Hey, it's your travel industry best friends, Robin and Jen from TIQUE. We're obsessed with practically anything that touches your business and allows you to scale to the level of success that you've always dreamed of. With Robin’s background in sales and marketing, and Jennifer's experience as a management level HR professional, we grew a small itinerary creation company into a multi-million dollar travel agency, and now we aim to help others skip the hard stuff and get right to the big wins. We're probably recording this with a glass of wine in hand, so pour one up with us, grab a seat, and join us to talk about all things travel and business.
Jennifer: Last week we discuss why we believe that advisors should consider charging fees. And so today we are back to talk about how to actually Implement those fees, and if you are currently charging them, how to know when to increase your rates. With that being said we have a lot to cover, so we are going to get started. Robin, do you want to kick us off with how to actually begin implementation for fees?
Robin: Yeah! So if you are totally new to fees, let's talk about some ways to implement them and what to do before you just kind of throw a number out the window. Because I think that's something we initially started with. Maybe there was some rhyme or reason but we just kind of picked a number and ran with it. I'm at work so you should be charging something, however, I think there is a lot of value to doing some research and doing some math when it comes to your fees.
So your fee should account for what you want to make in your business, right, like they should account for the cost of your time, and your expenses, and your overhead, and all of these other factors. So sitting down and getting kind of like in the nitty-gritty of your business, I would definitely say is step one. You should know exactly what your overhead is per month and then take a look at what you're bringing in commissions wise, like average commission rate and then we want to time track. So that will give us the cost of our time. Toggl is a really great tool, everyone is always asking me what my favorite time tracking tool recommendation is, it is Toggl. It is a great tool to start time tracking. So you can actually go and create a little task for each of the itineraries you are currently working on, and then go and like time track and stay in one task. So, I think that’s key with time tracking, it makes you almost focus a little bit more. Then you want to just identify a rough estimate, obviously situations are different, a fly and flop is going to be a little bit different than what your time would be spent on a multi-leg FIT trip in Europe going to different countries over multiple weeks. All that kind of stuff. But the good, like round average per different trip type is really what we're trying to grasp here.
So working back, you'll have to factor in the fees, you look at your time, you want to make sure that you're bringing in the income you want, because that's ultimately you know what fees are for. Right? Like we didn’t start businesses to just run ourselves into the ground, we started to actually make a living and earn an income. So you can always raise your fees later if you're like, you know, newer and you're like well I'm not sure, you know, I want to be making this, but you know I only have a year of experience in the industry. I mean evaluate and you can always raise pricing over time.
Once you have your actual fee number, we suggest creating different packages, or plans, or service suites, if you want to call them that, to match your trip bookings. So, we had different packages, I believe, with Explorateur where it's like, hey you know the base package is two destinations or 1 destination, and includes this many calls, it includes like this type of timeframe for your proposal, so it'll be you know a 72 hour turnaround time or you know of 5 day turnaround time. It outlines exactly what’s included in those services. So you can have like a suite of services, where it's like here is kind of the starting point, is on the lower end, I'm not going to dedicate as much of my brain or one-on-one time to the trip, I'll do you know maybe one call with you. Then you can raise it a little bit higher for a signature package. So you know you're getting multiple touch points and multiple calls, your turnaround time is within 48 hours, depending on the supplier, and all of that kind of stuff. So, there's ways to include these. You know, if you're scared of implementing a fee, I think a service suite is a really awesome spot to start, because you can go and have that lower-tier ticket and see how people react to that. And then I think you'll be shocked like people see value when they're given an option of service level. I think they're more likely to feel in control and trust in an advisor and know exactly what they're getting from the experience. Right? Because I think again especially if you're new you're probably breaking down and having some of those sales conversations where people are like why would I work with you, like what's the value in a travel advisor, and these packages really outline what’s included in your services.
