You can listen directly here. 

Admitting you need help running your business is a choice business owners have to make if they want the business to grow. However, the biggest questions that surround this decision is where who and how to find the right person to provide the necessary support.

 

In this episode, Ros and her assistant Mayette talk about tasks that travel agents can outsource, options on where to find and hire someone depending on your needs and how to hire the right one for your business. 

Show Transcription: 

 

Announcer: Welcome to Travel Agent Achievers! The place to learn how to grow your travel business and have fun with it. Join Roslyn and her guests as they walk you through proven steps to a fulfilling and profitable business. 

 

Roslyn Ranse:  Hey, guys, welcome back to another episode of Travel Agent Achievers. I'm Ros your host, and I am here today with a very special guest. My very own colleague and assistant Mayette Gacasan, who is based in the Philippines and we work very closely together and have what together for the last 18 months. 

 

Mayette Gacasan: Yes, 18 months to be exact.

 

Roslyn Ranse: So we're going to talk about today, working with another person or working with someone or getting help with your bookings, now as mobile travel agents, we have to do everything that is, all of your bookings for your clients, getting sales, handling your accounts, your marketing, the list is endless, including all your administration, preparing all your documents and files and whether you choose to work with somebody next to you so having somebody work side by side or whether you choose to have somebody working in a remote office or even offshore. 

 

The choices are really endless. 

 

So we are going to have a chat about the 

why’s, 

the how’s, 

the why’s and whether this is a right fit for you or not 

On our website, which you'll find at www.travelagentachievers.com/podcast. This will be episode 009 and we're going to have a very special download for you with a whole bunch of tasks that you can have a look at and work out whether you need help or whether there are things there that you can get help with. 

 

This is also going to be on the main page of our website travelagentachievers.com will refer to that in the show notes just that you've got all the information and you can refer back to it and also have a look at what you might be able to get some help with your travel business. 

 

So let's kick right off with working with someone or getting some help with your bookings. 

 

Hi Mayette, welcome!

 

Mayette Gacasan: Hi Ros, it’s an honour and a pleasure to be part of this podcast for you. 

 

Roslyn Ranse: I am so glad that you're here and just so everybody knows Mayette and I have spent the last three weeks together we've been touring around the country together we've launched conferences together in our travel business. We've also just returned from Fiji, which was Mayette’s first time.

 

Mayette Gacasan: Yes and doing activities. It was an awesome experience. I can't wait to sell Fiji for our clients. 

 

Roslyn Ranse: We've had a lot of fun together, but it's been very full on and we've just spent our last night together. We're both flying back to our home destinations and we've spent our last night together here at the Shangri-La Sydney where it's been beautiful. 

 

Mayette Gacasan: The view guys waking up with this beautiful sunrise and then the night that we spent with the city lights. It's just amazing and beautiful. 

 

Roslyn Ranse: It's been a lot of fun together, but as we all know in travel, this is also considered work we have been nonstop and I think Mayette is certainly looking forward to sleep on the plane when she gets home.

 

So now where we're talking about why you might get help from someone whether as I said that is here in Australia, in the U.S., if you're in the U.S. 

Hey to all of my Canadian and American friends and listeners. And also, if you want to look at offshoring some of your tasks and working with a virtual assistant or somebody working remotely in a different country. 

 

So why would you do this as a mobile agent? 

 

As we've just said, it's because you've got so much on your plate. 

 

You are handling your bookings. 

You're processing everything. 

You're doing your own administration. 

You're handling your own accounts. 

You're an accountant. 

You’re a marketer.

You’re a salesperson

You’re an administration staff member 

You are IT.

 

So it can get to a point and I know from my own experience that being quite overwhelmed with everything that you have to do, I constantly for years run off to-do lists and different pieces of paper everywhere that I was trying to keep up with. 

 

So I think it's the overwhelmedness. 

It's also getting burnt out when you're just so tired you physically cannot do anymore. 

You can't keep up. 

 

I've had experiences for myself where my sister was visiting and I couldn't answer the phone. 

 

I did not want to listen to my voicemail messages at a fear that it was another booking or that there was so much going on and I couldn't keep up. 

The fear that somebody might not like me or I’ve upset them. 

 

It was a real catch 22 but it was I just couldn't do everything. 

