How Entrepreneur Belvin Baldwin Built His Successful Travel Advisory Business

Transcription:

Mark Collier:
Welcome to The Playbook, Belvin.

Belvin Baldwin:
Thank you. Thank you for having me.

Mark Collier:
All right. Hey, I’m a big travel fan myself so I understand the importance of having a travel expert kind of guide me through the process of what exactly I want to do. Share with me a little bit about your background, man, and how you got into the travel business.

Belvin Baldwin:
Well, it’s funny. I started off, I graduated from University of Dayton. I received my electrical engineering degree And I became what we call a busy professional. I started traveling and everything with the business. I said, “Hey, well maybe I can do this myself.” I have a passion for travel. I clicked on everything, did a lot of research. I had a great vacation plan for me and my wife and when I got there, it was terrible. It was bad. My wife couldn’t even sleep underneath the covers and she had to sleep on top of the covers and the next day I was planning a vacation. I became the person that I’m serving today. I became that busy professional. That’s how I got into the travel business. I never want anybody to go through what I went through before.

Mark Collier:
Well, the old adage rings true, necessity is the mother of all invention. You had that experience, you said, “Look, I’m going to prevent others from having that same bad experience.” Phenomenal. Let’s start with the basics. What is a travel advisor? And what value do travel advisors deliver to their clientele?

Belvin Baldwin:
Well, a travel advisor is just like it’s name, it advises you on travel. But what it does is we provide product knowledge and service. We are trained professionals so we make sure that your vacation experience is great. We want to maximize your vacation experience. We want to make sure that we reach those vacation goals that you’re looking for.

Mark Collier:
All right. Makes sense, man. I’m going to start with another basic question, why do busy professionals need a travel advisor?

Belvin Baldwin:
Well, one thing is convenience.

Mark Collier:
Yeah, I would agree.

Belvin Baldwin:
Convenience, we outsource a lot of things as a busy professional, so we want to make sure that it’s convenient for you. Another thing is we are professionals. Just like every other busy professional, I’m sure, we had the tax season, you may have outsourced your taxes to a CPA.

Mark Collier:
I did. I’m no accountant.

Belvin Baldwin:
Exactly. And that’s the way it is. We’re professionals. We get trained. We know these destinations, so we help you out as a busy professional. That’s two reasons why you should use us.

Mark Collier:
No. That makes perfect sense to me. My wife and I, we enjoy traveling as well and a lot of times there are destinations she wants to go to we know nothing about. And you can do a little research on the internet but there’s nothing like getting that personal experience from someone who’s been there, who understands the landscape and can kind of convey and put together kind of the best experience for you.

Belvin Baldwin:
Right. Exactly.

Mark Collier:
All right. Let’s talk about kind of the profile of your ideal client. What does your client look like? Kind of describe some of the demographics for me.

Belvin Baldwin:
Well, my ideal client and the ideal client for Showtime Travel is a person who values time. Their time, they’re busy, they value their time and they want to work with a professional. They’re not the do it yourselfer. They’re looking for somebody to outsource. Number one, the vacation is important to them. It’s not your, I’m just going to visit grandma in Little Rock. They’re looking for a pretty much a custom vacation. And it’s usually a bucket list vacation. They’re looking for that and they know that they’re not the experts so they outsource it to us and we handle it from there.

Mark Collier:
No. You made a very good point. People who are seeking vacations, they don’t have a lot of time and they work very hard so they want to maximize that experience. To put together, as you said, a kind of a bucket list of not only experiences on the vacation but everything from the hotel, to the airline they select, to the transfers, everything’s important to them and they want it all to be first class and first rate. I get it. I get it. Differentiation, man, it’s the holy grail of all business models. What makes Showtime Travel unique as compared to other travel agencies that are out here?

Belvin Baldwin:
Wow. That is a good question. Well, Showtime Travel, what we do is we design those luxury vacations for busy professionals so all they have to do is show up. A lot of our clients come to us because they want peace of mind. They want peace of mind and I think we’re in May here, so it’s mental health month. They want to make sure that they have peace of mind and we’re no call center. It’s a personal relationship. And we’re not the low price or trying to get the budget but people are looking for a specific custom vacation, for the emotions they’re trying to feel.

Mark Collier:
I love it.

Belvin Baldwin:
If it’s relaxation, if it’s celebratory, we want to design that vacation around them. And that’s why a lot of people use our services.

Mark Collier:
No. Again, that makes sense. Because when you’re looking for a vacation experience, busy professionals, they’re not looking for the lowest price. And the old adage is true, you get what you pay for.

