What’s your biggest struggle as a travel entrepreneur?

No matter what you’re wrestling with, Andrea Ross has been there. Over the course of 12 years, she started a tour company from the ground up, grew it to profitability and eventually sold it. She’s now a business advisor who helps other travel company owners through the same process, and she joins this episode of the podcast to share her insights.

Andrea discusses the good decisions — and the bad mistakes — she made in her time as a tour operator. She shares the most common challenges travel entrepreneurs face and how you can measure and grow the value of business. Plus, we have news about free Wi-Fi on Southwest Airlines; a Road Tip about dealing with sick travelers; and a Hot Minute about the reality of struggling travel businesses.

Podcast: Embed

Insights from Andrea Ross

Andrea had lots of hard-won insights from her time in the trenches as a tour operator. Here’s what she had to say about the common pain that almost all travel entrepreneurs feel:

“Across the spectrum, the challenges are the same. How do I duplicate myself? I’m working 80 hours a week, I’m exhausted. How do I force myself to work on my business so I can grow some of the processes and procedures and some of the training, when really I’m just holding a fire extinguisher putting out fires?”

Resources Mentioned in This Episode

Email Andrea Ross at andrea@cultivateadvisors.com.

Browse our catalog of more than 250 free group tour itineraries here.

Key Moments From This Episode

1:49 — Travel News: Southwest launching Free Wi-Fi fleetwide

3:07 — Road Tip: You need a sick policy

7:48 — Your best source for group travel itineraries

12:35 — How Andrea Ross launched, grew and sold a tour company

18:15 — The pain every tourism entrepreneur feels

20:09 — Growing your company beyond yourself

22:18 — Problems that come with a growing tour company

24:00 — How to know when it’s time to sell your travel business

32:13 — Overcoming pandemic PTSD as a tourism professional

49:13 — Hot Minute: Do you have a travel business or a travel hobby?

Watch the Full Interview

See the full interview with Andrea on our YouTube channel.

About the Podcast

Gather and Go with Brian Jewell is a tourism industry podcast that helps group travel leaders plan, promote and lead better trips. There are also tips and insights for destination marketers and others who support the tourism trade. Each episode reaches thousands of professional tour operators, travel agents and the volunteer group leaders they serve. The audience also includes destination museum leaders, church travel leaders and other tourism enthusiasts around the world. Each show includes an interview with a smart travel pro or an insightful person from outside tourism who’s expertise can help make travel businesses better. You’ll also hear travel news, road tips and more. New episodes are released about twice monthly.

You can find Gather and Go wherever your listen to podcasts or subscribe by email.

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