Hello, my name is Gary Shotton I’m with Inspiring Better Business, IBBTalks.  And, today we’re going to talk about a case study on a travel guide in East Africa. I think you’ll benefit from that. Even if you’re not into being a travel guide. It’s the principles of starting a business with many people involved So first of all, I asked my friend George who was interested in this I said Well, how many how much experience do you have? And he says well I have five years experience working for someone else I really know the business of traveling and taking small groups out on a boat or to the mountains or to see the To see the animals and so I know my business I said good because a lot of people start and they don’t have the experience Needed on the technical side to do what they’re doing. So let’s talk about the business side. So The original quest came to me as if maybe I was going to invest in some vehicles like a Taxi and and maybe a boat and so the things that you would normally take someone in East Africa That’s visiting they wanted maybe they’re working there Maybe they’re on a ministry trip and they want to go see some of the sights and it’s natural to have a travel guide a tour guide and so but you know I didn’t suggest that we start with a purchase of any card assets like that. So the first thing that I suggested is that we secure some customers and Knowing that you’ve got a plan, so I’ll work through this in just a few minutes And so how would you get the customers? Well, first of all, I’m from another country I’m in a foreign country in Africa. I have my friends Let’s say there’s three or four with me and I’m really not that comfortable. Just saying come over I want to know what we’re going to do. So you need to tell me what you’re going to do You can do that on a website so I can look it up and understand a little bit about it it doesn’t have to be extremely fancy to start with because normally the customers you’re going to get you have some kind of connection with their kind of a friend you’re working with a church that bringing in foreigners to help in a in a Economic development way or in a humanitarian way and these same people would like to see some animals They’d like to go on a maybe a one-day tour so you’ve already got some connections, but most of the time so it’s not just somebody that you don’t know anything at all about but I still want to know what are We going to do how about a website. So You might contact and this is my suggestion Is that contact someone within your own sphere of influence your own peer group? Somebody in there knows of or you have somebody that’s starting out in designing websites. And you know, they’ll need you as much as you need them If you help them by saying listen, I can’t pay you right now I can’t ask you to develop a website, but you’re going to get some great experience. You’re going to get it some exposure I’m going to show your websites to some people when they come to Africa And then I’m gonna let you make sure that on your website the website for tribal guide You have a little advertisement that says Website design by and you put your name there and I’m also going to invite you over before the tours go over and introduce Yourself and give out business cards just basic things so that you might solicit some Business on future websites, I think people would buy in on that somebody that’s getting started just like you Then you’ve got to learn how to take care of the customer well The customer is you are already used to that. You’re ready for that So you’re gonna find out what to do they want to do they do they want to go see some animals Will that take a taxi will we need to go on onto a lake nearby? Will that take a boat and each one of those cases? I suggest there’s somebody that already has a Taxi and they’re going to be excited that you make a plan with them to say listen when I have a customer I will use you to provide the taxi now. I need to look at your taxi I need to look meaning taxi meaning a small bus. I need to know it looks clean and neat got good tires I want to make sure my customers happy but if you’ve got that if I will give you a percentage over the sale if You will be available for me on a contract basis. Just when I that way I don’t need to own my own taxi because I’m not gonna use it But just when I have customers and so the same thing with a boat, a canoe Some kind of a motorboat you can connect with somebody that’s going to be happy if you bring them Customers and you make a deal a written deal and I suggest that you start that way well how are you gonna pay these people that you would call them like an associate like the taxi the car the vehicle owner is a Associate of yours and you’re gonna have a boat person that has an associate. Maybe you got somebody that’s good with bicycles You’re gonna go bicycling someplace the people that’s got the bicycles. So ahead of time You’re going to agree to some kind of a percentage of the total sales that they’re going to use in relation to What they asked to have so if somebody wants a boat, you know a price that you’re gonna have from the boat owner you’re gonna obviously mark that up pretty significantly and then you can pay and that boat owner a percentage maybe sixty seventy percent of what you receive for this section of Having a boat ride or the same thing with having a taxi ride. You’re the ones in control You’re the one that needs to keep the customer happy. You’re the one that has has The the kind of like the the captain on the team, you’re the one that’s pulling the team together So you deserve some of that money but you got to pay these other people fairly or they won’t stick with you every time you have a Tour then contact these same people let them know they’re coming Make sure they’re ready and then use them and pay them out of a percentage of your total sales. I’ve said that twice now. I’m not a person to sit a Percentage of profit it’s too confusing. You don’t want to reveal your profits It’s none of other people’s business Whether you’ll make a profit or how much profit you make I think that’s something you ought to keep private to yourself and at first few jobs you may not make anything because you’ve got a lot of expense getting started on the first one even if you contract out all these other things well There’s one additional opportunity for sales when you have people then when you’ve got traffic when you’ve got people coming that are Using your services think of what else might they want. You might take them over to Wendy’s tasty crispy chicken for dinner after the trip just suggest Hey let’s go over and meet here or we have it arranged or something and they pay the customer pays more for that and they only Obviously get paid the chicken company only gets paid if they buy chicken you might have some associations with somebody that has trinkets or gifts or our Our gift items like carved wood animals. I bought some of those last time I was there I want to buy that from somebody I had to look for it. So you would have an association with somebody that’s already doing that So if you see what I’m talking about, you’re gonna be in business and you don’t have a lot of overhead You don’t have a lot of fixed expenses you are the one that’s coordinating the other associates and you’re now you’re working together as a pool and everybody gets paid only when and if you use their services Related to where you’ve advertised on this tour now be sure and pay them and be fair with him try to write it down So that you don’t have guesswork whether this is what we agreed to well I hope this helps now. You may not be in the travel business But you can imagine that if you’re in the baking business, well, you need a website You need some way to get your customer If you’re in the a hairstyle business you can work with somebody else that that is Associated with something you’re doing and you can work together to create Revenue profit to get started. I hope this helps. Thanks for being a part of Inspiring Better Business. Thank you