life. It provided numerous tips that I was able to apply immediately and benefit from them. 

What's your favorite business tool or resource? Why?

Zapier has become one of my top business tools. I love it because it allows me to automate various types of tasks that I no longer have to do myself or hire someone else to do. Zapier saves me time and money. 

Who is your business role model? Why?

I can’t say that I have just one role model. I’ve had some fantastic role models and mentors over the span of my career stemming from various industries that have all helped to shape me into the business leader that I am today. They all deserve their flowers and I’d be remiss to name just one. 

How do you balance work and life?

I try to set daily boundaries and stay true to my work hours. These have adjusted over time as I’ve learned the importance of having a true work-life balance. I try to leave the evenings and weekends free to spend time with my family, rest, and recharge.

What’s your favorite way to decompress?

I absolutely love hot yoga! It has many physical and mental health benefits. 

What do you have planned for the next six months?

Due to COVID-19 the travel industry has been severely affected. Over the next six months, I will be pivoting the business to focus more on luxury domestic vacation packages as well as our products that we offer until clients resume to traveling internationally. 

How can our readers connect with you?

Your readers can connect with me at @dynamitetravel on all social media outlets, at www.sodynamite.com or info@sodynamite.com

"Set up a business in something you’re deeply passionate about" with Raymond Cua

"Set up a business in something you’re deeply passionate about" with Raymond Cua

Raymond Cua is a full-time blogger, content creator, and founder of Travelling Foodie with experience travelling in over 25+ countries and more than half of the United States and Canadian provinces. With over 60K+ social media followers, Raymond and his works have appeared in Travel + Leisure, BBC Travel, Global News, CTV News, and Philippine Daily Inquirer, as well as other online and print outlets.

Can you tell our readers about your background?

My journey as a travelling foodie and a blogger goes all the way back to my childhood. I was born and raised in the Philippines where every summer, we would always travel for vacation. With an Asian culture revolving around food and parents who run a fast food business, my upbringing revolved around food, even in travels. I learned at a young age how culinary is an integral part of travel, and you can learn so much about a destination’s culture and history just based on food, the universal language.

When we travelled, I've always loved taking photos and videos of our travels and food as a remembrance. It was a way to remember or take a snapshot of where I was, what I did and ate, and my thought of things at that time - sort of like a visual diary.

I moved to Canada for university in 2006, which gave me more opportunities to travel and see the world. I studied Computer Science and was in a software development role when I started Travelling Foodie in 2014. This was all just a passion project to document the places I've visited and things I've eaten since I had no background in social media, journalism, and marketing.

I left my corporate job in February 2017 to run Travelling Foodie as a full-time business and haven't looked back since.

What inspired you to start your business?

Even before I started the blog, I was travelling at least three times a year for vacation, and I typically eat out multiple times a week. I was already taking photos and videos even before I thought of running a blog, and was privately sharing them on Facebook since 2007.

In 2014, I was on a 2-week road trip with my siblings across the United States. We started from Las Vegas then did a loop touring Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, Utah then back to Nevada. The main purpose of the road trip was to visit the National Parks in those states, but also enjoy local cuisine along the way.

That’s when I decided to start posting on Instagram @travellinfoodie. I realized that I was seeing all these beautiful things and thought, instead of just documenting them for myself, why not share them with people who might find them useful as well. 

Where is your business based?

My business is based in Toronto, Canada where I currently reside, but it also gets me travelling a lot of the time too.

How did you start your business? What were the first steps you took?

I guess the business technically started when I decided to post on Instagram back in 2014. It’s very interesting because Instagram was so different back then. The influencer marketing industry wasn’t a thing like it is today. When I started Instagram, I had no idea this can ever be my full-time business one day.

I was just posting for fun, sharing my normal food and travel content on Instagram that was already normal for me to do because I was already sharing them on Facebook and Yelp. A year later, that’s when local restaurants started inviting me to try their place. Similarly, that’s also when I got really lucky and my photos were featured by a lot of big global media outlets on Instagram like Travel + Leisure, BBC Travel, and Huffington Post. It started progressing from there.

Since then, Travelling Foodie is on all major platforms: a website, two Instagram accounts (1 for food and 1 for travel), YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Linked In, and TikTok.

What has been the most effective way of raising awareness for your business?

The most effective marketing strategy to grow Travelling Foodie is by diversifying my marketing platforms. Being in all major platforms means my combined potential audience grows since I am now leveraging the user base of each platform. This means more potential to reach and opportunities. It also leads to higher brand recognition. People who see your business on all platforms will remember and recognize your brand more compared to a brand that they only see on one platform. 

What have been your biggest challenges and how did you overcome them?

The biggest challenge I faced was this COVID pandemic. My business took a huge hit due to COVID since travel is restricted and most businesses are closed. All my planned trips and campaigns got cancelled. My blog and YouTube, where I earned ad revenue, lost 90% in traffic. Worst of all, nobody knew when things would go back to normal.

What I ended up doing was pivot my content to more recipes and some home & kitchen content. These kinds of content were in demand during the pandemic since most people had to stay home during the lockdown, which opens the doors for a new set of potential clients: home, kitchen, and cooking brands. 

How do you stay focused?

