As an inclusive travel planner, you must feel like a cactus by now: shoved into the worst soil possible, exposed to heat every day of your professional life, lacking the moist trickle-down of cash (which was actually promised over twenty years ago), and maybe getting a little prickly for the wear. It doesn’t have to be that way–you can learn to survive, like the cactus, in these harsh and unfriendly economic conditions. Here are some ways.
Save Time
Ben Franklin once said, “Time is Money.” Although there is some truth to that in a metaphorical sense, you have to survive in a world of reality. Time, really, is life. So you have to determine how much it’s worth to give up some of your life to plan an event. Of course, when put that way it seems like work isn’t even worth it, but you have to eat, so deal. But you don’t have to spend every waking hour hammering out details.
Save time by automating your bookings as much as possible, hiring allies who do similar jobs to yours in other countries when you need to plan international travel, and streamlining your other operations as much as possible.
And stop buying sticky notes.
Delegate
Even if you don’t have people working for you, you can delegate. For instance, if you are trying to work out an inclusive travel package to Aruba for an incentive group, you may find that the hotel manager is happy to call around to find someone who will teach your clients to surf or water ski. If your client has to deal with children on this tour, see if the activity partners you have lined up will work out child care or provide a kid’s version of their parents’ tour. There are many ways to get people to help you.
Don’t Overload Yourself
You may feel like more business is better business, but that is not always so. If you have so many clients that you can’t serve any of them properly, you are doing everyone a disservice. You will not be able to obey the age-old businessman’s adage: under-promise and over-deliver. Instead you will be under-delivering every time. So the best way to build your clientele is to do good business–ignore this to your peril in all times, not just these.