And I think that that was a real turning point for myself getting help, and this was about six or seven years ago because I was running a household, traveling, I have a child now, Jackson, who's almost five and it's a lot. 

 

And I think it became the norm for me like it was very normal to be doing everything. And I had a lot of friends and colleagues that would be like, you're superwoman, how are you trying to do everything? This is just crazy, how are you managing your life? 

 

And for me, it just had to be done. So the ‘why’ for me was that I just needed help, and it got to a point where it was ridiculous. So I don't want any of you guys listening out there to get to this point or to feel as though it's all too much and you want to throw in the towel or go back and get a job because I can guarantee there is light at the end of the tunnel. 

 

There is help out there for you and as mobile agents as well, we're not making $1,000,000 we’re not the big business owners or the corporates that are the ones getting back in commissions or overrides or anything like that. 

 

We are doing our job, and we're working very hard for it. 

 

So money is important and it can be scarce, and we need to be resourceful with it. So Mayette and I have sat down and we've come up with a whole bunch of ideas and different opportunities and help for you. 

 

So we now have the ‘why’ we need help. We're going to talk about the ‘who’, and then we'll discuss the ‘what’ you can do. 

 

The who is what sort of help. 

 

We have several different options, and we'll start with part-time or casual help. This person could be based locally, for instance, where they do prepare your documents for you. They do your deliveries for you. They may help with exposed that you're putting together. 

 

They may assist with administration. Now, this could be a friend, a family member. You know, a lot of us have all got kids. Preparing documents, putting them into envelopes, preparing these packages for our clients, writing out envelopes that gives them some good help as well, so family members or you might have a local contact or a subcontractor. 

And I've also had this as well so I've had a local person that worked with me full time as a subcontractor, and that was great.

 

That’s for your part-time or your casual help, depending on your costs and how much you're able to spend. Then we're looking at another option, which is an ad hoc person. 

 

So this could be somebody who might just come in and help you with a wedding expo. or come and help you with some administration from time to time. Special projects, data entry, a graphic designer to put together some marketing material for you or even some research. And this is how I initially started working with ad hoc staff and just on a very casual basis. 

 

So getting there wasn't the commitment that I felt as though I needed to be employing somebody all the time but there were little special projects that needed to be done occasionally. How can you do this? We are going to link to a couple of these options in our show notes and also in a very special download for you as well. 

 

One of the options is Fiverr, will link to this in the show notes. Fiverr is a very cool little website where you type in or search for what you might need to be done as an example, and this is really silly. You might want to turn your face into a gif, or you might want to turn yourself into a Simpsons character, or you might be looking for some video help. 

 

There's something very particular you may also be looking for some graphic design work or preparing a brochure for marketing. 

 

So Fiverr is really good for special projects, little bits, and pieces, and the benefit of that is that it also only costs $5 there are options where you could pay more. So there are options where you could be paying more and that is for somebody dedicated to doing things faster for you or they could be doing an ad on. 

 

So if you're preparing a website, you need somebody to add on something additional. So that's Fiverr. And it's generally a $5 project that you're looking for but you can pay more. 

 

The other ad hoc website that I've used previously is called Odesk it is great for administration assistance or if you're looking for a graphic designer or somebody to do some research for you. So again, special projects and how this works is you have your job description or you have your project ready to go. You know exactly what you're looking for. 

So my very first Odesk contract was to prepare all of my expo registrants. It was a wedding expo. People filled out their name and email address, and I had all of these on a form, and I'd upload them all is a PDF, but I wanted them as an Excel document so that I could then export the email addresses and then email everybody so on Odesk, I was able to say this is the job I gave the criteria that I was looking for, and you can search for contractors. 

 

You can determine how much you want to pay for this project and where you want people to come from, whether they're highly recommended, how many projects they’ve done previously and these are all contractors all over the world. If you would like somebody in Australia or in America, you can also choose the country. If you're looking for somebody with very special skills, you can search for that. 

 

It's really easy and by narrowing down the skill set as well, so they may have undertaken Google Sheets or an Excel course, and they might be in the top 1% of people that have completed that course. So you can really set the parameters of what sorts of people you would like to apply for your job, and you can reach out to them as well. It's amazing to be able to look for something very particular, and that would match your specific needs for the terms that task. 