After that I think something to consider is adjusting your systems to support whatever your new process is. So I always go back to time tracking it’s a wonderful wonderful tool. I think it gives you a really clear glimpse into your business, not only like how much time you're spending working inside of your business or working on trips versus on your business. Right? Because we actually have to spend time working like on our actual travel business, so that’s marketing, emails, you know things like that. But I think when you start time tracking you can identify the places in your business where there is a need for automation. There are certain things that you can automate, if you have a team you can definitely delegate, or do.
So when we launched one of our programs, the Agency Expansion Academy, our pre-enrollees actually got a “to do, to delegate, or to dump” worksheet to work through. So, there’s where you list literally every task in your business, whether it's like on the client side, on the marketing side, on the operations side, you go and you dump everything you do. So, you know, planning social media, sourcing stock images, recreating graphics in canva, I'm looking up relevant hashtags, interacting with followers on Instagram, all of these like small little tasks that like take up any amount of time in your business. Go into these categories and from there you can take a look at like okay I'm spending a lot of time on marketing, so what in this list can be automated? Could I look into a software that breaks my hashtags and like gives me recommended hashtags instead of me sitting here sourcing new hashtags? Can I look at maybe hiring somebody, of course that's always you know an option as well, but when you're sitting down you're tweaking your service suite I think it's a really awesome time to almost do a little like a deep dive audit of your business, as well, and identify those systems that you can Implement to automate things that should be automated, like client follow ups. We are big TravelJoy fans, but any robust CRM with some automation capabilities is going to be your best friend here. So making sure that you're like leaning on your workflow and automating the things that can be automated.
And then when you have your fee structure, this is almost the scary part, because it’s like let's put it out into the world. So how do we do that? First when people come back to you, typically that's like we always are looking for repeat business, you're going to want to make sure that you structure what that education piece looks like. So how are you going to communicate the “why” behind your fee? So when people who book with you, without a fee, can come back, you feel confident. When we implemented fees on our end and Explorateur, I did half to write this out, I had a script, and that sounds so lame, I think I prefer to have a script or else my brain just like kind goes rogue and all the sudden it’s like what’s coming out of my mouth and why can't I stop it. But I create a script for my repeat clients like “ hey just so you know something has been updated since we last worked together, here's what you can expect moving forward”. Whether I outlined new service packages that they can select from or simply on the front end when they reach out being like “hey just so you know before we get too deep in the weeds of this trip I do have a service fee moving forward, here's what that looks like, here’s how much it is, here's what the value of that is. Sometimes I'm afraid like they're going to be like “ I think you just want to make money” and it's like, well yeah, like we all want to make money.
So I was always, and again, I think everyone will have different opinions on this, and Jen I'm sure you probably do, but I was always kind of like “listen even on my sales calls here’s how I make money, I make commissions from the supplier, it's not coming out of your pocket, it is coming out of my supplier partners. So don't worry about that”. But people, when they don't know, they’re like it's just weird right? You don't trust it. Because even me, I was like where is the money coming from, like for commissions, and I am paying extra for the commission? In my mind you just kind of have to take a step back and put yourself in your clients shoes for a second, and be like okay if I've never worked with a travel advisor before what would my hang-ups be? Because typically, you know, unless your parents are travel advisors and you came out of the womb knowing all of the things about this industry, I think we all can agree that there's like a learning curve with it. So I would take a step back and say you know “if I was a honeymoon client and I'm talking to a travel agent right now, what would I want to know”? And part of it was like where did the fees come from? Where does the money come from? How do you make money if you don't charge fees? And I was always honest with my clients about that. So, I think it was easier for me to be upfront with my clients about where my money is coming from and stuff. But transparency is always best, and again if you feel at all uneasy about having that conversation, I highly recommend that you just write it out like outline a script and then eventually it'll become so second nature. It's just kind of something you say and it sounds super organic and it's not so weird. I think it probably takes you know really 3 or 4 times for you to say it and then it’s okay and then it gets way easier.
