How's Massachusetts doing? Attending the Governor's Conference on Travel & Tourism

ENGAGE, CHANGE AND INSPIRE

This was the theme of the 27th Annual Governor's Conference on Travel and Tourism at the JFK Presidential Library and Museum today.   Everything discussed during the conference was about how Massachusetts could engage, change and inspire others to visit.  Surprisingly, Governor Patrick  DOES attend the conference he holds!

There was networking and breakfast from 8:30am - 10:00am.  A couple of observations from networking for 90 minutes:

- Why are there never enough high top tables to rest your drinks and food?

- It is close to impossible to shake hands, hold your stuff and eat at the same time!
   (possible business opportunity???)

- After the 15 minutes, you really do forget to be nervous when approaching people you don't know.

My goal was to talk to 10 people about the Boston Brewery Broad Tours.  At first, I found it challenging to describe our business because I was intimidated to talk about the tour because a lot of these people operated their own tourism business.  Once I got going, I hit my groove with my pitch and engaged each person with, "Do you like beer?  Have you been on a brewery tour?".  It was an easy ice breaker since I had the Harpoon Brewery tour to reference.  Out of the 10 people I asked about a brewery tour, not one had been on a tour, 8 were women, 2 were men, and only 8 people drank craft beer.  Not full market research yet but opportunity does exist!  Audrey and I will be putting together a market research survey in the next few weeks to help us with our business and I am excited to see the results.

The keynote speaker was from Connelly Partners who is the Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism's marketing partner.   He had two very interesting messages that struck me:

Change is difficult and embrace change. 

He used these messages to talk about how the tourism sector changes rapidly and that in order to meet the needs of the customer, your business needs to keep up to date with the trends to stay ahead of your customer. It got me thinking about each of our businesses and how our customer transforms and purchases differently with each new technological advancement.  For example, we used to just buy from our computers but now mobile phones and tablets are so common that you need to make sure your website is formatted correctly (note to self!).  Apparently, 50% of all .com traffic to the Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism's website is from mobile phones and tablets and they expect this to increase to 70% in 2016!


Information shared about videos and websites shared at the conference that I found helpful: 

- Search engines love videos as do consumers.  If you can, put a fun, short video on your website.  It will help you get noticed by search engines and consumer!
-  Higher engagement adds credibility and the search engines rank sites higher with videos
- What's even more powerful is when video is posted by your consumer instead of you so run a contest for the best video and post this on your website

Fun fact:  14 million (YES MILLION) vacation days go unused each year!  So make sure to check your vacation balance and get out and do something fun before they expire...and if that something fun includes a brewery tour with Audrey and I, even better!

Until next time,
deb

Audrey and Deb - Harpoon Brewery Tour

Don't go changing...or maybe change is good for you!

Trust yourself and just jump

    When we were introducing ourselves, I was intrigued by Audrey's hobby of touring breweries.  I had visited a few wineries in Napa and Pennsylvania but never visited a brewery.  It had never occurred to me that breweries would offer tours and tastings.  What really excited me about Audrey's business idea was combining her love of breweries with her unique perspective and bringing a brewery tour to Boston.  Working in the Boston tourism industry for the past 13 years, I knew food and wine tours were a recent trend along with sustainability and experiential.  The market could sustain a tour like this even though one already existed.  As we learned in CIE, entrepreneurship is taking an existing idea, tweaking it to suit the marketplace and launching it.

    Every time I put an idea or plan to paper about my yoga studio, I found myself wishing Audrey's idea was mine.  I had several ideas for her to expand her plan but couldn't think of many for my own business.  I felt out of sorts so I approached Professor Nelson about changing my idea and it was her that suggested working with Audrey.  I approached Audrey about the idea of a partnership and was thrilled when she agreed.  I really think that my experience in the tourism industry combined with her love for breweries, will make for a great partnership and business plan.

    Now that Audrey and I are partners, we need to establish the parameters of our partnership.  Neither one of us has much experience with this so I did some research on establishing partnerships in Massachusetts.  The website I read was http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/how-form-partnership-massachusetts.html and it defined  a partnership as "created when two or more people agree to do business together for profit even if there is no intent to form a partnership."  It further counseled us to do the following:

1.  Choose a business name. 
2.  File an assume business name. 
3.  Draft and sign a partnership agreement. 
4.  Obtain licenses, permits, and zoning clearance. 
5.  Obtain an Employer Identification Number.