 

So it's a special project, data entry, and graphic design. So I initially had my very first graphic designer. I found them on Odesk, and they then worked with me for three years on special projects. Putting together brochures for me and flyers and any marketing materials that I needed specifically for my clients or groups or exhibitions that I was doing. And they became a kind of part of my family. 

 

Mayette Gacasan: Yes, 3 years is long. 

 

Roslyn Ranse: It was really good to build a relationship, and they also understood my brand and my requirements, so that was really good as well. So Odesk is another option for ad hoc work. 

 

This is specific special projects, data entry, graphic design, web design, any research as well. There are people who are researchers on there, so it also works as a very cost-effective solution. 

So those are two different options, part-time, casual help or ad hoc for different tasks. And now we're going to talk about having a dedicated assistant or a full-time staff member. So this is for real when your business is taken off or it's established, you have a consistent source of income. You know what's being generated, and you might be the sales machine or the marketing machine. 

 

I wouldn't recommend hiring a dedicated assistant to be your salesperson because this is your business, right? So as a mobile travel agent or as a travel agent, this is your business. It's not for you to 

go out and outsource the sales role. So having a dedicated person, this can either be locally wherever you are or they can be virtual. 

 

And as I have said in my experience over the last 12 years, I've had both. I've had somebody locally who has worked as a dedicated assistant, helping process my bookings. And I've also had virtual staff, and I'm lucky that I got Mayette here with me now. 

 

Mayette Gacasan: Tada! 

 

Roslyn Ranse: So do you need full-time help? Do you need somebody long term? Is this a business that you're in for the long haul and you're prepared to put the training and time into somebody who can help with your business? And I think that that's a question that you need to ask yourself. 

 

You really need to be able to trust somebody with your business, with your clients, with your suppliers, because if you want to take your business to the next level, you really need to be able to let go of some things. And I've also learned this the hard way, whether it comes to micromanaging or not being able to release tasks. 

 

And Mayette’s going to tell you a story, I'm sure where she actually put a foot down and just let it go. You know, this is just a really good opportunity for you to build up over time. There are many things that I would say do and don’ts. 

 

But first of all, I really want to encourage you to go onto our website www.travelagentachievers.com and download the freebie, which is 50 things that you can outsource or get help with your travel business. And I've listed these out based on my own specific experience for different tasks, things that you might like to do things that you don't like doing and things that you could definitely let go off. 

 

And this can even work as a job description, really. At the end of the day, it's great preparation, right? So you can have this person onshore or offshore. Mayette, you've been with me now for 18 months. I am going to ask you some of your experiences. So everybody here in advance. I'm going to let Mayette loose. So please be kind. 

 

So why would you have a dedicated person? 

 

You really want to build your business. You want to focus on generating sales and this is going to be your focus is the mobile travel agent. You want to be generating their business to come into the office. 

You also want to be able to work on your business instead of always in your business. And you also want to have a long term relationship. I wouldn't recommend getting somebody into your business and fully immersed. And then you say, after three or six months, oh that’s it I'm done because that person, will have invested a lot of time and training as well, and so you need to look at this somebody for the long haul. 

 

Now, we all know with employees they may not always be in it for the long haul. And I've had my fair share as well, where the staff has come and they then decided it's not for them or they haven't been the right fit for my company and me as well. 

 

So they've also chosen to move on, and that's ok. 

That's life. 

That's experience, right? Not everybody stays forever.

 

Mayette Gacasan: And not everybody is perfect for that position. 

 

Roslyn Ranse: Exactly. So you'll then have other people that you invest time into training. Mayette, now you've been with me for just over 18 months, and you've traveled with me quite a lot as well. 

 

Mayette Gacasan: I’ve learned a lot.

 

Roslyn Ranse: And you've also traveled with me. So I'm very fortunate that Mayette has background experience with airlines working for Hawaiian Airlines in the Philippines. So she's got that experience and knowledge of the hospitality and tourism industry, but also the systems that we work with as a travel agent. 

 

So it was quite an easy transition would you say?

 

Mayette Gacasan: It was easy but a lot of challenges because it was a new job.

 

Roslyn Ranse: So with any new job, there's always learning and training. And one thing that I just want to say now talking about learning and training was when you first started, Mayette said to me Ros about our emails.

Mayette Gacasan: Yes, I said Ros please bear with me. This is new to me, like all written emails. I'm not comfortable because I've been doing it over the phone. It was an 8 hours shift doing phone calls so that’s my comfort zone. 