But educating those repeat clients and then practicing talking about it. So when you get new clients, it all comes down to confidence, and how you present it. And when we don't practice it or outline on the front end, voices instantly catch when you talk about pricing. I think you can probably ask anybody, like price is that naughty word. Like “so what's the price” and it's like typically people don't you know there's a cost associated with stuff? Like you're not going to go on a trip for free. Unless you are a travel advisor and you go on a really dope FAM. But I think people know that good service comes at a premium. So just outlining you know what my fee structure is. And sometimes, I don't know how to say this, but like you can over communicate. So I think outlining it and just kind of laying in there letting them know, and then you know going into the sales call saying “what questions do you have for me?”. I don't think it needs to be a huge thing if people have questions, great, like maybe keep a list of like the objections people have or like “oh I have a question about that”. So maybe if there is like this common thread where people are always like okay well when does the fee get charged? Or how do you charge the fee, is it a direct email invoice, like what does that look like? If you were seeing people asking the same questions, include it on the pitch. But I think in the initial like “hey I'm charging a fee” it doesn't need to be this whole like big song and dance for you. like and now I'm going into a 50 minute presentation about all about this my fee and why I deserve it, and that just kind of feels awkward. I think it comes back to comfort to like what you're you know when you feel confident in something, when you display that confidence and comfort in something, it's a lot easier for people to buy in. So practice it if you need to, but don't overcomplicate it, don't waver in that structure. So, yeah, Jen, anything I missed in that huge explanation?
Jennifer: I have a notebook in front of me because like I have so many thoughts happening right now.
Robin: It was that runaway train thing I was talking about. Like go go go.
Jennifer: We sectioned this podcast out based off of Robin and I’s strengths. So Robin is like so great at talking about numbers and knowing your value and I love the client experience side of it. So that's kind of where the methodology of like the breakdown of how we're working through the sections of implementing fees. But something that Robin hit on that I think is not the strength typically of a travel advisor, and you can correct me if I'm wrong, or I can be very wrong. I know that some people are very good at it so this is not a rule of thumb necessarily. But I can say for myself, I'm not fabulous at time tracking, but it is such a necessary evil. And in fact, I think because so many creatives are involved in travel, it's just a really interesting industry that draws a lot of people that are more prone to creativity. So that isn't typically this super structured mentality, and Robin you definitely bring that to the table. Where when you were in it, you had a very structured mentality, and I think it's what made it so good, because we were able to step back and look at the processes. But I think the majority get into it because it's creative it's fun and the possibilities are endless. So for a creative brain that's amazing, and it's easy to get distracted and hop from task to task, is my point. Time tracking doesn't allow for that.
You mentioned that when you are time tracking, it's actually really fantastic because it forces you to focus on one thing. Well that can be a challenge and so people that are listening to this may be like I don't want to time track. But there are a million reasons why you you and I could talk about the benefits of time tracking, again podcast topic, I'm writing it down right now, the benefits of time tracking. But this is a primary reason and it's because if you have no idea how much time you're dedicating to servicing a trip. How the heck would you ever pick a fee structure and if you're not putting a value on your time? Which we talked about, as you should be putting a value on your time. If you have no concept of how much time you're actually applying to each trip. Then you don't have a foundation or a baseline to even start creating a fee structure with. And when we tend to put numbers on things, I think they drastically underestimate. Especially the little things, like oh yeah I need to quickly make a dinner reservation for this booking. Okay well that probably took five minutes, but how many times did you do that over the course of their entire life cycle of taking them? From the initial, not even intake call, it starts first before the intake call, it starts when they first reach out. Whether it's Facebook, Instagram, your form, whatever it may be. You're starting to service that sale from that point all the way to their departure, and then really afterwards too.
So it's about calculating the number of hours you're willing to dedicate. And to your point, Robin you mentioned this, how many touchpoints are included in each package? To me, that's one in the beginning and it's one of the end, at a very maximum. I think everything else can be handled in email and Loom. But there are some clients that just want more, so having a service suite that offers more or having additional call times that are paid, which we talked about before, it allows people to have that control that you mentioned. And when people have control over their options they tend to trust more, so if you don't give options people feel like they're backed into a corner a lot of the time. I mean that's the point of a menu, right? So, you go to a restaurant, you feel in control of your experience. You're not going to a preset menu, which I'm sure some people definitely love, but people want options. And it does create trust. So having that service suite, I hopped around a lot on that, but it's like all the things that you mentioned are tied to each other and so I just kind of wanted to follow up with all of that.
