We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Bianca Beale. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Bianca below.
Bianca, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Parents play a huge role in our development as youngsters and sometimes that impact follows us into adulthood and into our lives and careers. Looking back, what’s something you think you parents did right?
My parents are my biggest influencers in me becoming a business owner. My dad had started his company when I was a young girl, and I saw his struggles from the very beginning, and then the wins started after a lot of hard work on his part. My mom worked her banking job while he finished his MBA and started his business, and he would always say that if I ever wanted to feel free in my schedule, and make an unlimited amount of money, there was no way other than starting my own business. I started generating ideas for my business as a pre teen, selling cakes to neighbors, babysitting, and pretending to be a business owner in our home office. He would say “find something you love doing, and figure out a way to make money doing it”, and that always stuck with me. My parents recommended I go to college and get a degree, and when I got my BA in business, I was officially in the workforce, and I had a series of jobs working for small, local companies. I knew that I loved being around people having fun, so I gravitated towards the hospitality industry. My dad’s quote about “finding what you love doing, and figure out how to make money doing it” was what led me to the industry I serve today. When I took my first tour of San Diego at the age of 22, I was fascinated by the history, and immediately felt a sense of pride and deeper understanding of my home city. I felt the draw to share the stories I’d learned with the masses. I ended up working for a tour company, volunteered to write the scripts, and train the new hires. I loved the reactions I would get from guests on tours when they learned about the history of San Diego. I eventually merged my love for the history and visiting local restaurants when I created a business plan for my food tour company in San Diego in 2009. My degree in business and passion for what I was doing was the foundation that had me start my company, and I’m still fulfilled in my purpose.
Bianca, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I’m a native San Diegan, and have a love for entertaining, travel, parties, and having fun. I started So Diego Tours when I was 25 after having a series of jobs, and feeling less than fulfilled in each of them. When I started working for a local tour company that offered segway tours of San Diego, I got a glimpse into the world of tourism, and learned what it took to operate and market a tour company. I met with professionals in the travel industry of San Diego, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas, and that’s when I found out about the world of food tours. I saw an opportunity to create an experience that was kind of like a pub crawl, historic tour, and food tasting in one event! I knew food tours were not being offered in the Gaslamp Quarter – San Diego’s main dining and entertainment district and the “Historic Heart of San Diego” – so when I approached my parents with the crazy idea of quitting my job and starting a food and drink tasting tour of my personal favorite neighborhood in San Diego, they asked me to write out a business plan. Throughout the years, I’d approached them with many ideas of different businesses, and this was the first time they suggested that I write out a business plan, so I was ecstatic!
My first concept was the Gaslamp Restaurant Hop – a historic walking tour to 3 restaurants where guests would be served 3 small bites from their menu paired with a specialty cocktail at each stop. My purpose was to entertain guests with stories of the historic district’s seedy past, and share the local scene at the locally owned restaurants that they may never have visited on their own. I was also keen on sharing bites that were unique to each place, expanding concepts of my guests’ tastes for a variety of cuisines and venue types. They would taste so many flavors, and could visit a pub, nightclub, or fine dining establishment all in one night. I loved this since the Gaslamp Quarter had over 100 bars and restaurants, and it was impossible for them to explore the area in depth on their own.
I started the company with $15,000 from a loan I got from my parents. I soon realized that marketing the tours and the price point I started at for each tour was going to take more money. I requested more money, and simplified the tour to be more brief at each stop, which led to my current flagship tour; Brothels, Bites and Booze. The tour was cheaper to run, and I was able to use discount websites like Groupon to sell tickets to my tours. The tours started selling, and with my connections at the San Diego Tourism Authority, I was able to gain traction with destination managements companies and online travel agencies to sell my services to large groups and the masses on websites like Expedia and Tripadvisor.
Now that I’ve been in business for over 12 years, I have learned a lot about online marketing and my industry, and I continue to create food and drink based tours that are enjoyed by locals, visitors, and corporate groups. I have recently brought on a partner, and together we are rebranding the company. We want the local community to embrace us as their resource for fun, exploration, and celebrating the passions of local individuals who make this city what it is today. We are running 4 signature/weekly tours, and continue to create custom experiences when requested.
We want to reunite the local community through monthly happy hours that showcase awesome venues as well as products and services from small businesses that will have an opportunity to have booths and speak at our events. We also want to create curated events like pop up dining experiences, day trips to Valle de Guadalupe, Mexico, Temecula, and other towns just outside of San Diego. Our purpose is to create a sense of community in San Diego through a shared love for exploration. We welcome birthdays, bachelor(ette) groups, VIPs, and individuals who are eager to experience San Diego in a different way.
Can you share one of your favorite marketing or sales stories?
In 2017, my company was seeing a decline in business. Many other competitors had entered the market, and I felt as though I was working a lot for very little reward. I was tired, uninspired, and stressed out every day. The business was no longer fun for me, and I was considering shutting the doors. I had worked so hard to create my dream company, but business was not coming in. I had $12,000 in the bank, and a trickle of business that was barely keeping me afloat. That’s when I reached out to an advisor about my feelings about quitting. He asked me about marketing. In my industry, there is a lot of competition. I’m competing with giants in San Diego for activities like the San Diego Zoo, SeaWorld, restaurants, water activities, and my company was getting lost online with the many things to do in the city. I didn’t have a real marketing budget…and I never really did. I had spent tens of thousands of dollars throughout the years on marketing that didn’t work, but I always was on a shoestring budget for marketing. He suggested I take a leap, and hire a local marketing firm to help with marketing. I met with them, and they promised to help with SEO strategy, social media, and link building. I only had enough funds for a few months of work from them, and I told myself that if this didn’t work, I’d close for good. Within the first 3 months, my company started to see an uptick in business. It started slowly almost immediately, and by the 6th month, I was on a high once again. I felt busy, and saw the business come in. I was nervous, but also ready to make a change, and to my delight (and surprise), it worked! Each month got better than the last, and I felt as though my pride was restored, and all of the hard work I had put into building the brand and connections was finally (actually) paying off in a way that I always thought it would. The moral of the story, is never underestimate the power of a solid marketing strategy, and if you don’t understand online marketing, start interviewing firms, read the books, and start investing in it.
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
It’s been a long time since I started to build my reputation in our market, but I’d say the best way was to join our local tourism association – The San Diego Tourism Authority. They are a group of professionals who actively promote tourism in San Diego throughout the world. Joining as a member, attending meetings, and using those resources still pays off today. I’ve met some of the staff personally, have had presentations to their sales teams, and have followed up with new products each time I roll one out. I’ve invited them to join our tours, so they have a better idea of our products, and they have put me in contact with local destination management companies, online travel agencies, and meeting planners that have booked my tours in bulk. They have a portal online that allows us to add events on their websites, in addition to a description to all of our services. I also was very active with the Gaslamp Quarter Association, which helped me create connections within one of the neighborhoods we work in. I joined the San Diego Professional Tour Guide Association, which furthered my knowledge of history in the different areas of San Diego, and verified me as a professional in our field.
Our online presence has been a major part in building our reputation as well. Thanks to our partnerships with the online travel agencies we work with, our online marketing efforts, and our reviews, we have been able to build a solid reputation online so that when people search for things to do in San Diego, we are there!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.sodiegotours.com
- Instagram: @sodiegotours
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sodiegotours/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/so-diego-tours-inc./
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/so-diego-tours-san-diego