Jacques Bezuidenhout is an active reader of this blog and makes time to post comments on stories that he finds interesting. Today he shares with us the road to launching his own business Travel Crossings from a zero bank balance to a sustainable entity and has interesting future plans.
When were you born and where are you based?
I’m turning 40 in August and stay in Pretoria.
What is your business all about and what inspired it?
I co-own a travel agency / tour operator company together with my 2 partners Hanria & Ben. I started Travel Crossings as my passion is Travel. I just love to travel and be in this industry.
What were you doing before launching your business and when was it launched?
I started my career in travel with South African Airways in 1992 and after that worked for several travel agencies but decided to do my own thing 11 years ago. That is when I started Travel Crossings.
How much was invested in launching your business and how was that capital financed?
I did not have any capital and also nothing to give the banks as guarantee for any loans. I was just getting by those days. I started working from my rental house with a borrowed computer and one phone line. I did not even have a printer. One week after we opened we had our first client who booked a package to Mauritius for his family of 4 and we used the profit from that booking to buy a printer and some needed extras.
From there it just grew and we managed to get by without any financial help. It was very hard and we had to manage our cash flow but we did it. I think that starting with capital will give any business a boost but it is not an excuse for not doing what you love.
What planning did you engage before launching?
I had the urge to start my own travel business from my SAA days but never had the opportunity to do so and I think that I was afraid of taking chances. The last travel agency I worked for just called me in one day and told me that they will not be able to pay my salary that month. I decided that this might be a sign that I need to start my own business.
Two days later Travel Crossings was born. To answer your question, I did not have time to plan but a lot of planning went into the business from that day and is still an ongoing process.
Your business model is similar to http://www.siyabona.com, are you aware of this operation?
Yes, but we are more focused on outbound travel than on visitors entering South Africa
Are there any major challenges that you had to overcome in launching your business?
Sure, there were many but I think the major challenge was the fact that I could not get help from any bank to start the business. Due to this we did not have the funds to really do good marketing and that slowed down the growth of the company. This didn’t stop as though.
The travel bookings industry is highly competitive, how are you different from the rest?
I have a passion for what I do. I read many blogs and websites and one can clearly see that the owners of the successful businesses have one thing in common and that is their passion. I see some of my friends that are in jobs just because they need to make a living. It is never too late to live out your passion. Money will follow.
We also only employ people who share our passion. There are so many consultants who are just in the tourism industry for the free stuff but don’t have the passion. When I buy a car I want to speak to a salesperson that can tell me everything about the car and can get me excited to drive it. The same goes for travel. A client comes to you because you are the professional in your field. He wants to feel excited about is journey.
I notice you accept credit card payments through PayPal on http://blog.travelcrossings.co.za/advertise/ how is that possible based in South Africa?
As you know our blog very new. We only launched it on 21 May this year, so it’s not even 1 month. I did find that traffic to our other websites increased with over 125%. I’ve had some payments for advertising space on the blog and the payments were done via PayPal. The only problem with a PayPal account when staying in SA is that you cannot withdraw the money into a SA bank account.
I overcome this problem by using my PayPal account to pay our suppliers (Hotels, Transfer Companies, Etc.) with my PayPal account. This way I do not have to move any money from my SA bank accounts to any oversees account.
I’m still investigating other options.
What changes have you introduced to your business operation to counter the decline in travel bookings which is experienced by all within that space?
Like everyone else we found a decline in bookings, especially during the past 3 months. This forced me to re-look at how we do business and that is when I really started looking at other websites and blogs. The USA market is years ahead of us and I decided to change the whole way we do online business.
In the past we were like any tourism website. We attracted people to the site and then hoped they will request a quote and later convert to a booking. I sat down and realized that any website is like a store. You have people who will come into your store to just look around with no intension to buy anything and you will have clients who will buy something.
I want to capture each client as a friend. Our aim with the blog and websites (New Travel Crossings Website to be launched within 2 weeks) is to firstly capture the client and convert him/her into a partner or friend. Once he feels he belong to our “Shop” he/she is most likely to keep on supporting us.
We can clearly see the increase in bookings since we have started the blog based on this model.
What are your short and long-term business plans?
Short term I want to re-design all our websites into a place where people can get exceptional service or just for a chat.
Long term I want to work from a beach somewhere on an Island, maybe Zanzibar, while the business runs mainly on autopilot. I would also like to help other tourism suppliers to achieve this.
How many websites do you own, as I’ve noticed 8 active domains on http://www.travelcrossings.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=52&Itemid=59?
I own 93 domain names and have 10 active websites. I intend to grow the active sites to about 50 by the end of this year
Do you use booking engines in your business?
In the past we have not used any booking engines but with the new sites we are working towards using some. We currently run some affiliation programs like Expedia, Travel Start and a Car Booking system
What is your opinion on the local tourism industry, in embracing technology?
This is a question that gets my blood boiling. Since I’ve started the blog I’ve been communicating with many, maybe about 80-90, owners of tourism websites which include travel agents, car rental companies, hotels, guesthouses and blogs. The one thing everyone has in common is the fact that they are closed to anything new and unfamiliar.
I go to a guesthouse website and think to myself. This is the first contact your client will have with you. You want to tell him how great your service and nice your rooms are. You spend fortunes on furniture and fixtures but only a couple of 100 Rands on your website. This goes for too many SA Tourism Websites and I include myself before my eyes opened up about 1 month ago.
I’ve learnt so much in 4 weeks and the best for me is picking the fruits of the changes we are bringing in. My wish is that SA Tourism site would “WOW” their clients. That is what I want as a client. WOW me. Make me feel part of your site/business and I will support you.
So many sites have huge text on their home page. We all know that any website will only write good reviews on themselves. Put some client comments (both good and bad) on your site. It gives credibility.
I think there is huge room for improvement on SA Tourism Websites and think that there is heaps of money to be made from this.
I also think that most suppliers have not completely realized the power of Facebook and Twitter and they should explore them as marketing tools.
On the weekend of 12-14 June, I was part of a media group hosted by the Tourism KwaZulu-Natal and the South Coast Tourism on a Sardine Run Media Launch, where we did Ocean Safari, Oribi Gorge Swing etc, do you offer any travel packages from the South Coast?
We mainly specialize in outbound travel to the Indian Ocean Islands such as Zanzibar, Mauritius, Sheychelles and Mombasa. We also do Vic Falls, Botswana, Namibia and Turkey.
We can tailor-make any package from anywhere is SA
Why Local tourism operators don’t embrace technology, a frequently asked question.