Robin: I know, I was like I knew you would have a ton of thoughts on it. Time tracking, it's so valuable.
Jennifer: So valuable. One day I'm going to practice what I preach and I'm going to time track. I'm going to focus on that. But I will say, we put a lot of thought into the actual implementation of the fee structure before we ever did put that into place. And we can talk through that a little bit. But the time tracking, I mean more on the Tique side, is that it's just we had no idea how to price our services in the beginning until we did time tracking either. And I mean that ultimately shapes your business. Robin and I were talking about this before the recording even started, was there's truly no way of getting into a full-time role in a quick way as a travel advisor, unless you're charging fees from the start.
So I know we could beat a dead horse on that, like we did last week, so I won't go into it. But I will go into how to communicate your fees. And this is something Robin was touching on before we transitioned to all of my thoughts on her section. But there are multiple points where you can start to educate your clients, or your potential clients, on your fees so that you're not into that spiral where you start to over communicate. I agree with Robin completely that as soon as you are uncomfortable talking about your fees you're going to over explain yourself and it's going to create this space where you start to maybe ramble and sound uncertain and insecure about your systems. And people, if they're coming to a professional, they're expecting to pay a fee and that's just what it should be.
So we have a few ways that we've created that would allow you to have that communication without directly having the conversation, because we are communicating with our clients in various ways. Not just when we're on the phone with them. So the first one is a how we work guide. This is something that with our travel potential clients, they weren't even clients yet, they would inquire and we would automatically respond with an email that had an opportunity for them to schedule on our calendar. Which I know this is a very popular format for people, but it also would include an attachment and say before the call please review this attachment and work through the questions on the last page. Because it was like things to know before you get on a call, because we know there are so many people that get on a call and they've never even discussed what kind of budget they're looking for. But in that how we work guide it would include the different packages, and it wouldn't even outline pricing, but just having the different tiered packages implies obviously that there are different service levels, and that there's a cost associated with those service levels. So, having that how we work guide is going to be your first point of contact where someone's going to say “oh okay I have control of the situation and I can go the lowest package if I want” and now they know there is a cost associated with this service. So, you're not even having to talk through anything yet, but you're getting that point across.
The next thing would be one-on-one education for return clients. This I'm speaking of in the way that you've already had clients, and you're somewhat seasoned in your career, and you've decided that you want to transition into charging fees. Which we would applaud. This can be a more organic conversation where you get a return inquiry, and you respond with enthusiasm, saying I'm so excited to hear from you I wanted to explain a little bit on a few changes in our organization and you just say it matter of factly. Because of the service time associated with the bookings and how I want to prioritize time with you as you work with me, there is now going to be a service fee paid up front, and you just talk through the benefits essentially of why that works for them. The reality is less clients means more quality time with your good clients. So I believe in spinning it in a way that allows them to realize that this fee is to create a mutual agreement between the two of you and that you're prioritizing the relationship between each other.
The next would be a newsletter, and this is something that again potentially we tend to think that because we've said something a million times as business owners that everyone has paid attention to us. But the reality is that everyone's in their own world and everyone's favorite topic is themselves. Like you can say it at the top of your lungs and people are still going to say like “oh are you still doing that travel thing”. So there's no level of over communication that is excessive when it comes to how your business works. By having it in a newsletter, they haven't worked with us before but are interested, here's how we work, and it almost like loops back to that how we how we work guide where they can download it as a PDF. And potentially even a lead generator, dare I say, where you capture their email. Which if they're on your newsletter you already have that, but they might be forwarding it. So, the other thing is social media education. Between the newsletter and social media education you can never over communicate how you work, because it's always going to benefit the audience, it's always going to benefit you to reiterate how you work, why you do what you do, and who you are. I guarantee even if your story views are higher than you've ever expected, I guarantee the next time you post it, it's going to be a different audience that sees it. It's just that not everyone is on social media at the same time, not everyone lives and dies by social media, not everyone opens your newsletter. So, continuing to educate on multiple platforms how you work with those packages is only going to benefit you, and essentially alleviate the stress of communicating it verbally once you get that new client on the phone.
