We recently connected with Candice Smith and have shared our conversation below.

Candice, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Often outsiders look at a successful business and think it became a success overnight. Even media and especially movies love to gloss over nitty, gritty details that went into that middle phase of your business – after you started but before you got to where you are today. In our experience, overnight success is usually the result of years of hard work laying the foundation for success, but unfortunately, it’s exactly this part of the story that most of the media ignores. Can you talk to us about your scaling up story – what are some of the nitty, gritty details folks should know about?

At Tours Around Michigan, we have several strategies we use to grow our business at a safe rate, while also building our reputation as a high quality company.

Here are some of the ways we’ve increased our business.

!. Networking by building genuine connections.

Since I’ve lived in the area for 30 years and worked in corporations and media outlets, I’m fortunate to know a lot of people. I’m also constantly meeting new people and learning about them. With all people, I always see how I can add value to their lives. It can be as small as forwarding them an article you think would be of interest to them, supporting them at an event or speaking engagement, or asking them about their elderly dog when you see them. These same people become your advocates when someone needs a service or product you provide. It takes trust for someone to recommend you, and building genuine trust takes time.

2. Paying attention to market opportunities

We all have plans in our heads on what we want to do with the business, but we also need to pay attention to what is presented to us we may not have thought about. When asked if you do provide a certain product or service, find a reason to say yes, if you can see your business accommodating it. Particularly in an industry like tourism, interests and client needs are always adjusting. If you listen to what your customers are asking for, that means they can’t find it elsewhere, and it may be an opportunity for you to grow your business in a way that also fills a need in the market. This is how we began scavenger hunts. There was previously a business that ran these types of activities for area businesses. When that business closed, companies went looking for someone new to provide them. I said yes when I was asked. This is also how our most popular public tour shifted from a history tour to a ghost tour. When the pandemic hit, people were stuck at home. Eventually, we could tour small groups outdoors. And when people could get out, they wanted ghost stories. We booked a lot of them, and as a result, we made more in 2000 than we had in 2019. Today, ghost tours are still our most popular public tour. We’ve been recognized by statewide media for them because of it. Now our ghost tours are a great way to introduce new clients to what we do in many areas, including our corporate group offerings.

3. Media coverage

Advertising is important, as it allows you to target a specific audience using the exact words and images you choose. I’ve been working in or around media for 35 years, so I’ve built the skills to know exactly what a media outlet wants including type of information, visuals and audio. These skills also translate well to social media. News coverage brings more credibility than advertising, and it increases your footprint online. When we receive this news coverage, we add it to our social media and our website. So, when someone searches for a service we offer, we are more likely to appear, which leads to increased sales.

4. Prioritizing professional organizations to join

There are always many options for professional organizations for a company to join. It’s tough to afford them all, especially as a young business. Develop connections within many groups but begin paying for memberships with the ones that make the most sense for where you are and what you do. Then, maximize your partnership with them. For us, Experience Grand Rapids, our local convention and visitor’s bureau, was the natural first choice, since we run our public tours in Grand Rapids. After becoming a member, we worked hard on this relationship by meeting with managers about how we can work together and the type of experiences where they’re getting requests, but still need an experience available to match it. We tag them on our social media, attend all their meetings, and help them whenever we can, especially when they feel stuck for a solution. From our beginning in 2018, we emphasized that we wanted to be who they called when they had a request they weren’t sure how to fulfil. We want to be their problem solver and help check something off their to-do lists. In many ways, that’s what we’ve become. After years of working on strengthening the relationship, we’ve become their first referral for many different types of groups looking for experiences. Our company has grown as a result, including repeat clients that return to the area regularly.

5. Surrounding myself with people smarter than me in some way

Check your ego and insecurities at the door. Finding people who are smarter than you in some way will expand your world. It will also make you and your business better. Great service increases your business with solid reviews & consistent high-quality customer service.

6. Trusting others with your business

It’s tough to hand over the baby you’ve built to someone else to handle. Even with the best training, they won’t do it exactly like you do it. But if the work meets your brand’s standards and the clients are happy, that’s what matters most. You can’t scale up your business with just you. You need others to delegate to for the day-to-day parts so you can focus on the longer-term goals of growing your business. For Tours Around Michigan, this means bringing in contractors to help with tours & office administration. It allows me to work on the bigger picture items that will set up my business for its next steps of growth, including hiring more people to cover them.

7. Use your business and networking for the good of all.

Support the community through your business. It’s the right thing to do, but it also introduces your business to new audiences, often with money to spend.

