Stressed About the New Financial Year Already??
We're well into the 08/09 financial year, don't let tax issues stress you out and consult the Australian Taxation Office website for any of your burning taxation questions....
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"If you're attacking your market from multiple positions and your competition isn't, you have all the advantage and it will show up in your increased success and income. "
Jay Abraham (US Marketing Expert).
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Your privacy |
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This Statement sets out the TA Fastrack privacy policy in respect of personal information which you may provide to TA Fastrack. |
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Business Survival in Tough Times
Comment by Adrian Caruso
Being successful in business is
tough....always. However, when the
economy slumps and stays down for a
period of time, many business owners’
thoughts turn from being successful to
merely surviving. The successful
owners do more than just think about
it...they act!
Many travel and tourism industry business leaders are predicting 'doom and gloom' for the industry in coming months. However I am predicting the opposite with many travel businesses recording record sales in July and excellent forward bookings and profit forecasts for the next 12 months. Factors contributing to this include unemployment is still at a record low, there is a continuing booming resources sector, more and more low-cost airlines are entering the market and Aussie's are still wanting to take a holiday more than ever....probably to 'de-stress'. |
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When you analyse the success of these businesses, it seems due to nothing particularly outstanding. In fact, the only outstanding aspect of their operations is the sheer number of small things that they do well.
If you feel you are not expecting a great 12 months:
1. Look in the Mirror - you’re running this show, so are you:
- Giving a strong lead to your team, morally, ethically, commercially?
- Demonstrating the type of behaviour and attitude you want to see in them?
- Physically fit and able to support the mental toughness you’ll need?
- Positive in your outlook?
- Positive in your look out for opportunities?
- Avoiding collections of “the depressed” (e.g. low-end networking groups)?
- Seeking the company of positive people you can lift and be lifted by?
- On a strong mental diet of positive business reading?
- Talking to experts who can push the limits of your thinking?
- Investing time thinking deeply about alternatives, options and opportunities?
Become the change you want to see in your business.
2. Top-grade Your Hands - you’re only as good as your weakest link, so are you:
- Right-sizing your team for the current or emerging environment?
- Setting challenging team & individual goals then measuring performance and providing feedback?
- Culling your low performers?
- Promoting and developing your top performers?
- Seeking the best of those who may now have been released into the market?
- Investing in training to raise morale, increase productivity, and attract better people?
- Raising and maintaining morale and a strong esprit de corps?
- Investing in guidance for yourself from business experts?
The mere presence of low performers always impacts on high performers.
3. Lighten the Load of Badly-structured Debt - Debt can be a great lubricant for business, but it comes at a price and when business slows it’s time to lighten the load of non-essential debt. You can say, “How can I do that when sales are down?” but I’ll simply respond, “There are ways, and if you don’t apply those now, tomorrow someone else may be making those decisions without you!”. Are you:
- Shedding your lowest performing team members? (You’ll be surprised at how much better the remaining good ones can operate without them.)
- Selling off any asset that is not paying its way? (That may include some of the trophies the business has bought you: car, boat, plane, weekender, office trappings.)
- Analysing equipment for cost effectiveness? (It may be time to upgrade old equipment whose running costs are greater than the combined finance and running costs of newer models.)
- Comparing the cost of credit cards, overdraft and other high-cost finance facilities against a debt-consolidation facility such as a long-term loan, or better, a call on shareholder’s funds at favourable rates?
- Moving your team towards performance-based rewards? (The extra productivity can wipe out debt surprisingly quickly.)
- Setting your team a goal to find savings that can be applied against debt? (Lee Iacocca’s team found $1bn pa in cost savings 4 years in a row at Chrysler.)
You sell yourself into debt, but think your way out of it!
4. Upgrade Your Systems - “Systems” are ways of repeatedly producing desirable outcomes for the lowest possible investment of time, people and resources. So are you:
- Starting with the 80/20 Rule? 80% of your profits come from 20% of the things you do – are you working out what you no longer need to do (or, at least, in the current climate)?
- Reviewing, upgrading and understanding your financial systems better so that you can sail closer to the wind in tough times, with greater safety?
- Reviewing your production systems; looking to tweak them for output, cost, quality, efficiency?
- Looking for ways of making existing systems last longer through better maintenance, upgrading, modification?