So, Robin, when to increase fees. I feel like this is a great one for you.
Robin: This is such a good one for me. I’m all about making more money. And you should feel in control of your fees. Like there are times with Tique where we’ve launched a service and we are like were pricing it at this, and then it flopped. So we lowered it and we had a good response and people started booking it and then we are like holy crap we are sold out for months, we need to raise it. So don’t feel like you are stuck with your fees and you can’t increase them. Some things to look for, to increase them, is when your client load becomes too heavy. So we're feeling very overwhelmed with the requests coming in, and you can't find those true ideal clients. Like the ones not arguing about your fees, or not taking a million hours to decide on one thing, or needing 20,000 revisions. Those probably aren't what I would categorize as an ideal client. So, I think when you're getting over flooded with requests and there's probably some ideal clients popping around in there, but the majority of them you're kind of like you make me cringe.
Jennifer: Spoiler alert, our next podcast is about client red flags.
Robin: Oh gosh!
So if you are overwhelmed with a request, I think that's an excellent point for you to consider increasing fees. This would also increase the quality of your ideal client and of the clients coming in. When you start implementing or you start raising fees, we also like to recommend including a minimum trip spend when you do this, at like the same time, since the two really do go hand in hand in narrowing down your clientele. Right? Because we all want to get to like the higher level trips, probably the more luxury trips, if that's your market. If it's not, you know, that's fine as well. But I think that's a really good point in time when you can start looking at those minimums. For us in Niche, once we were booked for multiple months out, that was a flag for us to be like we’ve got to raise prices. Because the second you at all feel overwhelmed, I think that's an excellent time to step back and be like something needs to be adjusted here. Because if it's like if the floodgates are open like let’s close them a little bit.
Number two, is when your effort doesn't really match your income. So, this requires putting monetary value, or you know cost for time number, and referring back to that time tracking in Toggl. Again, toggl is the greatest thing in the world, they have a browser extension. So if you are in Chrome like I am, you can just say okay I'm doing dining reservations let me click this really quick and just time track it. No matter if it's 2 minutes, or 20 minutes, whatever it is. So this is again, time tracking is gold. I feel like we will do an episode on this. But if your effort ever gets off balance because like covid regulations are crazy. Now all the sudden, you're not just booking trips, but you're also checking the government websites to see what kind of requirements your clients need before they travel to Jamaica, Puerto Rico, you know Europe, whatever it is. In the complexity of your trip. So you should like reevaluate your fees so that you're effort that you're putting into a trip is reciprocated. I mean, again, fly and flops, its quick, it’s easy, you can crank those things out all day long. Those were never an issue for me. But now were like, alrighty, now we're going to Paris, Amsterdam, and a little bit of Italy. That's more logistics, that's more airline flights, that's more hotels, that's a much more complex trip. So when I look at that, that needs to be a different service for me, because that's a different level of time that I'm dedicating to that client. So, you want to make sure that you're, again, that effort, how much time you're spending on a trip, it's matching that income.
And last, you're not meeting income goals. I think there's something so sad, I just got done speaking in a conference a couple weeks ago, at the time of this recording, and one of the topics was like when do you start making money in your travel business. And I was like, ugh, right away. You deserve to make an income. Again, if you're not making money on your business, this isn't a business, it's more so a hobby. So, you need to be making sure that your income is sustainable for your lifestyle, for your business overhead, and all of those things, to keep the lights on. Again, we have a contract CFO, we owe our life to her. I think Jen might have to give up her firstborn child to Giovana because of all the things she's brought to our business and our lives. But she's always saying profit first. If you don't love the business and like you're not taking money from the business, what is the point of the business? We were in this let's hire, like we need more things, let's hire and then we will pay ourselves. And she was like hard stop, no, we're paying you first, and then we're doing this. So if you need somebody like that, definitely look into a contracted CFO like we did, that's been super helpful. But the bottom line is you need to ensure that your business can support your livelihood, and again, keep the lights on.
