We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Charon Williams. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Charon below.

Alright, Charon thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. So, naming is such a challenge. How did you come up with the name of your brand?

The name of my company literally was a dream come true! My grandmother was one of the most influential people in my life. A couple of months after she passed away, in 2007, she came to me in a dream and told me that I would own a business named SWANS. I asked her, “Why SWANS?” Her response was, “Because you’ll be a sister with a new soul.” I carried on with my career aspirations in corporate America. All the while, traveling the world with family and friends – enjoying life outside of work. Others started admiring my travel experiences and began inquiring about various destinations, travel tips, and other related topics. I found myself providing travel concierge services for free for several years. In 2018, a friend of mine who is also in the travel industry said, “You should strongly consider becoming a travel agent. You are already doing the work for yourself and others. You may as well get paid to do it!” Of course, I pondered on the what-ifs, as most entrepreneurs do when thinking about starting a business. I decided to take a leap of faith and go for it. Then I thought, “What should I name it?” And as life would have it, I fell asleep that night and woke up in tears because my grandmother came back to me in my dream and said SWANS Travel Concierge. SWANS Travel Concierge was born almost 11 years to the day that my grandmother came to me in my dream the first time, and I haven’t looked back. It was one of the best decisions of my life!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

SWANS Travel Concierge provides personalized travel reservation services to clients who don’t want to spend hours researching the perfect getaway. Simply put, we’re here to get you there!

We complete all the work associated with planning a vacation – sharing expertise about a wide array of destinations and experiences. But most importantly, we have access to exclusive deals and pricing made available through established relationships with hotels, resorts, cruise lines, and other travel providers.

SWNAS Travel Concierge Merch is our online store dedicated to providing consumers with travel-themed products often used during travel. The store offers items such as t-shirts, tank tops, hoodies, masks, infant and children’s apparel, travel mugs, tumblers, fanny packs, backpacks, totes, weekender bags, luggage tags, home and office décor, wireless chargers, journals, notebooks, and more.

In addition, the owner, Charon Williams, sponsors others who seek to turn their love for travel into an additional source of income.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Managing my business through the global pandemic is a story of not only resilience but, having the ability to pivot. When COVID-19 hit the world, everything came to a screeching halt. Travel stopped, businesses were forced to significantly reduce capacity, if not close their doors all together – leaving many people without jobs. Naturally, leisure activities are the first things that we cut spending on during these times. I was forced to cancel travel reservations, and request refunds or future travel credits for every single booking that I had made on behalf of my clients and myself. I spent so many hours on the phone with various travel suppliers and airlines completing this task. Millions of people’s travel plans were affected. So, sometimes I would spend up to eight hours straight on the phone on any given day. Additionally, I missed out on tens of thousands of dollars in revenue. It was very draining and disheartening but, I knew I had no other choice. I could not let my family and clients down. They spent thousands of dollars on trips in which they were not able to go on. Needless to say, this was a very trying time for everyone.

As time went on and the virus continued to spread, it became apparent that things would not be going back to normal as quick as it was initially anticipated. I wanted to give up on my business because I wasn’t making any money and it looked like I wouldn’t be booking travel for a good while. Then, I started giving myself a pep talk. The company of my dreams, literally, was not established for me to quit on it. So, what can I do differently to keep it going until we get to the other side of the pandemic? I realized that the brick-and-mortar businesses who transitioned to selling their products online were still thriving. Therefore, I knew that e-commerce was the way to go. The next question was, “What can I do with my business, online, if people aren’t traveling?” Then I came up with the idea of selling travel-themed merchandise because we all buy clothes and other products we’ll need during travel. There are also people who, like me, are travel enthusiasts and like merchandise such as cups, t-shirts, journals, etc. that contain phrases related to our love of travel. So, I launched my online store, SWNAS Travel Concierge Merch, and began taking online workshops taught by, Google Digital Coach, Joy Hutton. These courses taught me strategies to define my brand, build an online presence, grow my network, how to showcase my products and maximize sells on the website, amongst numerous other things!

I’m glad that I remained resilient through the tough times and learned to pivot because had I not, I would have lost my business as well as the ability to continue to do what I love – creating memories through travel. I also would not have launched my online store – which generated income while travel was still limited.

If you have multiple revenue streams in your business, would you mind opening up about what those streams are and how they fit together?

SWANS Travel Concierge, LLC, generates income through multiple revenue streams. One stream is the travel concierge where we provide personalized travel reservation services to clients who don’t want to spend hours researching the perfect getaway. Another stream is through helping others, who seek to turn their love for travel into an additional source of income, get into the business. A third stream is generated from sells on our online website.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.swanstravelconciergemerch.com
• Instagram: @swanstravelconcierge
• Facebook: @swanstravelconcierge
• Youtube: SWANS Travel Concierge & Merch
• Other: Linktree: linktr.ee/swanstravelconcierge

Image Credits
Personal Professional Photo: Tavia Whitlowe, For Beauty Sake Testimonial: Melanie Rexache-Benitez, SWANS Travel Concierge Client All other photos: SWANS Travel Concierge, LLC