- Streamlining administration with a view to doing less with less? Leave out any step in the process that does not add value.
- Assessing your marketing systems? (More in the next item.)
- Upgrading your customer relationship development systems? (In tight times, you’re probably five times more likely to gain a sale from an existing customer than from a new prospect.)
Without systems, you pay people to re-invent the wheel every day!
5. Market Smarter - Accept the maxim that “half of our marketing is wasted”, set out to identify the half that is, then stop doing it - and put half of the saved resources into what works! That will give you a 25% reduction in costs for a 100% increase in results. So are you:
- Brainstorming with your team to enable the above marketing strategy?
- Brainstorming with Customers to find out what else they want?
- Brainstorming with Suppliers to find out what they can provide to boost your efforts?
- Entering trade/industry/business awards both as a morale builder and focus device around which to build service levels and other performance? (And, ‘yes’, you gain exposure as well.)
- Using your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems to communicate meaningfully (to them) with all of your Customers?
- Fixing your CRM? If it’s a shambles because you’ve never had the time or resources to fix it, isn’t this your chance to create an asset with huge current relevance and future potential?
- Exploring high-impact, low-cost guerrilla marketing options?
- Clarifying and measuring the results you expect from every marketing exercise?
- Value-adding to your products when everyone else is cutting their offerings?
- Seeking referrals to new prospective Customers from old, at every opportunity?
- Cross-marketing with Suppliers, Customers – even suitable competitors?
- Watching for competitors who fold and leave a gap that you could fill? Clients whom you could adopt?
- Meeting the market with products and services that are relevant in tightened circumstances?
- Investing in guidance to upgrade your own command of marketing to bring it in-house?
Marketing is the promise you make to your marketplace.
Your product is the keeping of that promise. |
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Are You the Best Place to Work For?
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With the critical staff shortage in the travel and tourism industry it is now more important than ever to retain your current staff and attract new personnel. TA Fastrack has commissioned Great Place To Work® Institute Australia to conduct research into the best 100 companies to work for in the Travel and Tourism industry.
This a great way to promote your organisation to prospective employees to seek employment with you. The study will also provide you with an insight into how your employees view their workplace and help you understand the strengths that help make your organisation great. And then the opportunities to make it even better.
To find out more about the study please Call Zrinka Lovrencic at Great Place to Work™ Institute on 1800 13 17 89 or email her.
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Is Your Travel Business Winning?
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FREE BUSINESS HEALTH CHECK!
Discover why our clients have WON 17 of the major travel industry awards over the past 12 months...
Our client's recent wins include
three major category awards and two finalists positions at the recent NTIA Awards; overall winner, two major category winners, one highly commended AND four finalists at the Travel Weekly Australian Travel Awards, 2 major category award winners at the Travelscene AMEX National Conference and two major awards at the recent Jetset Travelworld Conference held in Fiji.
Are you winning so far this year? Are you reaching all the goals you want? Our clients have been, all because they share the same business resource...Adrian Caruso, Australia's No.1 Travel, Tourism and Hospitality Business Coach, Management Consultant and Trainer. Let Adrian work with you closely to help you reach all your business goals, work less and earn so much more.
Call Adrian directly 07 3630 1298 to discuss how you can be part of the winning team!
OR click here for a FREE BUSINESS HEALTH CHECK!
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Not Enough Time to do Your Marketing?
Let us do it for you.
TA Fastrack is pleased to announce the opening of a new division within the group 'fastrack marketing' - your complete travel, tourism and hospitality marketing solutions provider. With over 56 years of combined travel, tourism and hospitality industry knowledge, the team at fastrack marketing knows how to make your marketing get results.....fast.
FREE Marketing and Website Audit (including a SEO Ranking Report)!
Our industry is so different to any other: so are the marketing strategies required to be successful in it. At fastrack marketing our in-depth knowledge of the industry guarantees your marketing will instantly fastrack your profits and bring your customers back again and again.