Out of these five steps, I think number one should be a priority for us.  Finding a name that fits us and Audrey's vision will be a challenging but fun experience!  

    I approached Cindy Brown, CEO and Owner of the Boston Duck Tours for a meeting to briefly touch on the idea of a brewery tour run by women.  Cindy is the Chairperson of the Greater Boston Convention and Visitor's Bureau group tour committee and a good person to run new ideas by when pertaining to tourism in Boston.  I wanted to get her feedback on opening a new tour in Boston, what she thought the market could sustain, and in general, what she thought of the idea.  I was thrilled when she told me she would meet with Audrey and I and hear us out!  Audrey and I will have to develop interview questions for Cindy - not only for the brewery tour but for being an entrepreneur!  Cindy just opened her second business partnership, the Frost Ice Bar, so I know she will be a wealth of knowledge for Audrey and I.

     Audrey had the idea of having couples create their own wedding brew so I took this idea to my Marketing to the High End Bride's networking breakfast a few week's ago.  During the networking portion of this event, I talked with a few wedding planners about what the clients are looking for. I asked what favors were being offered and was told couples were looking for unique ideas.  I think Audrey's idea of a wedding brew could definitely work given what I heard.  I also think a fun market for this tour would be bachelor/bachelorette parties and I wanted to get an idea of what their brides were doing for these parties.  None of the planners mentioned brewery tours but they did say that their couples were trending towards joint parties so this may be a good market for our tour.  I mentioned the brewery tour to them and asked if they would be willing to talk with Audrey and I further about their client needs and they agreed.

  As we learned in CIE, it's all about the process and I'm really looking forward to this journey!

Until next time,

Deb

Why did you choose your path?

       I took this class because Professor Nelson inspired me in our summer Creative, Innovation and Entrepreneurship class to step outside of my comfort zone.  Coming from a family of small business owners, I never saw entrepreneurship as my path.  My father is the owner of a successful funeral home in Maryland which just celebrated its 25th anniversary and my grandparents owned a nursery for 50 years.  When thinking of my childhood, it was resentment with missed holidays or birthdays because my father was called into work.  I vowed never to go into his business - besides, it always just seemed like such a sad way to make a living!

      As I prepared for this class and threw out ideas to myself about what business to pursue, I developed the idea of a yoga retreat.  Have any of you visited Kripalu in western MA?  It's a relaxing place where you can go and be silent for the weekend or take workshops and practice yoga to improve your sense of who you are.  Not soon after, I visited Truro and thought it would be the perfect location for a yoga retreat.  There wasn't anything like it there.  The thought of opening a business on such a large scale was intimidating for me so I thought some more.  While out walking my dog, I saw a commercial space on the waterfront in Charlestown and thought how great of a space this would be for a yoga studio.  It would be great to combine my passion for the water with yoga.

     The photo on the left is where the studio would be.  It's in the first floor of several new condos and next to Spaulding Rehab.  The photo on the right would be the view you would have while practicing yoga.  It's not the beach in Truro but it's a water view!

     While discussing my idea with several friends, the number one question I was asked was if I was a certified yoga instructor and this got me thinking on whether or not this was a qualification for opening my business.  And the answer is, I am not sure you need it but it would be nice to have.  Hiring good yoga instructors who have a following of students is difficult with a new studio and I would have to do a lot of networking to make this happen.  I am an avid yoga student with several friends who are instructors that I plan to talk with and tap into as a resource for this business plan.   Additionally, it's an added cost and if I was an instructor, it would definitely be a cost savings.  What I think you need more when developing a business, is passion, patience and a lot of mentoring.

    

      Additionally, I think one underestimates what it means to be a business owner.  At least I did.  Growing up all I saw was my father working hard and missing birthdays and holidays.  What I chose not to see was his flexibility and dedication; that he was able to leave work early to take me to the doctor or a gymnastics meet, that he had an amazing work ethic, and that he had a vision and the nerve to see it through even though he had a family of four to support.  He is a pillar in the community, serves on several boards and associations, and very successful.  If my business plan becomes a reality after this class, I can only inspire to mirror my father.  Creating and opening a business not only takes planning and a lot of hard work but it takes overcoming your fears, moving into the unknown and having a little faith.

Until next time, Deb