Jennifer Hennequant, CTC
One can never be too far into their career to pause, take inventory of their business as a whole, and set some goals. I started off in a physical travel agency just before September 11th changed the world so, I was able to see how they ran things at least for a short time before setting off on my own. There is so much to learn by experiencing how another business runs. When I first set off on my journey as an independent travel planner, I never wrote out what I wanted from my business or how I wanted to grow until I had established things for a few years as a travel agent. I tried a variety of things to build my business up, but I never wrote out those goals and dreams, so it was just thoughts and plans that many times were not being executed well or at all. Dreams are great to have, but writing things out helps make them come true. By creating a plan and listing the things I wanted, I was able to better figure out how to achieve the business I wanted to present to my community. I am very lucky to have a close family member that is also a travel planner, and she is invaluable to this day in being a great source of guidance. Sitting with her once a year and discussing what worked in achieving our goals and what didn’t has been a great source of information and knowledge over the years.
Nothing is too insignificant to put on your annual business plan. Over the years, I have narrowed mine down to four sections to create a business plan that I feel is important to the business that I run on a daily basis. Sales goals, marketing and advertising plans, education in the travel industry and familiarization trips, and lastly social media and client communications. While it is important to refresh your plan annually, it’s also important to review your goals and adjust as needed periodically throughout the year. To help me remember to review my plan more often, I’ve added a note on my calendar to review everything at least quarterly and revise my plan as needed. Every business, even in the same industry, will have different goals and that is great because it should be personalized to you and the business you want to have. No two plans should be identical, especially when it comes to small businesses.
Sales Goals
When I created an annual monetary goal many years ago, I divided it by months so I could focus on a smaller goal instead of the big picture. (1) By cutting it down to a smaller amount, it makes it less stressful to reach the goal. I also like to set a yearly reservation goal. By reservation goal I mean the number of packages or cruises I book each year. If you are just starting out as an independent travel agent then this may be one to two new reservations a week, which is a great start that you can build on. Breaking it down into small bites will help you achieve your goals quicker and make things feel more attainable. For 2022 I also challenged myself to offer and encourage every reservation to accept travel insurance for their vacation investment in 2022 and beyond. Covid has changed so many things around travel in general, that it is unwise to go without travel insurance. This is beneficial to the client as well as my business. When a client takes travel insurance it means they are covered for the what ifs, and by encouraging them to use my preferred travel insurance company it also covers a portion of my commission in the event the client has to cancel and the supplier doesn’t pay! As an agent that sold cruises more than any other type of travel, Covid made me switch gears and encourage clients to consider other vacation options. The strangest thing I probably have on my business goal page this year is to say NO! Not every client will be a good fit for me and learning to release them or suggest they try another agent is difficult. I want all the business opportunities available to me, but it’s not always worth the stress some clients may cause. Whether you don’t know the destination they are interested in very well or you feel uncomfortable after the first meeting, it’s perfectly fine to let the client go. Think of restaurants, you have many to choose from, but not all of them will guarantee that you will enjoy their meal. Accepting a client saying you aren’t a good fit for them can be hard to accept as well. Ask questions and for ways that you can improve for future clients! If you don’t know why they went with another agent, ask them, then decide whether it’s worth adjusting your business to meet their needs.
Marketing Plans and Advertising
As many of us experienced difficulties the last two years with the travel industry struggling, my business was also severely affected by Covid. After a lot of thought I decided to promote my business at an event, which is not something I often do. After meeting up with my favorite Strategic Account Manager (SAM) she helped me come up with a plan. I’ve always homeschooled my children and pre-covid we did an annual cruise. Of course all of that stopped with covid, but it was finally time to start back up! With the support of my SAM I found an event for homeschoolers and reserved a booth and she attended with me. Creating a flier, giveaway, and what to have at my booth took time and energy but I am thankful to say it paid off. Talking with people that attended the event and then armed with the list of potential clients after the event, I was able to build back up some of what I lost during the covid travel ban. I also reached out to every client from previous years to get them thinking about travel again and the promotion my SAM set me up with helped them say yes to travel again! There are a few things that are on my list but I never seem to get to. Like mailing clients a card when they celebrate a milestone and encouraging them to plan a trip to celebrate it, and sending a quarterly newsletter via email. There is always room to improve my business, so hopefully I will get to these goals some day.