From simple ideas that won't cost much to implement, to complete marketing campaigns, our team use proven 'best practice strategies' that the most successful travel, tourism and hospitality businesses in the world use. They work, are right for your business, your target audience and most importantly your budget. It is exactly what you NEED without all the fluff you normally receive from non-travel, tourism and hospitaly specialised marketing firms.
fastrack marketing can provide you with:
- Complete marketing campaigns
- We-do-it-for you newsletters and eNewsletters
- Flyers, brochures, posters
- Printing, graphic design and copy writing that works
- Direct mail campaigns
- Referral programs
- Websites, SEO and complete online marketing campaings
To discuss your marketing needs, call our FREE marketing help line 07 3630 1298
Click HERE for a FREE Marketing and Website Audit - including a FREE Search Engine Ranking Report
Some of our recent client's who have used 'fastrack marketing' include:
  
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Why the Design of Your Hotel Website Matters
by Adrian Caruso
It’s more than just Personal Taste - with so many hotels relying on the Internet to help fill their rooms- it amazes me that there are still so many hotel web sites that are not designed to produce room reservations. After-all isn’t that the primary reason why hotel sites are published to the Internet to begin with? It’s also shocking that so many web site designers don’t have a clue about search engines, how they work, nor how and why people select a hotel in which to stay.
So much of the planning and designing of a productive hotel web site starts with the intent of the designer, when the site is being designed. Does the designer understand the purpose of a hotel site? Stephen Covey, in his best seller “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People”, teaches us to “Begin with the end in mind”.
With hotel web sites, the “end” to keep in mind is that a hotel web site must be designed to “sell” reservations; not simply to be an online brochure. Many people have asked me why I feel so strongly that it takes knowledge of hotel marketing to design a productive hotel web site. It’s because an effective hotel web site must incorporate the basic hotel marketing principles of location, facilities, and attractions (both business and leisure); and, most importantly, the site must include dominant well-written sales text.
While a hotel brochure is designed to describe facilities and services, it is not relied upon to “close” sales. The purpose of a web site is far more complex. It must be designed to create search engine popularity, so the site can be found using many different search terms; it must create interest in the hotel’s location, facilities, and services; and, most importantly, its text must be written to convert “lookers into bookers”.
It’s Location, Location, and Location…
With few exceptions, people visit an area but stay at a hotel because of its location, nearby attractions and facilities. Knowing this, it makes pure common-sense to highlight your hotel’s location. It is always amazing to me to see so many hotel web sites which give no clue where the hotel is located; some even without a posted address.
Your location is a very special place. Your location has its own special attributes which attract visitors from all over the World. Your web site should prominently highlight your location’s special attributes and provide a reason to visit that location. Simply listing your hotel’s address is not enough; generating new visitors to your hotel’s location is most important; sell destination first, your hotel second.
Having a Web Presence
In the beginning of the Internet’s popularity, only ten or so years ago, many hotels had the foresight to take advantage of the opportunity to have a presence on this radically new marketing medium. But the Internet has changed a lot since then; we learned that merely having a presence on the Internet does not necessarily generate reservations.
Many of these early sites were designed by pure technicians, or in some cases the owner’s nephew, with a flair for design and some techno-knowledge of how to publish a web site on the Internet. Some sites were good; many were terrible, but in those days, few hoteliers knew how much the Internet would impact our industry and they knew even less about how to design a hotel web site to sell reservations.
During its maturation process, the number of web sites on the Internet has grown exponentially and search engines (the heart of the Internet) have been refined and improved; and are constantly being improved today. If a site cannot be found easily, it’s useless.
The Internet’s explosive growth has been unprecedented in our lifetime. Google, one of the Internet’s most popular search engines indexes more than 6.8 billion web sites. World population is 6.6 billion people; that’s more than one site for each and every one of us! Without search engines, navigating the net would be nearly impossible.
At this point you may be wondering what web site design has to do with search engines; the answer is everything. Search engine requirements must be built into the site’s design. Keep in mind that search engines, at the present time, read text; images and graphics are, for the most part, invisible to them. Search engines seek-out sites which contain the words contained in the search term.
Many web site designers do an excellent job of making web sites look attractive, but fail miserably to comply with search engine and hotel sales and marketing needs. It’s what your site “says” and “how it says it” that creates popularity with search engines and converts visitors into reservations.
Some Web Site Common-Sense
Hotel site designers, even those with hotel marketing experience, tend to be very right-brained creative types. Don’t assume that they always know all those key factors which make your hotel’s location unique and popular. When you select a designer for your site, either new or replacement site, make a list of sales features and keep them in priority order.