 

So doing emails you have to bear with me, you have to I need your guidance with every question that I have. And luckily, Ros was really helpful and really patient.

 

Roslyn Ranse: But also for me, writing emails to my clients as I type them out. But when Mayette came on board, your background working for an airline everything is really systemized. So you do phone calls. You know exactly what you need. You've got scripts, training, and procedures and coming into travel business, and I hope that there are other mobile agents out there that are like me that think that every booking is different. I think that every booking is different. However, after the first few months, Mayette remember you saying to me, “Ros, can we have some email templates”? 

 

Mayette Gacasan: Definitely. I said that. 

 

Roslyn Ranse: And what was my reaction really like? 

 

Mayette Gacasan: You were like, “No, we have to do personal touch for every email”, and I was like, “You know we can do that but most of the words that were saying is just the same thing like for quotes, for deadlines like we need to set some sort of templates and we'll just highlight which ones we have to change and add the specific personalized statements within the emails.”

 

Roslyn Ranse: So I was thinking that I needed to duplicate myself and somebody who was able to write individual emails to all of my clients. But Mayette highlighted to me Ros, no, we could have templates for all of these things. 

 

That was huge for me, and I think I was so dead against it, wasn’t I for a few months, and I was like, no way we're not having templates. We need to write these specifically for our clients and after, you know, another few months. 

 

So you probably about 4 or 5 months into the job and you had come to me and I started asking you about systems for our business, and I said, we need to do this better, and we need to put together some systems, and I asked Mayette the sorts of things and she said, well, yeah, our emails, but what have you already done? 

Mayette Gacasan: I've already set up a Google Doc with the template. I have the title of the Google doc as templates sample. I shared it with Ros but I didn't know that she opened it like after how many months and then she responded to me like, Wow, this is great. 

 

Roslyn Ranse: I can't believe you have done this. 

 

Mayette Gacasan: It was really funny that I still had to go with the feeling that no, I think this will work. Especially if we will get a new person. This will work. This will work. 

 

Roslyn Ranse: So you took the initiative and I think that that’s something when you're looking for a dedicated person or anybody to come into travel business, you need to have that gut feeling and you need to have somebody who will talk with you and help you grow the business. 

 

Not necessarily just be a processor or follow things or you don't want to go to the other side and have somebody who tries to take over your business because it's your business at the end of the day and by you coming on board Mayette and you writing these, you know, templates out I was I was initially really shocked, but I loved it because you took the initiative, which I'm very grateful for and we now have they not specifically dedicated emails. 

 

But they're saying that we say most of the time. 

 

Mayette Gacasan: Yes, for general enquiries, for general quotes, travel insurance, definitely travel insurance.

 

Roslyn Ranse:  Yes, you say exactly the same thing. So for us, it was it's about building long term relationship and recognizing our skillset working together. But then setting up some systems and we'll talk about that before. 

 

So when we're looking at who to hire, you definitely need somebody with some skills. I've done this where I hired somebody from scratch who I thought had the experience, however, didn't they were more administration or and it's really hard to try and teach somebody from scratch when you're a mobile agent because you are trying to do everything in your business so you do need somebody with some skills. I think hospitality or tourism. They need to have a passion for travel. 

 

Mayette Gacasan: That's a big, big, big yes.

Roslyn Ranse: So if you don’t have a passion for travel, you don't get excited about your client's trips. 

 

Mayette Gacasan: That's what I've mentioned to Ros, with the work that I'm doing it seems like it's 18 months and I don't have to think, oh I'm going to work. It's just like I keep going every day. I'm learning something new.

 

Roslyn Ranse: Yes, learning something new. It's exciting, we do different things. No day is the same. So you've got to have a passion for travel, your demeanor, and personality for the job. You need to have somebody who is personable. 

 

Mayette Gacasan: Yes, someone that you can present to your clients, that you can trust them. 

 

Roslyn Ranse: So I am very particular when we're at a conference or an event that we dress appropriately, that we are, you know, we've done hair and makeup, we look really nice and we're presenting very well. You need to have that person that has the demeanor to be able to talk with clients or suppliers that can bounce off you with ideas and in conversations as well. 

Now being a work from home agents, and I know Mayette’s in the dedicated office, so you go to an office every day. However, I don't have to dress up.