I am inherently focused and driven with this business because it’s doing things that I love and am passionate about. 

But in general, I find task management is very important to keep myself focused. I try to list all the tasks I want or have to do for the business, even ones for the future. Then I break everything down into atomic tasks. These are self-contained tasks that cannot be broken down even further. As an example, creating a blog post can be broken down into atomic tasks like keyword research, uploading the images for the post, creating the pinnable images, and more.

By defining everything in atomic tasks, I feel less overwhelmed because each task becomes manageable and easier to do. And then each day, I have a goal to finish a set number of atomic tasks. As I get used to doing them, I increase this number. I make this into a game by thinking of the number of tasks as points. The more tasks I finish, the higher the score. And when I achieve a high score, I reward myself.

How do you differentiate your business from the competition?

My range of food is very wide from junk food and cheap eats to Michelin-starred restaurants and World's 50 Best restaurants. Back in 2008 when I was a 2nd-year university student and before Travelling Foodie, I went to Chicago to dine at Alinea which was No. 17 in the World's 50 Best Restaurants at that time and is a 3 Michelin-star restaurant. Imagine a student going all the way to Chicago for a USD150++ meal at that time. Not a lot of people can say that. I've eaten in Michelin Star and World's Best Restaurants at an age that most people weren't aware of these restaurants nor would they care to try. 

I'm not just a #ForTheGram foodie. I would try any cuisine and any dish. I’m pretty adventurous when it comes to eating as I want to try things I’ve never tried. Some of the most exotic ones I’ve had are: bear heart, tamilok (woodworm), balut (duck embryo), haggis, lamb brain, grasshoppers, agave worms. This makes my content unique too. I may not get the same amount of likes as a #ForTheGram foodie, but it's different and interesting, and you might learn something.

On the non-culinary aspect, aside from the touristy things, I'm usually down to try anything that's unique and fun, even the crazier ones like skydiving and paragliding.

What has been your most effective marketing strategy to grow your business?

Aside from diversifying platforms, SEO has been most effective to grow the business as well. The increased visitors brought by SEO bring increased ad revenue so it’s a double win! 

What's your best piece of advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs?

My advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs is to set up a business in something you’re deeply passionate about. The initial start of the business is the toughest when you aren’t making money or you’re not getting clients. During that time, the only thing that will keep you going is your passion and love for what you do. Otherwise, without this drive and passion, it is easy to just give up and quit. 

What's your favorite app, blog, and book? Why?

My favourite app is biased towards Instagram because that’s where it all started for me. Both the books Happier (by Tal Ben-Shahar) and Rich Dad Poor Dad (by Robert Kiyosaki) were so helpful to me in framing my mindset for making personal and business decisions.

What's your favorite business tool or resource? Why?

My favourite business tool is Google. Searching in Google is typically the first thing I do if I have questions or problems. 

Who is your business role model? Why?

Anthony Bourdain. He was truly the ultimate travelling foodie, and I look up to him as guidance as I navigate through my journey. I would be blessed to even have a sliver of his knowledge and expertise in food and travel. 

How do you balance work and life?

I don’t necessarily force a balance, but just do the best as things come along. If I have plans with family or friends, I just focus those days with them. If there are not many personal plans, then I can focus on work. It just balances itself out and my business flexible in that way.

What’s your favorite way to decompress?

Aside from eating, I love hiking or taking nature walks as a way to decompress because nature provides a different escape that being at home or in the city can’t. At home, I would decompress by watching a movie or a TV show, usually a comedy. A good massage doesn’t hurt as well. 

What do you have planned for the next six months?

I finally launched the official Travelling Foodie Store back in November and look forward to working on creating content for it and promoting it more. As things start to re-open since the COVID lockdown, I also have some food campaigns lined up and I’m hoping travel campaigns will pick up soon as well. 

How can our readers connect with you?

Connect with me on all these platforms:

Website: https://travellingfoodie.net

YouTube: https://youtube.com/travellingfoodie

Food Instagram: https://instagram.com/travellinfoodie

Travel Instagram: https://instagram.com/journeytraveler

Twitter: https://twitter.com/travellinfoodie

Facebook: https://facebook.com/thetravellinfoodie

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/travellingfoodie/

Pinterest: https://pinterest.com/travellingfoodie

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@travellingfoodie

"Live a work life you love; you’ll never have to struggle to focus and stay motivated" with Simone Collins

Simone Collins

In partnership with Malcolm Collins and with their son Octavian perpetually strapped to her back like a baby sloth, Simone Collins is CEO of Travelmax, an international collection of travel companies that sells travel on a wholesale basis to boutique agencies and provides white-glove travel management services for a select group of celebrity, entertainment, corporate, and leisure clients. Simone previously founded and ran ArtCorgi.com (a 500 Startups-funded art marketplace she co-founded), managed over 20,000 writers as Director of Marketing at HubPages (the 45th-most-visited site in the US during her tenure), and founded The Pragmatist Foundation the non-profit organization that published the bestselling book The Pragmatist’s Guide to Life.

Can you tell our readers about your background?

I’m a pragmatist hell-bent on bringing back the corporate family: The most prevailing family format before 1900 in which families lived and worked together seamlessly. Under the brave supervision of Octavian, our eight-month-old infant, my husband Malcolm and I run Travelmax, our travel management company by day, and write books by night.

