This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Hello, hello, welcome to Side Hustle School. My name is Chris Guillebeau, your host, and also this is Failure Friday. Failure Friday, our weekly segment, all about mistakes, missteps, disasters, and of course, failure, all based on the principle that we can learn as much from failure as we can from success, if not, in fact, more. I have so enjoyed working on all these stories, hearing different things that have happened to people, and sometimes they're kind of humorous, sometimes they're kind of like, oh my God, sometimes they're like these true disaster stories, and often it's just kind of, a person has an expectation of something, and then that expectation meets reality, and then what do you do, right? And presumably at some point, what do you learn through the experience?
So today's short story features Jan from Denver. Jan hoped to become a travel agent, and she was ready to take flight, but alas, failed to receive takeoff clearance. Well, actually, that's a lot of metaphors. She did, in fact, receive takeoff clearance. The business was going okay, at least in the beginning, but a trip she booked for 10 clients becomes unexpectedly canceled, and that kind of sets off another series of events.
So let's hear the story from her. Over to Jan. [Music]
- I had always dreamed of becoming a travel agent. Since I traveled a lot myself, I loved the idea of helping people plan their dream vacations. So I decided to take the leap.
I poured all my time, energy, and savings into getting it off the ground. One of the first things I did to get set up was to establish relationships with travel providers. I reached out to tour companies to negotiate commission rates, and to become a preferred agent. I also signed up for a GDS, Global Distribution System, which gave me access to a vast number of travel options, and made it easier for me to book and manage reservations. But unfortunately, things didn't go as planned.
I didn't get as many bookings as I hoped, and the bookings I did get weren't as profitable as I expected. One specific incident that was a turning point for me was when I had a group of 10 people who had booked a trip to Europe. I had worked hard to put together a great package for them, but only a few days before they were set to depart, one of the airlines went on strike, and all flights were canceled. I had to scramble to find alternative flights and accommodations for my clients, but it was too late. They had to cancel the trip, and I had to refund all the money.
It was a huge loss for me, both financially and emotionally. I also found out that I was not good at marketing and social media, and my website was not generating enough traffic. I soon realized that my business was not going to work, and I had to close it. I was devastated, and it was a difficult decision. But as I look back on my experience, I've learned a valuable lesson.
Starting a business is not easy, and it takes more than just passion and determination to make it successful. I learned that I needed to have a contingency plan for unexpected events, and to have a better understanding of how to manage risks. I also learned that I needed to do more market research and understand my target audience better. So what's next for me? I'm not sure yet, but I know I want to take the lessons I've learned and apply them to my next venture.
I'm going to take some time to reflect, research, and plan my next step. I'm excited to see what the future holds. I may not have succeeded as a travel agent, but I'm grateful for the experience. One more benefit? Now I can go back to planning my own trips.
- Thanks so much to Jan for sharing this story. It is tough to be a travel agent these days. We've had some different case studies and maybe some listener questions of people who hope to pursue that career. And there are still travel agents, of course, but they tend to specialize in the luxury market or some other hyper-specialized area, as opposed to just booking random plane tickets for people. I guess group travel is still a thing, but not always the best business for most people these days.
Anyway, never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat. That's the theme of Failure Friday. Like Jan said, it's taught her some valuable lessons, going through this experience, and hopefully she's got something much better just waiting for her across the horizon. Beyond the horizon, across the horizon, somewhere off in the future, the near future, let's say. All right, I'm gonna stop now, quit while I'm ahead.
Listeners, if you've got a question or an update for us about your hustle, sidehustleschool.com/questions. This has been episode 2,239. We'll be back again tomorrow. I hope you'll join me. My name's Chris Guillebeau.
This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
From the Onward Project.