 

I can wear a shirt and a pair of jeans. That's okay when I'm at home, but definitely, you need to have somebody who their demeanor and personality for the job is going to work. 

 

You want to make sure that they present very well. 

They also need to be trustworthy. 

 

You are dealing with finances, private information, credit card details, passport details, specific things about a client which are really personal, their address, where they're traveling to when they're traveling like that information is very confidential, and we are trusted as travel agents with that personal information. 

 

A lot of people will just dismiss it and go oh, yeah, we just book holidays or we just booked travel. But I think you need to really be aware that people are trusting you with a lot of sensitive information that can these days, unfortunately, be easily taken, you know, and used inappropriately. 

 

So when you're hiring somebody, make sure that they're trustworthy. How do you do that? I think that 

you limit the information to start off with. I think that you don't share your personal passwords to your systems. You use something like Lastpass, will add to that in the show notes as well.

 

Lastpass is a password sharing website, so you can then share a website or share credentials to log into a website without that person actually seeing the actual password. 

 

And I think you really need to ensure that you're protecting sensitive information with somebody else because this day and age you don't know what's happening.

 

Mayette Gacasan: Especially you’re hiring someone, it's either local or virtual. 

 

Roslyn Ranse: Yeah, so your systems, even your computer system, you need to have good firewalls on it. Don't become complacent, guys. I want you to really think hard about this because that person needs to be trustworthy. 

 

Your clients are trusting you with this sensitive information. 

Make sure that you're then trusting somebody else.  

 

I also have a pretty stringent hiring process these days. I check a lot of things when I'm hiring a staff member, and one of the things that I start with is a personality profile. There are several out there Myer Brigg’s disc profiles. 

 

I use one called Fascinate, and this is where you can you say who you are and you answer a whole bunch of questions. And at the end thing comes up with your personality type, but whether you're a detail person or not so much of a detail person, you internalize things or whether you're outspoken, it gives you a whole range of different skills.

 

Mayette Gacasan: And I think that's also helpful to see if you and your staff is matching your personality like we end up matching that we're both attentive to details. 

 

Roslyn Ranse: That's the right way. And we both have a passion for what we do. We both have the attention to details, but there are certain things that we're not. We do not match with but I think that that's a really good thing because you know I can really go out and present and be the people person, but Mayette’s doing more computing in the office doing the back end. 

 

And so I think you need to have complementary skills.

Mayette Gacasan:  That's so true! 

 

Roslyn Ranse: You know the same in everything can create conflict. It also may not necessarily grow the business. So for us now you're much better at the back office that I am working with the Galileo's, Amadeus, Sabre. I've been doing this for a long time. 

 

But Mayette, you’re attention to detail and you're so much faster on skills with keywords. The short cuts. Oh my gosh. Short cuts are really your thing. But it's definitely something to keep an eye on to make sure that this person has a similar but also complementary skills.

 

Mayette Gacasan: That would really help you with doing the profile. The checking of the personalities prior to hiring that person. 

 

Roslyn Ranse: Absolutely, it's a must. The other thing with this stringent hiring process, so I initially asked questions about geography. 

 

Mayette Gacasan: Yes, I remember that. That's one of my trial tasks. Like I have to decode the specific airport code. 

 

Roslyn Ranse: That’s right, it was decoding it. I also asked for you to create an itinerary for a family.  And I gave you a situation, like whether their interest where you would like to bring them? So to give the person that you're looking to hire the thought process.

 

Mayette Gacasan: Like her own judgment, how she's going to do it. 

 

Roslyn Ranse: That's right. What are you going to come up with and what your ideas and suggestions but I also gave you a multitasking task where it was about prioritizing things.

 

Mayette Gacasan: You asked me to prioritize things like bulleted things and you asked me to enumerate what would be your first thing to do when you get in the office. 

 

Roslyn Ranse: That's right, because in travel we have bombarded all the time and, you know, now as well, it's emails coming in. Its phone calls. Constant distractions. 

 

And so if you don't have your to-do list or your action list or what you need to do each day, it can 

become overwhelming. And we have had numerous times where I will often call you and you’ll say I've got so much in place Ros. 

 

Mayette Gacasan: Yes, I need help. Help! It's just too much. 