Malcolm and I swore to only work as a family after spending close to a year working on different continents after marrying (he, after getting his MBA from Stanford, relocated to South Korea to work in VC and I flounced off to Cambridge in the UK where I got my graduate degree).

What inspired you to start your business?

After stints in the startup and VC industries, my husband and I were bored to tears by the idea of starting a new business. This leads us to the world of search funds (aka entrepreneurship through acquisition or ETA), which involves raising money from investors to acquire and run a single gem of a business. 

Travelmax, the travel management business I run now, was actually by two brilliant travel industry veterans: Roque Gargano and Lucy Leyva. We NEVER expected to end up in the travel industry, but we and our investors were so inspired by this business, its potential, and its amazing team that we decided to go for it.

Where is your business based?

Travelmax’s headquarters are in Philadelphia, which is supplemented by a satellite office in Lima Peru (this is where the wholesale division runs) and team members throughout the US as well as in Europe and Asia. Like so many businesses now, we’re becoming increasingly virtual, so while some of our team works from offices, the rest is remote. 

How did you start your business? What were the first steps you took? 

Entering the search fund world is a wild ride. To raise the fund used to conduct the business search (which typically takes one to two or more years), we went on a fundraising roadshow, burning through our savings to meet with investors in Silicon Valley, Southern California, Dallas, Salt Lake City, Denver, Chicago, New York, and Boston. We jokingly called it our second honeymoon—the great thing about going through stressful processes with a spouse is you can ALWAYS pretend whatever challenge you face in a given day is just a creative date idea.

 What has been the most effective way of raising awareness for your business?

So many of our target clients don’t even know that travel management companies are a thing. “Wait…” they say, “Travel agencies still exist???” 

We, therefore, raise awareness by running massive email campaigns, kicking off conversations with business owners all across the world to let them know those travel agencies do, indeed, exist—and the good ones can make their lives a heck of a lot easier.

What have been your biggest challenges and how did you overcome them?

Many businesses now have been decimated by the pandemic. Goodness gracious, I wish we were only decimated. That would be brilliant. We would be popping champagne bottles and breaking out our hottest dance moves.

Alas, we are being destroyed by SARS-CoV-2. By some measures, we have negative revenue (due to all the refunds passing through us). We clearly haven’t made it out of this industry shock yet, but we’re doing our best to overcome the massive challenge by cutting costs as much as possible and doing our best to innovate and find new ways to make money before the travel industry recovers (it may take a very, very long time to recover).

How do you stay focused?

 The Collins Family has to take over the world—or at least the USA. To do that we will need massive success, yet here we are with only one bestselling book under our belts and a few companies. The knowledge of how much we have yet to achieve lights quite the fire under us.

That and our infant Octavian keeps us in line. He runs a very tight ship around here. 

How do you differentiate your business from the competition?

 We’ve brought a very scrappy, Silicon-Valley-influenced mindset to Travelmax, keeping it extremely lean in a manner that enables us to provide highly-customized services at super low prices. 

Beyond that, Travelmax has entertainment contracts with several airlines that enable us to offer better services to entertainment, production, and sports team clients—these contracts were hard-won by our entertainment department, which has bent over backward to get the best possible prices and travel experiences for our clients. This certainly helps us stand out in that world.

What has been your most effective marketing strategy to grow your business?

Emails. We contact loads of people via email to spark conversations. Our email campaigns perform infinitely better than ads.

What's your best piece of advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs? 

Forget work-life balance. Live a work-life you love; you’ll never have to struggle to focus and stay motivated. Work with your spouse. Get your kids involved. You CAN have it all, and not in a manic-comedic-woman-pretending-to-have-it-all-but-failing-miserably sort of way, but rather a Sound of Music sort of way.

What's your favorite app, blog, and book? Why?

Favorite app: I just discovered Magisto by Vimeo, which uses AI to edit together professional-looking videos. Since we don’t have time to spiff up our family videos, this is a godsend. 

Favorite blog: The British Psychological Society’s research digest blog (https://digest.bps.org.uk/) is full of delicious posts summarizing psychology studies. I can’t get enough of it.

Favorite book: Since I’ve been spending loads of hours editing them, my new favorite books are now The Pragmatist’s Guide to Relationships and The Pragmatist’s Guide to Sexuality, which my husband and I put together to see whether choosing more “sexy” subjects would engage people even more enthusiastically than our first book, The Pragmatist’s Guide to Life (which, despite being an Amazon bestseller, is such a mental death hike). These books are slated to go live on July 6th.

What's your favorite business tool or resource? Why?

Canva has been at the top of my list for ages—it enables you to create beautiful printed and digital materials (think: Facebook banners, one-pagers, slide decks, ads, brochures, etc.) without having expensive design software.

Who is your business role model? Why? 

Martha Stewart has always been my hero. She’s the Phileas Fogg of the business world: Covering immense entrepreneurial ground at breakneck speed, accepting nothing less than perfection, and never breaking a sweat.

How do you balance work and life?

Screw that. My life is my work. My work is my life. Work-life balance is for the weak and infirm.

 What’s your favorite way to decompress? 

