How to Start a Travel Vacation Business

Monday, June 17, 2013

How to Start a Travel Vacation Business

Starting a travel vacation business requires training in the travel business, knowledge of favorite vacation destinations and surrounding accommodations, and a constant stream of up-to-date information on travel warnings and advice from various government and professional travel sources. Little equipment or upfront investment is required as most of the business start-up capital is directed at advertising the business to the intended target market. Specialize in a specific type or types of travel destinations and create a successful business in the vacation niche of the travel industry.

Step 1

Decide on a specific, specialized type of vacation for the business to offer, such as vacations for families with small children, vacations in rural areas or vacations to theme park designations, learning everything possible about these specialty destinations, the surrounding accommodations and any tips or tricks to give clients something special in their experience that only insiders could know and provide.

Step 2

Research the demographics of the business's intended geographic area. Through this research, determine the approximate number of potential customers for the business and the approximate revenue available to the business from these sources. Count families, individuals and businesses in the area who might benefit from the types of vacations the business specializes in.

Step 3

Create a business plan complete with short- and long-range revenue goals and financial forecasts based, at first, on best-guess cost estimates. Replace the guesses with real world numbers as the business grows.

Step 4

Investigate courses and training programs at local colleges in travel and hospitality. Online courses that train travel professionals are also available. Get as much training in the mechanics of finding and booking travel as possible.

Step 5

Outfit the business with reliable business equipment such as a computer, printer, telephone and copier/scanner/fax.

Step 6

Based upon your advertising budget as established in the business plan, create an advertising campaign complete with print and/or taped ads. Feature the ads to your demographic market.

Step 7

Travel continually to destinations the business promotes in order to give clients first-hand information about their vacation travel options.

Step 8

Join every travel-oriented professional association available to stay current within the industry and keep up with what your competition is offering the public. Offer to teach local college seminars or speak at company retreats on travel-related topics to gain extra exposure.

Step 9

Design a trade show booth. Register for and attend every local home and garden trade show possible to make direct contact with large numbers of potential consumers at a time.

Step 10

Put brochures together specifically targeting human resource departments. Offer discounts for group bookings should the company book retreats through the business, or should the human resource department refer individual employees to the business.

References (6)

Resources (1)

Entrepreneur.com: How to Start a Travel Service

About the Author

Jennifer Williams has been on online content contributor since 2008 specializing in business and legal topics. She practices corporate, trusts and estates and family law in Florida

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Easy Tips and Ideas to Start Business

Although anyone can start a business, many people fail because of a bad product or improper research. If you want to start your own business, you can improve your chances for success before you even begin. In order to make your business successful, start strong and make sure that your idea will hold out for the long haul.

Have a Good Product

Ensure that you plan to sell something useful. Although you may think that your product is important or special, that doesn't mean the general public will agree. Ask friends, family and strangers what they think of your product. If they don't seem that interested, ask them why. With their suggestions, you can either improve the product or scrap the idea completely. According to Brad Sugars of Entrepreneur magazine, most small businesses fail because they sold a product that didn't have an adequate market. This also applies to small businesses that provide a service. A lawn-care business might be useful for part of the year in a northern state, but it is in-demand year-round in the south. Consider whether people will actually want to use your service and get constructive advice from those not afraid to give their opinion.

Research Local Businesses

Research local companies before starting up your own business. This will not only give you an idea of the amount of competition you will have, but it will also help you price your product or service. If you're looking to start a wedding photography business, you may find during your research that the market is over-saturated in your area. If not over-saturated, you should contact each business and ask them for a price list. Alter your prices so you can stay competitive with the competition in town. Researching similar local businesses will also help you decide where to locate your business location. Try not to start up a store or office close to another business of your type. If your small business is located away from similar business types, this will cause locals to choose you over businesses that are farther away from where they live.

Get Professional Advice

You may know someone who has started their own successful business. Ask him for advice and listen to his stories of how he started his company. You may gain useful advice on the good and bad ways to start a business. Local entrepreneurs can also introduce you to local product providers or advertisers that you may not have met without their help. Accept any advice with open arms, especially if the advice is coming from someone successful in the area.

How to Calculate Business Start Up Costs

Starting a business in no easy endeavor. It takes a great deal of research, perseverance and hard work. While sweat equity will make your small business more successful, you will most likely need real capital to get the business started. Before you start raising capital and/or investing your own funds, the first thing you need to do is determine the total start-up costs.

Step 1

Determine your costs of sales. For most small businesses this means inventory, the cost of raw materials, manufacturing equipment, shipping, packaging, and warehousing. However, not all businesses sell products. In this case, the cost of sales is primarily the direct labor involved in making the sale. For example, to open a small shoe business entails purchasing enough inventory ($10,000) to stock the store.

Step 2

Determine professional fees. Planning your business structure, i.e., limited liability corporation or general partnership, means hiring an attorney. There may also be the need to pay an attorney for help with establishing trademarks, copyrights, and patents. In this scenario, that puts total professional fees at an estimated $20,000.

Step 3

Determine technology costs. Technology can greatly reduce the cost of labor for small business if used effectively. Most small businesses require computers, printers, cell phones, website development, Internet access, software applications, information security, data storage, and outsourced information technology (IT) consulting. If the cost of technology is $10,000 to start, add an additional $5,000 a year for maintenance (hint: maintenance is not included in start-up costs).

Step 4

Determine administrative costs. This varies with business types and may include items such as business insurance, office supplies, product packaging, parking, rent, express shipping, desks, chairs, fax machines, phones, or anything else necessary to operate the business daily. A good estimate for start-up administrative costs would be $5,000 for the first six months.

Step 5

Determine initial sales and marketing costs. Now that you have your product, you need to let folks know about it. Sales and marketing costs generally include marketing materials for presentations, printing stationery, business cards, advertising, trade show events, and public relations. These initial sales and marketing costs can add up to $3,000.

Step 6

Determine the wages and benefits needed to secure a staff. This includes employee salaries, benefits, workers compensation, and payroll taxes. Let's put the cost of wages and benefits estimated at $20,000 for the first three months of business.

Step 7

Add all costs associated with starting the business for a total. Be sure to only include business start-up costs that will be incurred in the first three to six months of operations. For this example, the calculation is: $10,000 + $20,000 + $10,000 + $5,000 + $3,000 + $20,000 = $68,000.

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Monday, June 17, 2013