Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Joy King. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Joy, thanks for joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

Have you ever gotten approached by someone asking how can you help them, but you’d never seen in real life the thing they wanted help with, but most people in the world love it??? That’s how I literally started a party bus food tour company. I actually had a TV food restaurant show when a transportation company asked how could I make his party bus popular. I’d never seen or been on a party bus in my entire life, but fast forward 8 years I now own 2 of them!

A friend suggested a shoot one of my restaurant segments on the party bus. After the shoot, we road around the streets of Birmingham. That’s when the light came on…tv viewers wanted to eat where I ate, so if I had a bus I could take them there. It would be a win for the local restaurants I was showcasing on my show. We go to 5 places in 4 hour in metro Birmingham getting small plates. One of the stops includes going to a wine shop for a tasting. Guests love it to celebrate birthdays to corporate outings. I currently offer dinner, brunch, winery, Civil Rights & Distillery Tours.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Having the relationships with the local restaurant owners was/is the key to my success. Reaching the decision maker is the hardest part and you need many of them as restaurant industry is one of the most psychotic spaces as you don’t know when they may close or want to dissolve partnerships. To the flip, it’s wonderful when they want to expand because they want you to help with growth. Secondly having a nice bus was also another key. My credit was awful when I first started, but I stepped out on faith to get my 1st bus financed because I knew the initial company wasn’t going to cut me any deals during football season.

I always tell people wanting to get in this industry to having a savings of $15-20K & lots of restaurants willing to participate because when the bus need repairs, you have the money to do keep it moving literally. Maintenance is extremely expensive, but the joy of folks facing seeing them enjoy their birthday has been priceless.

I’m most proud of my repeat customers, still in business after a global pandemic, about to have 2 of them paid off & for having a good reputation of providing a good time to clients around the southeast. I’ve had many groups come in from other cities to be on the tour.

Some problems I solve it taking the guess work of parking & planning a fun night out. If they want libations, they won’t be drinking & driving. They can pay 1 price & have dinner with their friends in multiple locations and hope to find some new spots in 1 night.

Another thing I do is have red carpet dance to set the tone for the group. Every guest is a VIP that deserves a red carpet. The dance videos on social media has increased bookings by 75 percent.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

My resilience came from Covid. The bank still wanted their money for the buses that I financed, but people were afraid to go out. Restaurants were trying to figure out to be curbside, opened or closed. After 5 months, guests reached out and said we will wear masks and just be with our family. That went from 5 guests to eventually 20 guests within a few months. I won grants to get air purifiers on the bus which I still use today. When tours seem slow, I create different tours to peak interest such a New Year’s Eve tour and I will be bringing back brunch tours.

One of the challenges when I first started is I did not know how to drive a bus. I was literally afraid because it was big, but I admired ladies who did drive them. After getting the bus serviced one day. one of the gentleman told me I could get a ticket if I did not have my cdl even if no one was on the bus. Just so happened one of my drivers wanted to have a CDL school. Guess who became her first student? Now that was HARD!!! There’s a written test & the actual road test. Some days I didn’t want to attend the session, but she didn’t let me quit. I failed both tests 3 times each. In between tours, I would practice driving for the road test. Thank you Lord I finally passed. Now I do drive my buses. When I get in a difficult small area, I just calmly say, do what you know. Once I’m situated guests always give me an applause!

Have you ever had to pivot?

After covid, I expanded the company to offer travel. I saw a post asking about joining a travel agency mlm. I wanted to travel but didn’t know how or when. I did however always take a trip for Christmas. Almost a year after paying monthly fees and doing nothing, I stumbled across a fb post about a trip for travel agents in Jamacia. I inquired and went. It happened to be all African American travel agents which was inspiring. Crazy part, I had no idea what they were talking about. I was also tired of looking at hotel rooms. I wanted to vacation. I decided to see if there were any more travel agent trips and I found another one, this time for Mexico. I went and heard them talking travel agent lingo and I was so confused. This time I decided to learn the lingo and see if I could expand my tour company to offer international trips. Fast forward, I’ve been a travel agent for 4 years and now work for the company hosting the trips in Mexico. I’m an avid traveler typically twice a month. I’ve seen probably over 20 countries. I’ve seen Mexico too many times. I host groups trips as well as plan individual vacations.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.ComedienneJoy.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dinebhamjoy/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EatDrinkRideWithComedienneJoy

Image Credits

Joy King