I love to get through work backlogs from my elliptical. I bought a tray that enables me to prop my tiny laptop on the handlebars and I can just peddle away for hours. The endorphins help me focus. 

What do you have planned for the next six months? 

My family has a business to save. We’re doing everything we can to pull Travelmax through the pandemic and continue to support our clients—whether they’re on the road or not.

How can our readers connect with you? 

Email me: Simone@Travelmax.com

You can also find me on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/SimoneHCollins), Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/simonehcollins/), and LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/simonehcollins/).

"Don’t shy away from challenges and obstacles within your business" with Julie Singh

Julie Singh

Julie Singh founded TripOutside.com with her husband Reet out of a shared enthusiasm for outdoor adventure and travel.  After many frustrating experiences wasting valuable vacation time renting equipment, they created a website where outdoor enthusiasts save time and effort by easily booking outdoor adventures and gear online.  Julie spent 15 years in retail, finance, and technology at a fortune 30 company and left her corporate career in 2017 to pursue her passions and build TripOutside.com.  TripOutside is a fully mobile company – they gather information on the best outdoor destinations for their customers by exploring the country in their motorhome with their cat Juke.

Can you tell our readers about your background?

After graduating with a finance degree and getting my CPA, I spent 15 years in Corporate America working first for food & beverage companies in Finance and Internal Audit and then spending 10 years in Finance and Merchandising at Home Depot Corporate.  My last role was running a $1B business as the buyer for Water Heaters for all 2000 stores.  Through these roles, I gained a ton of valuable knowledge and experience that has provided a great foundation for me to start my business.

What inspired you to start your business?

The idea for TripOutside came about on one of our vacations.  My husband and I traveled a lot in our free time, and spent as much time outdoors as we could.  We rented gear like bikes, kayaks, and skis during our adventures and saw a problem to be solved with online gear rental.  We wasted too much of our vacation time renting equipment!  The typical process involves online searches, calling shops about availability, booking over the phone, and waiting for bikes, skis or kayaks to be prepared in-store.  So, we created TripOutside.com, a website that allows outdoor enthusiasts to compare prices and book gear and experiences on one website at the top-rated shops in key outdoor destinations.  The gear will be waiting at the outfitter, getting customers to their adventure faster!

We also wanted to be able to travel more, work from anywhere, and focus more on our passions of travel and outdoor adventure.  Starting TripOutside allowed us to do these things, and help get more people outdoors!

Where is your business based?

TripOutside is a fully mobile company, and we are based wherever we are traveling.  We are traveling in our motorhome in the Sierra range of California.  It works out really well, because as we hit the top outdoor destinations to bike, paddle or ski, we also visit the best shops in the area to get them featured on TripOutside.com.

How did you start your business? What were the first steps you took?

The first steps we took was to do a ton of research on what types of websites already existed.  We wanted to arm ourselves with as much knowledge about the industry as we could, and make sure that our site would provide the best experience possible and solve a true problem for our customers.  We started designing mockups of how we would like our website to work, and the features and functionality that we thought would be important.  We brainstormed names during a car ride to the mountains and came up with TripOutside.  The domain was available, and we bought it!  Then we created an LLC using Legal Zoom, which made it easy for first-timers like us to start a company. 

What has been the most effective way of raising awareness for your business?

Because we are a marketplace, we work to raise awareness with both outfitters and customers!  Initially, this was our biggest challenge – especially the first couple of outfitters!  Therefore, traveling to these locations and visiting outfitters in person was important.  Once we gained traction, it became easier and now we have outfitters finding us through google, social media and word of mouth!  On the customer side, we are still working on building awareness through a variety of avenues like SEO, paid, affiliates, influencers and more. Raising awareness is always a work in progress for us, and we are constantly testing different ways of getting the word out!

What have been your biggest challenges and how did you overcome them?

We have been working with a lot of contractors on things like website development, marketing, research, etc. and hire from websites like Upwork frequently.  We had challenges with some of our initial contractors not meeting our expectations and not work on time or to plan.  We constantly looked for new contractors.  It was a learning process–we learned not to hire solely based on their profile and reviews because they can be misleading. 

First, we now only target contractors with 99% or 100% job success–even 1 bad review can mean they may not be a good fit for us.  Second, we give each potential candidate for a small project first to see how they do.  Based on their quality of work, communication, adherence to deadlines, etc. we then hire for a larger project.  Third–and this one is important–we try not to hire someone to work that we don’t fully understand.  We have learned that we have to build at least a basic level of understanding of all aspects of our business to guide others on what we want.  Online training sites like Udemy and Linda.com have great resources for everything from Marketing to Finance to Operations, and help you learn the key points so you don’t have to rely on a contractor to handle the strategy for parts of YOUR business.  We also subscribe to various industry leaders for things like SEO so we can communicate goals and understand exactly what our contractors are doing to accomplish them.

How do you stay focused?

It can be hard, especially when we are in incredible outdoor destinations!  The good thing is that it allows us to get out and experience the destinations we are featuring for our customers.  We try to get outside and explore for most days and then focus the rest of the day working.  We are passionate about helping get others outdoors, and we enjoy work–so that definitely helps.  If we work 24/7 (which definitely happens when you start your own business!), we try to step away and get out into nature to help us clear our heads, maintain our positivity and even get the creative juices flowing!

