Continuously. Always. Never-ending. Don’t sit back like I did!
Six months ago, I got my butt handed to me by my accountant. I had lost two major accounts, one was leaving the consortia business model because it couldn’t make any money and the other was acquired by a larger player with their own emarketing strategies and tools. End result – a sizeable chunk of revenue gone in 10 days!
So, what to do now?
I went out to lunch with an industry buddy and as I was crying in my beer, he told me a story of a travel agent he was speaking with the previous day. The agent was droning on about low margins and how he’s making half of what he made 15 years ago. When my colleague asked what his sales were at that time, he stated the agency was generating 3.5M. Asked what he’ll sell this year, he said 3.5M.
That was the head slap I needed. Time to streamline what is working and reinvent what’s not.
So, in six months we:
- Created a twice monthly agent-branded email campaign for only $50pm. It’s turnkey – 100% of the work is done by us. We had immediate success with several independent travel agencies and now, the TPI group has joined.
- Simplified and lowered fees for Easy Email, our self-serve email generator.
- By shifting the company focus to become a ‘Travel Portal’, we’ve been able to compile several exciting 3rd party (and in-house)travel agent apps that only focus on improving an agent’s business.
- Built a new website to accommodate the portal concept and changed our logo to include our new tag line “Travel Content and Distribution” as part of our evolution.
As I look back on the six months, I’m amazed at the amount of work we got done. Thanks Kathy, Matt and Michelle! Couldn’t have done it without you, I promise not to sit back again.
If you get the opportunity, go to www.travelwatch.ca or www.travelagentapps.com and sign-up (it’s free). We have several examples of travel agent software available now and more in the pipeline scheduled to come online soon. Look around and let me know if there’s a product or tool you think might help you or your agent colleagues.
Enough about us!
Using the above agency as an example, a good place to start re-evaluating where your business sits is the revenue side of the P&L. Specifically, what were the revenue ‘buckets’ (leisure, business, groups, weddings, etc.) and how did they change over the years from 2007 to 2010? It’s a good place to start; the turmoil in global economies during this period is a good microcosm to illustrate the ups and downs. If you read the business papers, things might look like 2008 again soon.
I have a few other ideas that might help you focus on the right questions to ask yourself, specifically on the marketing side. Stay tuned.
Thanks for reading,
Cheers!
Frank