A good designer knows the prime web site real estate to occupy those most important details of your location and hotel. Remember, it’s not just what you say; it’s how you say it. Begin with the end in mind; the “end” is to generate reservations not just increase the number of visitors to your site.
I know it’s tempting to let your designer create a work of art; after-all you have all those beautiful images of your hotel, but it’s often their lack of hotel sales knowledge which will doom your site to obscurity and mediocre performance.
Good simple navigation of your site is also essential. Basic rule; don’t make users learn how to navigate your web site. Understanding how and why people choose a hotel is the first ingredient in designing a hotel web site. It is not a matter of simply describing all your hotel’s attributes; it is how they are presented that really counts.
Take an Objective Look at Your Site
If your site is not producing a good volume of reservations, it’s probably time to have a marketing analysis done of your site. A site analysis can reveal why your site is performing poorly; often some minor adjustments can make a substantial difference in your sales results. It can also reveal a need to scrap your current site in favor of a new, properly designed, one.
Are you measuring your site’s conversion rate? If not, why not? Don’t be fooled by simply measuring the number of visitors to your site. Most hotel web sites only convert less than four percent of visitors into reservations; increasing that ratio is the ultimate goal. Properly written and placed sales text can make a huge difference.
A web site is a living breathing sales tool which needs to be adjusted constantly to keep up with changes in your market, your hotel, and the ever-changing search engine parameters. Your web site is generating data and statistics, which you can use to improve your web site and its performance. Ask your web master to produce and evaluate this data. Sometimes there may be a small additional fee, but it is very worthwhile.
Your web site is capable of producing 30% to 70% of your total reservations; get it to work for you.
Let us help you develop your website! Email Us and we will assist you with your website needs.
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Recent Reports - Online Travel Sales
A few interesting reports have popped up recently, one from the study of Australian leisure trends by Google found that many travelers research online but book with an agent.
Another recent report from the Australia and New Zealand Online Travel Review predicts significant growth potential in the online area. This is all good news for the travel and tourism industry! Make sure you are using your website to it's full potential (Don't forget to send out regular eNewsletters to your customers too!). And if you don't have a website yet or it hasn't been updated for awhile, contact us and we'll help you get on track!
Meet our newest team member
Zoe Gorbunow
TA Fastrack is proud to announce the recruitment of ZOE GORBUNOW as the new Business/Marketing Coordinator, at Head Office (Brisbane).
Zoe finished her Bachelor of Mass Communications majoring in Public Relations & Journalism at the Queensland University of Technology in November 2005. Her marketing skills have been utilised across a diverse range of companies and has recently decided to pursue a career within the travel and tourism industry.
Zoe has years of experience experience in a Marketing environment and is excited about her new appointment and looks forward to working with many new people in the travel and tourism industry. |
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Read on About the TA Fastrack Team....
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Advertise Your Next Job with e-Travel Blackboard!
Job advertising on e-Travel Blackboard begins at $110 plus GST and all job ads are now listed for a total of 30 days. Advertise with us to reach a scope of over 26 000 Travel, Tourism and Hospitality employees each day. We also offer discounts for pre-paying multiple inserts: Book 3-5 inserts to receive 5% discount, 6-9 inserts to receive 10% discount or prepay 10 or more inserts to receive 20% off brochure rates. Inserts must be used within 12 months.
Single Job Position - Text Only Ad. The rate is AUD $110 plus GST per insert for a single job ad. This includes up to 100 words of text, contact details.
Single Job Position - Text with logo ad. The rate is AUD $140 plus GST per insert for a single job ad, text and logo. This includes your company logo, text up to 300 words, full HTML colour artwork and any hyperlinks/ email addresses/ application details and is approximately A4 size.
All job advertisements are listed within the employment category on the homepage and newsletter for one day, it then moves to our employment sub page for a further 29 days. To proceed, simply forward your job advertisement and contact details to anthony@etravelblackboard.com
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About us
TA Fastrack is Australasia's leading travel and tourism business coaching, management consulting, marketing, training and web marketing solutions provider. Under the guidance of the industry's most experienced people based in Australia, New Zealand and now in Singapore, TA Fastrack has pioneered many of today's 'best practices' for travel agents, tourism businesses and tourist government boards world-wide. |
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We can help you with:
Read on about TA Fastrack.. |
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