How do you differentiate your business from the competition?

TripOutside is the only website that allows outdoor enthusiasts to find top outdoor destinations, compare the pricing of the top shops and book bikes, kayaks, paddle boards, rafts, skis and more online.  Our key differentiation is that we focus primarily on the outdoor customer who wants to build their own outdoor adventure–either DIY or guided.  Many other travel sites exist where customers can book a broad variety of experiences–everything from museum visits to guided city tours.  We have a smaller niche, but everything on our site applies to the outdoor enthusiast.

Tahoe SUP_Julie.jpg

 What’s your best piece of advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs?

The obstacle is the way.  Don’t shy away from challenges and obstacles within your business – this is probably why you started the business, to begin with!  The challenges are usually where the big “aha!” moments come from, and where you can make the most difference.  It will not always be easy, but that’s also why it probably hasn’t been done before.  Have confidence in yourself and your ability to figure it out!

What’s your favorite app, blog, and book? Why?

We love the books Essentialism and the Power of Now – they are not business specific but have provided great guidance and insight that applies to many aspects of our lives.

What’s your favorite business tool or resource? Why?

Some of our favorite business tools are Canva, which allows us to create Marketing content, and Buffer, which helps us manage our social media. 

Who is your business role model? Why?

I’m inspired by Arianna Huffington and her hard work on the Huffington Post, which is one of my favorite news outlets.  She’s not afraid to put herself out there and to change her mind about her views.

What do you have planned for the next six months?

We are focused on adding new outfitters in key destinations every day and expanding internationally.  We are building great tools for both customers and outfitters–like pricing comparisons, trip guides, brand demo days features, and user-generated content. 

How can our readers connect with you?

Website:  www.tripoutside.com

IG:  @trip.outside

FB:  tripoutside

Q&A with Entrepreneur Valeria Duflot

Photo Credit: Sebastian Fagarazzi / Venezia Autentica

Photo Credit: Sebastian Fagarazzi / Venezia Autentica

Valeria Duflot is the co-founder and startup CEO of the social business Venezia Autentica. She is a believer in the digital world, tech,  innovation, social justice, and sustainability. Valeria holds degrees in Health & Biology and Business Administration and is a neuro and mental health advocate.

Can you tell our readers about your background? 

I'm a 30 year old well-traveled Frenchy with a serious need to try to make things around me better. I'm convinced that business can and should be used to make a positive impact on our world.

Before Venezia Autentica I co-started and co-run a business focused on giving a platform to creative entrepreneurs, worked as a consultant in the healthcare industry and  (co)-organised and curated numerous events and festivals in the field of tech, innovation, performance arts, and entrepreneurship.

I also started researching and developing a couple of businesses ideas that I later paused, one because I realized that it wouldn't work, at least not the way I wanted to go about it,  the other one when I had the idea of Venezia Autentica. 

I hold degrees in Health and Biology and Business Administration and have been living abroad more or less continuously since 2011.

My current venture, Venezia Autentica, is a social business I've co-founded to halt the exodus of the Venetians who are pushed out off their city by unregulated mass tourism. We are trying to do so by making it easy for visitors to feel like locals in Venice while making a positive impact on the life of the Venetians.

What inspired you to start your business? 

I had a 'Eureka ' moment after living in Venice for a few months with my boyfriend, and co-founder Sebastian, who is a native Venetian. 

Due to our interactions and the ones with the people around us,  I was aware of the struggles Venetians face to stay in their city as well as the 'theme-parkisation' of Venice. 

One day, when having a walk, I found myself in between a huge guided group of day trippers and a bunch of young Venetians men who were singing local songs and harboring the Venetian flag. 

I knew the impact that day tourism had on the city and remembered that when my friend and I first visited Venice, we had a completely different approach and that we really enjoyed taking our time and spending time with local artisans who shared their world with us. 

Thinking about this, it suddenly hit me,  I realized that my friend and I couldn't have been the only tourists looking forward to meeting locals, and to support authentic businesses. I thought to myself that if a part of the 30 million tourists coming to Venice yearly would spend their time and money in the right places, and especially at the local businesses then it could have a huge impact on the 55,000 Venetian residents future and the city itself. 

No one was doing anything really to help the Venetians, so I decided that if I could convince Seba to come on board, we would do it ourselves.

Where is your business based?

We're based in Venice, Italy but being a digital company, we are accessible everywhere in the world.

How did you start your business? What were the first steps you took?

The first thing I had to do was to convince my partner in life to work with me on this project as I couldn't see it making any sense without someone who knew the problem from the Venetian perspective in and out. Moreover, as Sebastian and his family used to run a local business in Venice, his insights were invaluable for the success of our project.  So, my first move was to get the right co-founder.

To convince him, I started mocking the website and drawing a rough business model idea focussing on understanding what we wanted to do, how, and who we wanted to touch. Once Sebastian on-boarded, we started taking a lot of time to brainstorm on our strategy, mission and business model. We aimed at understanding how to approach the challenge and what was feasible. Once we had a reasonable idea of what we were going to be, we immediately started working on defining our identity and quickly got online on social media making Facebook our hub for communication.

What has been the most effective way of raising awareness for your business? 