So, you're allowed to want to change those financial goals. When you first get started maybe it's scary to be like I want to pull in six figures a year. Like that’s something where we can look at our three year road map and identify like okay in three years I want to pull this into my business, and we can build a plan to build up to that. Because I think it's really powerful to have these, you know, you have your fees. And as we talked about our last episode, fees allow you to forecast, which is great. So you have an idea of what's coming in and also allows you to set metrics of success, so that you know, I need to close 10 trips this month because my fees coming in will be this, for each of these trips would be, you know, somewhere in this range. So that feels good for me, like it covers my overhead, and I have a steady profit that I can put back towards bills and life and things.
So another thing to consider here is evaluating the economy. Right now, you know, there's a lot of recession talk, and like the price of living goes high and is all over the place. So, there is a time when inflation or changes in your lifestyle will require you to reevaluate your fees. And that's normal, I think we'll see this across the board in all Industries, so it's not just for travel. And you shouldn't feel bad about being like yeah I used to charge $150, however my cost of living has gone up, you know, 3%, 9%, 10%, whatever it is, and now I need more from my business. So those are my three things. Jen do you have anything to add?
Jennifer: Well, and the thing is, is like maybe you used to live in Georgia and now you moved to New York City. It is inflation 100%, but just like any lifestyle change, or you want a lifestyle change. I mean it is okay, like you said, you have permission to want more out of your lifestyle. And if you've been living incredibly moderately and now you're in a phase of your life where you're like, you know what, I'm actually ready to travel, and I only want to travel first class because I recognize that I don't enjoy myself for the first three days if I'm jet lagged when I'm there. Okay, well then you're not getting what you want out of your trip. And of course I take it back to travel because that's just like my main motivator. But also, what if you buy a house and that cost of living, I mean that cost of living has completely changed over the past 3 years, we've seen increases in interest rates but also increases in cost of homing. So I mean it's just incredible. I look at housing from 10 years ago versus now and I don't think that I've gotten a day older in the past 10 years. So I am also very confused about how this happened.
Robin: And again, if you are scared of fees, I'm just going to plant this little story, I guess, on you. But Jen did a really awesome training in our Niche Community earlier this week, and I'm just going to let you know there's a girl who charged, what a $2,500 fee? And it was paid.
Jennifer: $2,700, and I want to say, I love her for it because she actually did not charge fees. I won't say her name, but she was not charging fees a year and a half ago, So, if you're in a situation where you're like I could never charge that. Am I worth that? First of all, that's something that I want you guys to address with yourself, if you don't think you're worth it. Because I guarantee you are. So if you need hype women, we are here for you. But she wasn't charging anything, and it actually was largely associated with the other advisors that she was surrounding herself with, at the time. Where they were also not really charging fees nor were they calculating fees based off of the value they were adding to the trip. So there is a direct correlation not only with time tracking, but also value add. If someone is having a $2,700 better of a trip because you played a part in planning it, then heck yes you are worth that.
So, yes, that's a subjective number, and I would challenge everyone to look at this truly from a metrics perspective first. and then add some subjectivity. But I think that once it gets emotional people realize like yeah I did add that much value. 20 years from now when they look back on their trip, are they going to regret paying $2,700 for making sure that that trip went off smoothly, and we had this experience that was un-googleable, and it was personalized, we didn’t have to take time away from family to plan it, and we got these fabulous amenities because she VIP’d us. There are so many factors involved in what you add to it.
