Heed this practical advice shared by members of the Arival community.
You don’t have to reinvent the wheel to run a successful tour, activity or attraction. Accepting advice from operators who have been through the trials and tribulations of business ownership is a key way you can accelerate your company’s sales and profits.
At Arival Orlando 2019, the following operators sat down with us at the Idea Hub—our dedicated video studio where attendees shared a game-changing piece of advice—to help their peers do business better.
Below are the Idea Hub videos we thought offered exceptional advice. Give them a watch, and be sure to check out all of the tips and tricks from your peers.
Find Your Passion
“Find out what you’re really passionate about, what you can share with authenticity and genuine passion, and those people that are really going to love your product are going to be able to spot you, find you, and they’re going to become your best ambassadors.”
–Lauren Shannon, General Manager, Arigato Japan Food Tours
Don’t Bite Off More Than You Can Chew
“Don’t bite off more than you can chew … Once you do something really well, that’s what the focus should be. Dig in on that. The temptation, including myself, is to expand and do new tours and to move things around and keep things dynamic. But sometimes that’s at the detriment of the other tours or products you have.”
–Kevin Durkee, Owner & Big Cheese, Culinary Adventure Co.
Find Great Resources
“The book Extreme Ownership: How Navy Seals Lead and Win is literally a game changer. I encourage everybody to read it. We use it as part of our next-level leadership series. That book itself, if you’re looking for a resource to build a team to surround yourself with, to reach success, that is the best piece of advice I can give anybody. Read that book, live by it.”
–Mike Simpson, Director of Adventure, Arizona Tactical Adventures
Successful Scaling
“Fundamentally, we’re very passionate about what we do, and we’re passionate about showing people a good time. We’re very customer focused, 99% of our reviews are five stars. We respond to every single review, not necessarily just the bad ones, but we respond also to the good ones, because we feel we have to recognize those that actually spent time reviewing us.”
–Alex Piccone, Head of Product and Business Development, Secret Food Tours
“Any good marketer knows that you have to take those opportunities when they present themselves. Consumers are demanding these tours, there’s a reason why they are so popular. If we have a model that makes sense to roll it out, we have a particularly good way of setting up the tours … it made it very easy for us to scale this product successfully.”
–Linda Denbrock, Senior Business Development Manager, Secret Food Tours
Mindful Hiring
“Something that we’ve learned in the last year … hiring people and companies to do some of the tasks that we’re either not strong at or we don’t have time for. Not trying to be a two-person team doing everything, but really relying on experts.”
–Alice Kexel, Co-Owner, The Flying Bike
“We know that people are a good fit for us, whether they’re a contractor or an employee, based on our culture and our core values.”
–Torin Kexel, Co-Owner, The Flying Bike
Did you like these videos? Check out more Idea Hub videos from Arival Orlando 2019!