Belvin Baldwin:
Pay for, exactly.

Mark Collier:
No mystery with that one.

Belvin Baldwin:
Exactly.

Mark Collier:
All right. Let’s talk about some of the mistakes that you see these do yourself travelers make when they’re planning a vacation. Let’s talk about some of those horror stories and hiccups.

Belvin Baldwin:
Wow. The number one mistake is not using a travel advisor. I would say that’s the number one mistake. And especially during these times, I know it’s kind of ending a little bit on the pandemic requirements but you really need that travel advisor because we’re trained in this. We know the entry requirements, we know what you need. Quick story, we had a lady I work with and she was going to French Polynesia. She’s going to Tahiti. And just imagine these people she saw, they spent $20,000 on this vacation. They get up to the counter and they can’t go because they don’t have the proper paperwork.

Mark Collier:
My goodness. Oh boy.

Belvin Baldwin:
You have to work with a travel advisor to make sure that you not only have the proper paperwork, you have the knowledge, you know the entry requirements to get in and to move around these countries as well.

Mark Collier:
Sure. I bet you’ll issue even a checklist if they need it. If they ask you for it. Say, “Here’s a checklist to make sure you’re not missing anything.”

Belvin Baldwin:
Exactly. We provide that in our travel documents. And not only just a checklist but we even provide what you should pack as well.

Mark Collier:
All right. I like it, man. Service fees, let’s talk about you got to make money. You’ve got to keep your lights on and run your business. You’re not running a charity.

Belvin Baldwin:
Exactly. We’re not a nonprofit.

Mark Collier:
Talk to me about kind of your fee structure and how you derive your fees.

Belvin Baldwin:
Yeah. Yeah. And that’s no problem. I think what we do is if somebody comes to us, we have a free consultation. We discuss it. It’s 15 minutes, we discuss your vacation goals and we also discuss what services we provide. At the end of the consultation, we’re going to know if you want to hire us or not. And it’s simple. Usually people come to us, they say, “Hey, I’m looking to take this milestone 40th birthday vacation.” We work with them, design it. By the end, they’ll know exactly what they want to do and if they want to hire us, they pay the service fee and we start working on that vacation for them.

Mark Collier:
Okay. I guess one of the major considerations is budget. I’m sure you asked them, “How much you looking to spend?”

Belvin Baldwin:
Exactly. And budget is key. Budget is key and we kind of give people a realistic budget. They may come in and what they thought the budget is and we give them a realistic budget. And we’ll talk about that in the consultation. We’ll let you know if that’s something in your budget and if it’s not in your budget, we can point you to another destination that may be an alternative for you.

Mark Collier:
Sure. Sure. All right. What are some of the vacation destinations that are currently in high demand as we kind of roll out of this pandemic?

Belvin Baldwin:
Well, what I’ve learned from this pandemic, a lot of people are checking off that bucket list item now. They’re not waiting, they’re not doing a lot of that. We’re seeing over water bungalows. A lot of requests for those over water bungalows and those you can find in the Maldives or French Polynesian islands. We’re seeing a lot of people who want to go back to Africa, especially my African American community. They want to go back to their ancestry. They’re going to Egypt, Ghana, South Africa as well. We’re seeing a lot of that. And since we’re here in kind of in the Southeast, the Caribbean is a quick trip but they’re looking for islands outside of the main touristy ones. You may see a Saint Kitts a Nevis, you may see St. Barts or Bermuda as well.

Mark Collier:
Yep. Yep. Yep. Okay. Again, those bucket lists, back to Africa, those are things that kind of high in the list of things that you’ve seen. Well very good. What advice do you have kind of for perspective travel advisors who are seeking to either get into the business or deliver some value to clients that they serve?

Belvin Baldwin:
Well, the travel advisor business has been great to me. I think it’s a lot of benefits that goes along with it. It’s a lot of perks but just like anything, you have to work to get to it. And I think a lot of people will come in and they think, well, I’ve I booked something on online. It’s easy. No, no, no. I would say it is a great opportunity if you want to get into it. Please feel free to contact me and I can help you out in that way.

Mark Collier:
All right. Belvin Baldwin, owner of Showtime Travel, a travel advisory service. Want to thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to come in, kind of a detail what you do for business professionals. I’m going to encourage all busy professionals, don’t do it yourself, contact a professional like Belvin.

Belvin Baldwin:
Thank you. Thank you very much and please visit showtimetravel.com.

Mark Collier:
All right.