There's also so much risk in what we do and you have to cover your risk. If you are charging $100 for a fly and flop to service the booking and then you realize you made a mistake of $300, I mean you're in the hole immediately. So I mean, we address that on the last podcast for sure, but just I think these are that additional extra cushion, and you do need to have it directly associated with your risk of liability with the trip, the amount of time that it takes to create that beautiful trip. I think you should make a fee goal per month. I mean so many people focus on a sales goal, but a sales goal means nothing if you're not actually saying okay my sales goal is this, and I also have a minimum commission of this, then maybe it has a numerical value to it. But when you say just a sales goal, first of all, there are so many different commission structures that it frankly it means nothing. I don't want to minimize anyone that has a sales goal, because I absolutely did. But what I was going back to or what I want to go back to with the the fees is you need to set a monetary goal per month that allows you to live. Because even if you have no travel happening that month, you can say all right, well at least I know or at least I'm going to strive for XYZ per month when it comes to fees, and that way that's my foundation to live. And your commissions can cover your overhead, your commissions can you know be a dividend payout at the end of the year. We’re not here to tell you the finances and how to run those specifically. But if you don't have goals for your fees, I can assure you you're not going to meet them.
Robin: Think about it, because not just paying the bill, not paying your bills, but like you're business bills. Think about FAMs, and all the travel expenses. Setting a budget for yourself and your business, knowing that like hey, yeah, I know I'm going to Virtuoso Week. I'm going to pay for flights, try and like hit up the strip, or I'm also going to attend you know this fabulous FAM in Italy this year. And looking ahead, and actually putting some thought in, again it all comes back to like a business with intention, I guess. Approaching your business with intention but taking a look at your year and what's coming up and ensuring that those things are accounted for in your fees, as well. I really think we need to get a episode with like Giovana on here to just talk through like basic philosophy of profit first and things to consider when setting a budget and stuff like that. I can see Jen typing notes as I speak.
Jennifer: She would love that. She also loves, like you can see her light up, when we do well in a month. When our product percentage is a certain level. She gets so excited. When she says hey guys I think we can increase your income moving forward, like there is fulfillment for her just as there is fulfillment for anyone listening to this when a client gets exactly what they want out of a trip. So I mean she holds us accountable for paying ourselves and everyone deserves and needs that. And if that's us right now, because you don't have the funds necessarily to hire a contract CFO, that's the point of this podcast. We want to motivate you to get to the point where those fees are paying for those conveniences. I am someone that, I strongly believe in paying for convenience. It’s where I will put the majority of my money frankly. Robin knows I love to outsource.
Robin: Shes also the biggest “I’m going to upgrade to business or first class, while we're checking in for a flight, like that's literally every single time we go on trips. Jen’s like should we look at business class?
Jennifer: You know, if you learned rested, you just you are a better person for it. I actually love to upgrade on the way home more than I love upgrading going there because who wants to come home anyway. I mean I love being at home, I love my husband, love my house, love my dog, but I you're you're coming down off of that high of coming home and then you get a nice cushy place to lay your head, you get to be well rested. And it is something I will say, I think it's unfair for us to come home to, whether it be family or friends, and be the worst version of ourselves. Because when you're coming home from a trade fair, if you're coming home from a FAM, I think you'd be hard-pressed to find that someone that's coming home rested and the best version of themselves. Do you best believe I love an upgrade.
Robin: Include it in your fee!
Jennifer: Yeah, include it in your fee. Account for it.
Okay well we will wrap this up, but Robin mentioned that we had a training in Niche this week, where one of our members even shared her calculator for fees. And yes, it was the one who charges the $2700 fee that got paid without even a blink. So she calculates that based on duration, number of clients, and number of days. Seeing our members benefit from these conversations epitomizes exactly why we've created the Niche community. So we want to end this episode and say if you are looking to find a place where you can have the resources to elevate and streamline your business, and have crucial conversations that allow you to make those changes, we would love to have you.
We're sending you a long distance cheers because you just finished an episode of Tique Talk, and we're so grateful for your support. If you loved what you heard, hit subscribe and head over to the show notes for any resources, and a summary of the episode. In the meantime, if you want more access to us, we're personally inviting you to join our niche boutique community where we host live events, answer your questions, share destination masterclasses, and give you a front row seat to all resources that we launched throughout the year. What's better than being surrounded by like minded advisors who are hyping you up to succeed each day? We think nothing. Head to www.tiquehq.com/niche to join the community today!
