Gather and Go makes you a more successful group travel pro. Whether you own a thriving tour company or are just starting on your group travel journey, this is the travel podcast you can’t afford to miss. Every two weeks, veteran group travel journalist Brian Jewell interviews tourism innovators, experts and thought leaders who share insights to help you grow your group travel program — and your profits. Plus, you’ll also get tourism news you won’t hear anywhere else, along with clever travel hacks and hot takes on the biggest issues facing group travel planners every day.
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Gather and Go makes you a more successful group travel pro. Whether you own a thriving tour company or are just starting on your group travel journey, this is the travel podcast you can’t afford to miss. Every two weeks, veteran group travel journalist Brian Jewell interviews tourism innovators, experts and thought leaders who share insights to help you grow your group travel program — and your profits. Plus, you’ll also get tourism news you won’t hear anywhere else, along with clever travel hacks and hot takes on the biggest issues facing group travel planners every day.
What's the most important part of your travel business? Lauren Rilling believes it's profit.
For more than a decade, Lauren has been helping small business owners solve their companies' financial problems. And she believes that most business owners get into trouble by not prioritizing profit. She joins the podcast today to help you understand how to create and maximize profit in your travel company — and why this is essential to every other element of your business.
Lauren discusses how tour operators can ensure that every trip is profitable from day one. She gives tips about how to turn a travel hobby into a travel business and offers essential strategies for managing the seasonality and cash flow irregularities of the tourism business. Plus, we have news about the Big Beautiful Bill's tourism implications; a Road Tip about selecting the best travel snacks; and a Hot Minute about the skyrocketing costs of tourism conferences.
Insights from Lauren Rilling
Lauren had lots of ideas about how travel business owners can improve their companies' financial performance. Here's what she had to say about paying attention to profit from the very beginning of a company:
“You can really figure out what your expected profit will be ahead of time. You don’t have to take big financial risks. You don’t need a lot of capital to get started.... Know what your profit margins are. Start calculating your costs... And then know what you’re charging people. Then, the remaining amount is your gross profit.
"Gross profit is everything when it comes to tour companies. Knowing your gross profit for each trip will help you know how much you need to charge."
Plus, she had insightful thoughts on:
* Why you shouldn't manage the books for your own travel business
* Whether you should operate tours that don't make money
* How travel business owners should pay themselves
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Key Moments From This Episode
1:13 — Travel News: The Big Beautiful Bill’s impact on tourism
2:44 — Road Tip: What makes the perfect road trip snack?
8:12 — Join us for a trip to Alabama
11:52 — Lauren Rilling’s roots in travel
14:54 — How to know when to turn a travel hobby into a travel business
18:40 — When should you hire a professional accountant for your travel business?
21:20 — Why tourism entrepreneurs should put profit first
23:30 — Planning for profit when your travel business’ income is variable
25:24 — Should you operate tours that don’t make money?
27:45 — Managing cash flow in a seasonable business
30:48 — How travel business owners should pay themselves
Gather and Go with Brian Jewell
Gather and Go makes you a more successful group travel pro. Whether you own a thriving tour company or are just starting on your group travel journey, this is the travel podcast you can’t afford to miss. Every two weeks, veteran group travel journalist Brian Jewell interviews tourism innovators, experts and thought leaders who share insights to help you grow your group travel program — and your profits. Plus, you’ll also get tourism news you won’t hear anywhere else, along with clever travel hacks and hot takes on the biggest issues facing group travel planners every day.