 

Roslyn Ranse: Let's work through this. And what is the priority today? So we know first thing in the morning, you've got to receipt money. You got to do your banking. You got a receipt your money, you then got to work on your quotes and get quotes out whilst it's fresh. 

 

Giving the clients the time to respond and think about things as well. So if you get that all out in the morning. By the time you get to your lunchtime in the afternoon, you can then be the admin tasks. Doing admin processing vouchers, making sure ticketing confirmation sent out. 

 

So you're doing more of your administration in the afternoon. We focus on sales, get the money in and focus on your sales.

 

Roslyn Ranse: I remember you said that it's really nice if you'll be able to send a quote to the client first thing in the morning. If they're emailing over the night, they want something the next day. They're excited about it. They're a hot lead and a hot potential trip that you're to book. 

 

So if you miss that in the morning and you leave it until the afternoon or the next day, they could have gone elsewhere. The excitement has worn off. So that's something that we worked out together every day and the last thing in the hiring process, make sure you do any reference checks or personality checks, but trust your gut. 

 

If this person doesn't feel right, they're not right. I know that if you feel as though you need to get somebody in straight away and you have to get the bookings done and you need help. Sometimes we make a poor judgment as business owners, but I really want you to trust your gut feeling. 

 

You'll know whether a person is right for you or not. 

 

And I know soon as I met Mayette it was, this is my gut feeling, she's the right person for the role. We're going to have a great time together. Trust your gut. 

 

So what can this person do as your dedicated team member? 

And what should they do? 

So it's the can and what they should. Initially, you really need to get to know them, get to know their skill set, their background. It's about trust, training. 

 

So training, I think, needs to be done face to face. So if this person is based locally, they need to come to you or you go to them. If they're based interstate, you still need to spend that time initially working out the job. 

 

And if they are overseas, you need to fly to that person, make the commitment and do some dedicated training. This goes through all how you do your things, how you would process a booking, how you use your systems and finding out if that person is the right fit for you. It may cost you a bit initially, the initial investment to do these things, but it's really important not only for yourself and your own business but also for that other person. 

 

Mayette Gacasan: Yes, that's absolutely right. Like it's a plus for the employer to get to know that person personally and be able to sit beside them to do the training.

 

Roslyn Ranse: Exactly, side by side, initially is really important. Then you can move to online. So we speak on Zoom every day, Voxer. So Zoom is like Skype. It's like go to webinar, where we can have face to face conversations. 

 

We can run meetings in that so that zoom, we'll link to that in the show notes as well, so you can see that we also have voxer, which is an app that goes on your phone both on Android and Apple. 

 

And it's a walkie talkie so I can speak straight into the app, Mayette can type back to me or she can speak into it as well. We also have a dedicated phone system that we use together, so we're in constant conversation and constant communication and that's really important as well. 

 

You can't just say here's your job and then check at the end of the day, it doesn't work. It is having somebody with you. So making sure that there is constant communication using voxer, whatsapp, emails, phone, zoom ss well and most importantly, face to face. 

 

If you get the opportunity to see each other every now and then, that's really important. So the hurdles working with somebody else and if you may have come from a corporate office or a travel agency, I mean, I used to manage people all over the world, and I had quite a large team when I was back in the corporate world, 30 or 40 staff that were reporting directly to me. 

However, being a business owner, I felt like it was really different. It became a lot more personal, and so now, having somebody work with you after you've been doing it for so long yourself, the challenges that can then come with that to allow somebody else into the business. So there are some hurdles we've spoken briefly about the systems and how Mayette has certainly worked with me, and we now have systems for pretty much everything in our business. 

 

Because when you process the booking, you are doing the same thing. I'm not saying the same trip. Every trip is not exactly the same, but we have a 65 step process. 

 

A 65-step process that walks us both through the inquiries received, how that's all handled, payment and follow-ups we have quoted. We have then do payments to suppliers, 65-steps all the way through to that client returning, and they go into and nurture board as well. 

 

Mayette Gacasan: And the good thing about that stuff is we can't move forward if we cannot do the previous step. So that's for both of us to call out each other. Hey, have you done this? 

 

Roslyn Ranse: It's a really good reminder. We use teamwork, which is a project management system. We'll talk about that in another podcast, but it's about setting up the systems to work together. Assuming knowledge, this is a big thing. Now, if somebody has been travel agent previously, you would expect that they know similar things to you, but never assume that the person you're hiring knows exactly everything that you know, never assume anything that's a huge one and also learning not to dump stuff on this person. 