Being present and consistent online has been the most efficient way of raising awareness for our cause and business, so far. Press and media features are also doing wonder to help us broaden our reach and spread our message to a bigger audience.

What have been your biggest challenges and how did you overcome them? 

The most significant challenges we've been facing have been to:

1/ Running a business with my better half.  

It is not always easy to separate the personal from the professional. We're overcoming it by clearly allocating responsibilities and tasks while keeping each other accountable and taking all the big decisions together. And we work in different rooms. 

2/Not being in the middle of an ecosystem. 

I used to live in Bangalore, India, where the entrepreneur and creative ecosystem was striving. I could access entrepreneurs of all kind and of all stages, attend meetups and events very easily. These are things that I miss. I find it essential to have the opportunity to speak with people who understand what you are going through. In Venice, there is no such ecosystem and having been in the center of the action I'm aware of the fact that we're missing something. I try to compensate by doing a lot of online reading, learning and attending events in Paris where I go regularly and where the startup scene is growing.

3/Lack of resources:

Like many bootstrapped startup we have limited resources and plenty of needs and ambitions. We've made this limitation a strength by learning to trust ourselves and to learn to do almost everything while recognizing when certain things are beyond our capacity and better outsourced.

How do you stay focused?

I like this question because the more I learn, the more I realize that productivity is crucial and that productivity is, mainly, focus.

I stay focused by doing 3 things: 

1/ Continually creating and evolving a routine which fits me and my objectives, by working on building habits

2/ Removing interruptions 

3/ Using a system of daily to-do lists matched to our company roadmaps. 

I introduce new habits progressively to make them part of my routine more easily or find a better way to do so.  Indeed, I found that implementing big dramatic changes, New Year's resolution style didn't work with me, while let's say introducing one new habit at a time such as  'spending 40 min learning something new' for example, was doing the trick. 

Regarding my to-dos, I organize my daily tasks by priority, identifying the must do of the day and always keeping space for improvisation, opportunities and, obviously, to put out fires. My to-do lists are made of daily micro or routine tasks (checking e-mail, learning something new..)  and 5 to-dos of the day, within which 3 are absolute must do. When I'm too tired to continue working and that I have completed these 3 tasks along with my micro-tasks, I stop working and prioritize rest or leisure,  as taking the risk to burn out or have a migraine attack is never a good idea, according to me. After all, founding a business is more a marathon than a sprint. You need to last the distance.

Something else I do is to remove as many interferences as I can, by filtering my mailbox, checking e-mails and socials at set times, and trying to take calls and meetings only when necessary. The latest one being the part I still struggle the most with as it is not always easy to say 'This is not part of our priorities right now, we'll be happy to meet with you at the right time,"

During the day, I always have a notebook and agenda with me at all time as well as note-taking application on my cell phone.   I use them to write ideas I do not want to forget, and schedule tasks to the following days. This is the best method I've found to achieve the essential objectives of my day without splitting my attention nor fearing to love a valuable idea for my venture.

How do you differentiate your business from the competition? 

We differentiate ourselves from our competition at several levels.

We have a clear purpose. We exist to solve an identified and relatable present social problem, the displacement of a local population due to mass tourism

We offer a tangible solution. The way we tackle the exodus, by focusing on keeping the Venetians in Venice by supporting the local businesses, is easy to grasp and people understand that they can actually help and make a difference,

We know our stakeholders. Our founding team has a deep first-person understanding of all our stakeholders' experience.

We design for people. All our content and tools are conceived with the users in mind.  Our approach is focused on people empowerment, user-friendliness, customer satisfaction, and impact.

We create impact. Every one of our articles, information, and travel tools are designed to improve, directly, the quality of the experience of the travelers and positively impact the local community. 

We create circularity.  We make it easy and highly rewarding for the people who use our platform and the people who work with us to make the right choices and to be driven to continue doing so. Each of the positive decisions they make has a positive impact on not only themselves but also others, ultimately encouraging all stakeholders to repeat the right behavior leading to a wonderful virtuous circle.

We are authentic and approachable. We do what we do because we care and we know that we cannot do it alone. This is something we consistently communicate, and we make a point to make it easy for people to feel close to us and reach out.

 What has been your most effective marketing strategy to grow your business? 

Getting online on social media early on and making our voice and identity unique and clear since the beginning has definitely been important to bring us where we are today. 

Being authentic and seeing marketing as a way to bring our message to more people to increase awareness and impact is key.  

I see marketing as a service to our cause and our audience. The message we spread, the message they receive should be useful to them each time. It should be an opportunity for them to learn or feel something. I am convinced that when people believe you, enjoy your voice and feel close to you and your cause they are more likely to get on board, support you economically and even champion you.

What's your best piece of advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs? 

Know your why, be true to yourself and your values and stay focused. Do not let anyone deter you from trying. Do not let anything stop you or corrupt you. Be driven by what you have to accomplish and confident that people who need it will welcome it with happiness and even champion you. 

Off course, the road is full of obstacles, but it is also what makes it enjoyable. Each new challenge is a unique opportunity for learning and growth, a new opportunity to define who you are as an entrepreneur and a human being. 