Education and Familiarization trips
Knowing the destination that you are sending your clients to is extremely important. By experiencing different cruise ships, resorts, theme parks, and destinations you can better match each client to the perfect vacation. A very important goal for me is tp tour or sail on at least one new ship every year, Tour or stay in at least two new resorts, and to visit one (preferably more!) country or island every year. Stepping foot on a ship or dining in a restaurant is the best way to truly know what it’s like. I can watch travel videos for days, but it’s still better when I get to experience it in person. I get to see how flexible the staff are with dietary concerns, enjoy the entertainment and find out which resorts push timeshares on their guests! In addition to physically seeing new places that my clients are interested in, I try to attend one in person training or presentation by a resort, cruise line, or destination every month to build my knowledge and make connections with other industry professionals. It’s wonderful to walk out of an event and feel excited to send clients to the destination I just learned about. Living near a large city, this is not difficult, but there are occasionally months when there are no events that I am able to attend. Those months I make sure to attend a live virtual presentation, or connect with some of my favorite representatives to brush up on my knowledge. The last way I expand my knowledge is to keep certifications up to date. Many cruise lines, resorts, and destinations offer a specialist course. There is a wealth of knowledge, you just have to look for it and take the time to complete it. The travel industry is constantly changing and it’s important to stay up to date on everything.
Social Media and Keeping in Touch
The way we find clients has changed in many ways over the years. Twenty years ago when I started my first job with a travel agency, it was in a storefront location on 5th Avenue in downtown Pittsburgh. Clients would come to our office. These days it is rare to see travel agents with physical offices where you visit them. They are still out there, but the majority now work from a home office. This minimizes your exposure to potential clients. I often have people tell me that they didn’t know that travel agents were still a thing when they ask me what I do for a living. Having a social media presence has become very important to my business as it puts me directly in my clients hands.
One thing I have learned over the years is to send a welcome home email and a card through the mail thanking them for booking through me and encouraging them to leave a review of my services. I also include a line stating that the majority of my business comes to me through word of mouth.(1) Word of mouth can be difficult to get, but it tends to be a true client that wants to travel versus someone doing a random search on the internet. In addition to welcoming every client home after they have traveled, I try to keep an active presence on Instagram and Facebook. I take photos of everything when I travel, as I never know what I might want to share or refer back to. There are quite a few programs available that will automatically post to your social media accounts on your behalf. BranchUp is my preferred advertising for Facebook. Just make sure that you review the posts that it will make as you don’t want to post a company that doesn’t fit your preferred client base. I rarely have clients that can travel more than two weeks at a time so every other week I log into BranchUp and delete any that are more than that length of travel so my page is not overwhelmed with posts. For Instagram I like to create my own posts. I have a list of hashtags already typed up so I can copy and paste it into my post and use my favorite photo that I want clients to think about for their next vacation. One thing that I have on my goal list was to start posting more videos of me talking about travel or in destination. This has been a tough one for me, and I am still struggling to get it together and feel good about the content I create. There is always room to grow!
Review and Improve
Every New Year means it’s time to review how the past year went and where I hope the New Year will take me. Having a business plan is the same as creating a New Years resolution! It’s about growth and development. Celebrate when you achieve a goal! Being a travel agent can be incredibly stressful at times. Between commission structures changing, airlines not able to serve the number of passengers wanting to travel, and staffing issues around the globe it’s important to celebrate the small triumphs. You worked hard to achieve your goal. Every year I like to change things up based on the goals I met in the previous year and adjust them accordingly. These goals may sound insignificant or silly to some people, but to someone that sells travel for a living, these may be incredibly important. I’ve learned over the years that the more I experience the better I can sell it. Many times as I tour a new city, resort, or ship I think of what clients I already have that would love it which brings me back to my business plan full of goals to meet.
Even setting one goal that you’d like to accomplish is beneficial. Some I feel are silly when I review my plan, but many times those silly things help me get closer to the bigger picture I want my business to look like. Take a moment to look at your business as a whole. Are you happy? Where can you make improvements and think about what is not working for you. Then make a plan!
Notes:
(1) Kappel, M. (2022, April 14). Become a pro at setting business goals in the New Year with these 6 tips . Forbes. Retrieved November 1, 2022, from
https://www.forbes.com/sites/mikekappel/2020/12/10/become-a-pro-at-setting-business-goals-in-the-new-year-with-these-6-tips/?sh=7bbe5a913900
(2) Parhad, E. (2022). Your Digital Presence is an Essential Business Tool. The Compass, Fall 2022 , 60–63.