 

I know that when you're trying to do so many tasks as a business owner that it can become really easy just to say, here, can you go ahead and do this. But if that other person doesn't know specifically how to do it, 

 

One, they could do it completely different to how you would do it or two, they don't know how to do it, don't know how to proceed forward. 

 

And it's almost like a roadblock.

 

Mayette Gacasan: It's consuming the time that she's spending on that thing. 

 

Roslyn Ranse: Exactly. So you need to be able to learn not to dump stuff. I always check in with my team, and I do say to you guys, 

How is everything going? 

Is there anything I can help with? 

Are you stuck? 

Do we need to prioritize? 

Do we need training on specific things?

 

So the hurdles can seem as though they're quite big, but they're really not, and it does take time to get to know somebody and putting things in place to make sure that you work really well together. 

So the realization was that we need systems in our business and as any travel agent or I think, any business you really need to have systems in order for you to be able to move forward.

 

Mayette Gacasan: Yes, because you're doing it by yourself and you get another person, that would really help. 

 

Roslyn Ranse: Exactly. And with any business. I mean, I can refer back to 10 years ago when you would have a folder of policies and procedures fold up like a print out to say, this is how you do things step by step. 

 

These days it's totally different. It’s all the computer stuff. So we have training videos. We have step by step guides. We have our systems in place, and that is a completely different podcast to talk about project management and then also with systems. But it's about communication. 

 

The realization is that you just need to be able to communicate to get the job done. So the solutions, as I said, templates, systems, a list of training videos. We use teamwork as our project management system, a 65-step process, and we have a whole lot of master files for every group. So we've got a structure in place, and this doesn't happen overnight. 

 

It does take time. 

 

But I can assure you when you are looking at hiring staff and working with somebody or getting help with your bookings, this will be like a breath of fresh air. It will really help you. So working with somebody getting help with your bookings.

 

Mayette, do you have anything that you want to say? Like any tips for working with people, even if it's offshore, what would you recommend?

Mayette Gacasan:  Doing phone calls? That's a really great idea. It's really good to have open communication, two-way communication. 

 

Roslyn Ranse: Yes. And as a business owner, it's also about listening. I really listen to you, and I value your feedback. I hear when you're struggling. You hear when I'm struggling as well. My gosh. The tears that we both have. 

 

Mayette Gacasan: The struggles like, how am I going to say to my boss that I can't keep up. It was really like you need to step up if you want something to work, you have to tell your boss. That's it. Communication. 

 

Roslyn Ranse: If you cannot communicate and you cannot talk, this is really important working with offshore staff, that if you can't be honest with me and I can't be honest with you, it's not going to move forward. 

 

So I mean, I would never know if you were struggling if you didn't tell me you're not sitting right next to me. 

 

Mayette Gacasan: Yes. You can’t see my facial expression or how am I doing

 

Roslyn Ranse:  Absolutely. And we do have a list of things set up. So we have a team huddle every day that we all express what's going on and if we need help from each other or our to-do lists or action lists. So we know what's going on, and I think that communication is the key. 

 

When hiring anybody, you need to be able to talk to them. You need to be able to trust them, and you got to go with your gut feeling.

 

So that's really it for now. If you have any questions about working with people either through part-time, casual help, ad hoc work or having a dedicated assistant, please reach out to us. You know that you can contact me via email on Instagram or Facebook and you know, just try it. 

 

Get some help, start off with some ad hoc and some part-time assistance because I can guarantee this is going to help you move your business forward. It will help you grow your business and you're not going to look back. 

 

Just enjoy the process. 

Mayette Gacasan: Yes, thank you so much for having me, Ros. 

 

Roslyn Ranse: It’s so good to have you, Mayette! Have a safe trip home! We will see each other in a few months. I know that for sure. 

 

Alright guys, have a wonderful day! Thank you so much for listening. Don't forget to subscribe, send me a review, send me your feedback. I love to hear from you and I really look forward to chatting again next week. 

 

Have a wonderful week. Thanks, everybody!

 

Announcer: Welcome to Travel Agent Achievers! The place to learn how to grow your travel business and have fun with it. Join Roslyn and her guests as they walk you through proven steps to a fulfilling and profitable business.