Venezia Autentica is still a startup, but I've learned so much from it already, about work and myself. What felt like the end of the world a year ago is something which I barely notice now, something I am detached from but gives me the right boost of energy to accomplish more. The thing I love about entrepreneurship too is that no matter what your venture will end up being, successful or not, no one will ever be able to strip you from what you've learned and who you've become.

What's your favorite app, blog, and book? Why?

I use many apps and I couldn't do without them. It's a tough choice, but I'd probably say Evernote. I use the paid version, and it is well worth the money. I love being able to record interviews with the business owners we work with or walking meetings with the app or just screenshot full articles to read them later.

Favorite book? This is a tough one. One book I'm reading now which I thoroughly enjoy is 'Heal Me' by Julia Buckley. It is not a business book but a memoir written by a brilliant British female journalist in her 30's and telling her struggle with chronic pain and her search for a cure. She travels the world in search of the person who will heal her, trying desperately to get her life back, to stop being in pain when her local healthcare system failed her. Her story brings many important topics on the table. She's courageous and vulnerable. Her voice is self-aware, witty and unapologetic. An absolute must-read.

I don't really have a favorite blog. I change the blogs I read like I change socks. It all depends on my interest or question of the moment. I find myself often landing on Medium as the variety of their writers equals only the diversity of the topics you can see discussed on the platform.

What's your favorite business tool or resource? Why?

My favorite business resources are currently Quora and Twitter. 

The first one because it allows you to learn just about everything related to business, and beyond, as so many experts, experienced entrepreneurs and leaders take some of their time to share incredible insights on the platform. 

I also love Twitter as it makes keeping up with the latest niche news in tech for example easy.

Who is your business role model? Why? 

Pope Francis!  He's not exactly in business, but I believe he's an excellent role model because of his ability to be fearless and use his voice and position to challenge the status quo while leading one of the oldest, most conservative and probably least agile institution in the world.

Did you know that there is a startup accelerator at the Vatican, now?

Speaking of innovation, I admire Elon Musk for his genius and audacity and for steering the world towards a greater and more sustainable future while at the same time remaining conscious of our limits and trying to push boundaries as much as he tries to protect us from our very nature.

Finally, the work that Ellen Mac Arthur does with her foundation to accelerate the transition to a circular economy is, I believe, outstanding and of great importance.  It is a bold move and an ambitious cause. I applaud her undertaking, and I am convinced of the importance of her work while very glad that the person leading the way towards such a significant shift is a woman.

What do you have planned for the next six months? 

In the next six months, we aim to continue testing our model and make the right adjustments to our strategy and products, assess the impact of our first year in business, nail down our customer acquisition, increase our reach and sales and raise funds.

I firmly believe that to be a successful social business, to be able to make a significant difference, the most important thing that we need to achieve is to have a robust business model, be sustainable and able to grow.

How can our readers connect with you? 

You can follow our work with Venezia Autentica on

Twitter: @veneziaautentic

Instagram: @veneziaautentica 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/veneziaautentica/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/venezia-autentica

and connect with me on:

Twitter: @duflotvaleria 

Linkedin: https://fr.linkedin.com/in/valeriaduflot/en

Q&A with Trip Chandler

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Inspired by ship chandlers who supply provisions and services upon arrival at port, from staples to specialty items, Trip Chandler supplies the everyday to the extraordinary to visitors and residents of Houston. Founded by Dana DuTerroil and Joni Fincham in 2015, Trip Chandler offers a combined background of experience in the fields of writing, editing, and marketing.

Dana, a Houston native, served as the book editor for Texas Lawyer, a division of ALM Media, and had a lengthy career as a staff attorney with the Louisiana Supreme Court.

Joni, a Houston transplant, has used her MBA and marketing skills working with small non-profits and start-ups to create and execute both internal and external strategic communication plans.

1. Can you tell our readers about your backgrounds? 

Dana: I grew up in Houston and later lived in New Orleans as a student and then a lawyer. I've always loved doing research and writing whether it's the law or travel. I learned my tour guide skills from just living in New Orleans because there are so many tourists wandering around asking for advice! 

Joni: Houston was my fourth move in 8 years, so I had learned a thing or two about exploring new cities and finding your niche. When the opportunity arose to partner with Dana to combine my city exploration expertise and my business background, I jumped at the chance. It's been an exciting adventure helping other fall in love with Houston.

 2). What inspired you to start your business?

Our love for travel and the city we both now call home inspired us to help others do the same because we have so many new residents who move here for work as well as business travelers. 

3). Where is your business based?

We are based in Houston.

4). How did you start your business? What were the first steps you took?

We brainstormed a lot and we came up with a clear idea of our business. We also met with an accountant to determine which type of business would be best for us. Taking care of the practical stuff first made it easier to focus on the fun side! 

5). What has been the most effective way of raising awareness for your business?

Meeting with people face to face - from concierges in hotels to the staff at the Greater Houston Convention and Visitor's Bureau. A in-person meeting is really crucial when you run a business based on personalization. It helps us generate positive word-of-mouth and referrals.

6). What have been your biggest challenges and how did you overcome them?

Mastering the ever-changing social media algorithms! Talking to other business owners and getting their advice has helped us figure out the system (and commiserate!).

7). How do you stay focused?