Volunteering for events important to you personally and professionally is a smart business move. We volunteer for booths related to tourism, West Michigan Tourist Association asked for people to help run an expo table at a local event. We helped them cover shifts, which also allowed us learn about the crowd at that event (research) and get face-to-face time with potential clients we would not have met otherwise. Volunteering also helps keep your business top of mind for the marketers & decision makers in the organization you’re helping. For us, this led us to be asked to help at a show in a nearby state. While we paid for our own gas to drive there, the organization covered the hotel room and some meals, while we were able to meet potential new clients in an important city nearby.

We also get involved with local non-profits to help make the community better. This includes donating tour experiences and running fundraising tours. For the Grand Rapids Public Museum, one of our recent tour donations was the most bid upon in one of their fundraising auctions. For another fundraiser, our donated experience became one of their highly promoted raffle items at a big event. We also partner on fundraising experiences, including recent tours to benefit the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society & a local school group, in which we raised $1,430 that we donated directly to the organizations. It’s a wonderful way to use your company for good, and also spread the word that you are invested in making the community better in different ways.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I personally am a tourism and communications professional with 35-years experience in media, public relations, and branding. I LOVE storytelling. I began sharing stories as a television news producer in Michigan and Indiana, and as a reporter for NPR station WGVU. That work continued in international communications and corporate communications, where I managed corporate issue statements worldwide and traveled with foreign government officials and influencers. I also consulted in branding and public and media relations for small businesses and organizations.

Tourism is a passion that married my love of storytelling with my high level of customer experience. This work quickly resulted in me receiving Certified Tourism Ambassador (CTA) Of The Year for Kent County and a WAVE Award for Best Attraction. I began my own tourism business in early 2018, where I receives 5-star reviews from customers. Tours Around Michigan gives public tours on Grand Rapids history, special topics, and private tours in a variety of topics customized to customer needs.

I’m a mother to four amazing daughters, who roll their eyes at being constantly bombarded with “fun facts,” but then use them to impress others. I served on the board of international non-profit OurPath, ran a local support group for eight years, and am still a Michigan first contact for people experiences trauma. I also love getting involved with charity and professional organizations in the area through Tours Around Michigan. I’m also on the strategic planning committee for the West Michigan Tourist Association.

THE BUSINESS

Tours Around Michigan has been named one of the “Top 50 Things To Do”, by Revue Magazine for 2022 & 2023, We love sharing the hidden gems and revealing secrets of Michigan. We work hard to help create unforgettable memories through our public tours & customized private experiences. There are so many unknown stories and places that even locals haven’t heard much about. We are constantly researching and finding new stories to keep our guests entertained, and our research never stop in the area’s history, art, historic homes, tastings of beer, wine, distillery & cocktails, food, ghosts, and cultures.

We are proud to be Accessible Travel Press Online 1st U.S. Tour Company endorsed. We always try to do better for our guests who rock life on wheels, use interpreters (including sign language), love a guide dog, or see life through neurodivergence or a mental (dis)ability. We are also the first service business ever to partner with AbleVu Accessibility.

We are LGBTQ+ and pet friendly. We really just want to be friends with everyone.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

My business began in a very unusual way. I was working for a tour company that unfortunately was heavily mismanaged. As a result, the owners of the company literally picked up and left the country, leaving a legal and literal mess in their wake. They abandoned clients that they’d taken deposits from and abandoned financial obligations they’d promised.

In this situation, I decided to help the clients they’d abandoned by providing the experiences they were promised. I ran them at cost, just to not abandon them.

After this, I decided to begin my own separate business in tourism. I basically built the plane as I flew it, as I wanted a very different business than the one I’d worked for. As a result, I have a business with zero debt, high customer service and years of trust resulting from my focus on putting the client experience first.

While my start was unusual, without a business plan or initial capital, as I built my business, the money was reinvested to use it in ways that would help it grow, including organizational memberships, advertising, building business relationships, and strengthening the Tours Around Michigan brand.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

Social media has been a slow build, like it is for anyone. While I promote tours where I have tickets available, my social media isn’t really led by the “Buy Now!” strategy. All my social media leads with a story about history, a local ghost, a new tasting to try, a work of art, a festival or other fun event in the area, a cool place to visit, etc. Our social media is a resource of interesting stories and places around Michigan. If our content is good, then people will want to hear more by booking a public tour or calling us to have something private customized for them.

Contact Info:

• Website: ToursAroundMichigan.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/toursaroundmichigan/
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/ToursAroundMichigan
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/28144874/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/ToursAroundMI
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCK3pVuPL7jSn_09JjpKCkoA
• Other: TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@toursaroundmichigan/ Google https://g.co/kgs/p4qSrA

Image Credits
Photos by Tours Around Michigan Except… Photos of Candice alone smiling by river & giving tours are credited to “Spring GR” Photos with man in power wheelchair credited to “AbleVu”