As a small business owner, I am always looking for ways to work smarter. I have written about Elance in the past and how I used this freelance site to find a terrific graphic designer who helps me with all my client’s logos. And Skype is useful for anyone making calls overseas, or for video … Continue reading »
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Tourism and Numbers – surveys on the Erie Canal
Numbers don’t lie; that’s what makes them so valuable. So for the tourism industry, which is in the business of delivering experiences, measuring success and change can be difficult. But it is important to start somewhere and at least start tracking a few elements of your business. The Erie Canal National Heritage Corridor has done … Continue reading »
Customer Service- the Tourism industry’s key to success
My first experience with customer service training came when I lived in Maine and was hired by LL Bean for a position as a phone representative during the busy holiday season. I was impressed with their training program – 40 hours of class work before we were allowed to even start taking phone calls. We … Continue reading »
Are there weddings in your business future?
I worked as the Director of Sales and Marketing at Steamboat Landing, a lakeside banquet and conference center in Canandaigua for three years. I booked the weddings for both our 235 seat banquet room as well as our 110 passenger paddlewheel steamboat. I sat through endless meetings with brides, fiancées and their mothers trying to decide … Continue reading »
If a picture is worth 1000 words, how valuable is YouTube to your destination?
I recently read that YouTube is second only to Google in terms of where people search for information. Younger people talk about using YouTube and typing in a subject and watching the videos that appear, instead of doing a Google search. So I decided to try it. Look what came up when I searched for … Continue reading »
The Power of Travel Coalition – Together we’re Stronger
The tourism industry in the United States employees over 10 million people, which according to Roger Dow, President of the US Travel Association, is “one in nine American workers in an industry that is 2.5 times the auto industry and a top 10 employer in nearly every U.S. state”. But most of us are small … Continue reading »
There’s never anything to do in your own hometown
Here’s one of the challenges with young frontline staff- they always think there is nothing to do in the area. In fact, I had a student that I have been training for a position in the hotel industry tell me she didn’t know why anyone would even come to her hometown! And this from a resident … Continue reading »
Do you want International Visitors in your Small town? Think Big!
Many Americans think that international visitors to our country only want to see the big cities such as NYC, Las Vegas, the Disneys- both East Coast and West, and the National Parks. After that, what else is there to see? Those destinations are also the ones with big marketing budgets, so we can’t blame visitors for … Continue reading »
Battling Procrastination with a little book
The War of Art, by Stephen Pressfield has changed my workday. This small book, with one page chapters, tackles the problem we all face: fighting ourselves to get our best work out into the world, instead of putting it off, or finding other things to do instead. If you are in business for yourself, I … Continue reading »
Loving your job- lessons from my septic men
For those of you who live in the lands of sewers and public water, let me explain septic systems. It’s basically a huge holding tank buried underground adjacent to your home. Everything that leaves a drain ends up in the septic tank which is why it needs to be pumped out regularly. As you can … Continue reading »