After every project, we discuss what worked and what we could do better and record our personal notes so we can use that for the next client. 

8). How do you differentiate your business from the competition?

Our level of personalization really sets apart from other tours that focus only on highlights or what they like to show people. We really want people to learn about the city through what they like to do. Additionally, our services are versatile and flexible - we write about the city and create personalized guides for people to use on their own or we can go with them. 

 9). What has been your most effective marketing strategy to grow your business?

Word of mouth and partnering with other Houston bloggers on a blog series has helped us with exposure.

10). What's your best piece of advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs?

Hang out with other entrepreneurs! Running your own business can be isolating so it's important to talk to others - it can really help you get through a rough patch.

11). What's your favorite app, blog, and book? Why?

Google Maps is pretty indispensable for us because it makes it easy for us to map out a tour route. We have lots of local Houston blogs that we love, but for the business side of things the blog at Duct Tape Marketing has lots of great tips for small businesses. "Steal Like an Artist" by Austin Kleon is an inspiring quick read about creativity.

12). What's your favorite business tool or resource? Why?

We couldn't run our business without Google Drive. It's pretty basic, but we can share all our documents quickly and easily. Plus, it allows us to work virtually, so it's no big deal for one of us to spend a week at the beach!

13). Who is your business role model? Why?

We find motivation and guidance from other women who have made the leap into running their own small business. We're huge fans of the Radio Cherry Bombe podcast because the interviews of women in the food industry are so inspiring. They all start with a dream just like us and just go for it. Hearing their struggles and successes is like a daily pep talk to keep at it.

14). What do you have planned for the next six months?

Focusing on set tours of iconic Houston destinations like NASA and downtown Houston with a Trip Chandler twist!

15). How can our readers connect with you?

Our website

Twitter: @TripChandler

Instagram: @tripchandler

Facebook.

Q&A with Travel Expert & Entrepreneur, Lisa Pagotto

Throughout the last few months, I've interviewed dozens of female entrepreneurs but none in the travel and tourism space until I connected with Lisa Pagotto of Crooked-Compasss.com. Here's is what she had to say. 

Please tell our readers about your background.

I started my career in the travel and tourism industry in 2003, straight out of high school. After completing travel college, I entered into the industry as a retail travel consultant. Over the next few years, I worked my way through various roles trying to find my ‘fit’. I moved into wholesale, worked on the road as a tour leader for several years before being offered a position to start up a new arm of an existing business to see if there was a hunger in the marketplace for private customized tours. It was very much a trial and error role – I was advised if it didn’t take off, I wouldn’t have a job in 6 months.

I ummed and ahhed about taking the role as it meant a significant pay cut but took the chance that I could really create something and make it my own. Within two years, I had turned that ‘new arm’ of the business into a $2.2m sector of the company and was promoted to be National Sales Manager. I was 24 at the time and suddenly found I was managing 7 sales managers across Australia and New Zealand. I was in the role only six months before the parent company folded and we all lost our jobs.

From there, I was employed by another tour company to start a new brand for them. I spent the next 12 months constructing and contracting 400 new tours, as well as launching the brand and getting it producing revenue. Whilst doing this, I was also looking after the national sales and marketing for two other tourings owned by this same company. It was at this moment where I had my light bulb moment. I had literally spent the past few years building brands and business for someone else. This is when I started Crooked Compass on the side - building it up and getting it right whilst I was still working full time. There were still significant gaps in my knowledge and experience so I searched for a more strategic role which I successfully landed.

I convinced my husband that my business idea was so good that we should sell our house so I could really make it happen; so that I would have funding behind me to get it off the ground, surprisingly and not surprisingly, he said yes and within two weeks our house was up for sale. We gave up everything – our house, our lifestyle, and my salary. After some time in the strategic world, it was time to take the plunge and I moved into Crooked Compass full time and have never looked back.

Why did you start your business?

I started the business because I saw an opportunity in the marketplace for showcasing emerging destinations and lesser-known side of common destinations. I saw a niche for an experiential travel product that was outside the norm and this paired perfectly with the moving trend of personalization that has been coming for some time. The style of travel I personally do is all about discovering and sharing the unheard of and when I saw others wanted to do what I do but couldn’t find a way to execute and make this happen, that’s when I saw the need for my expertise.

What market does your business serve?

Crooked Compass caters to those who are well traveled, those who have been there, done that and are seeking something more rewarding from their travels. We cater for the 40-70-year-old travelers who have a little more time and money and those who are seeking a deeper level and educational element to their style of travel.

What's the largest challenge you've encountered as a business owner?

The largest challenge is definitely managing cash flow.

What's your best piece of business advice?

My best piece of advice is that starting your own business is tough. We’ve all heard the saying ‘keep emotions and business separate’ but when it is your startup or your baby that you have given everything up for, emotions do come into play, and often this is hard to manage in the early days.

If you are passionate about what you do, people cannot help but be intrigued and want to listen and help. Passion and ambition are addictive. Surround yourself with people who you want to be like.

How do you like to relax?

Believe it or not, by traveling! But when that isn’t possible, I do like to read – usually books about travel or weird far-flung destinations that I may be able to create some sort of amazing travel product in.

Connect with Lisa on:

Crooked-Compass.com

Twitter

Facebook

Instagram