Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Dominic Adams. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Dominic, thanks for joining us today. Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?
Plane James And Janes is the name of the company. I chose this name as it was play off of the saying “Plain Jane” which I flipped to Plane Janes. That was perfect for females but knowing that my audience was going to be reflective of both genders I chose to incorporate a male name that rhymes with Jane. From there you have the name Plane James And Janes. The name represents males and females who like to travel by airplane.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
In 2016, I started organizing annual football trips for my family to see a road game for the Philadelphia Eagles. Between the years 2016-2019 the guest list contributed to grow. Finally in December 2019, I took a group of 50 males to a football game in Miami and I witnessed how this particular group struggled with traveling without their significant other who they relied on to do travel task such as checking in for their flight, putting on luggage tags, utilizing a itinerary etc. it was then that my wheels started spinning on what I can do to reduce travel stress for the everyday traveler. I started doing research on becoming a travel agent and just when I thought I figured it out we were hit with the pandemic in 2020. This dream was temporarily deferred as I decided to launch my business officially in March 2021. Plane James And Janes is a travel agency but it’s not your typical travel agency where we provide services for lodging and transportation only. We provide bespoke travel experiences. My motto is we don’t book trips! We curate experiences! When booking with us it is standard practice for us to offer the client an option to include a full itinerary based on their llfestyle, personality and the destination.
This model works for the majority of our clients because their only responsibility include paying for their vacation and packing their luggage. We take care of coordinating lodging, activities, excursions, transportation and restaurant reservations.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
I was in the middle of coordinating a destination wedding for a client and I made a costly mistake that nearly ended my desire to remain in business. The destination wedding ended up being for a total of 125 guest. This is great right? Absolutely! However, during the journey of handling this client I let the clients dictate to me not to release rooms because they had more people who were guaranteed to attend their wedding. The rookie mistake of not releasing unsold rooms by the contractual date cost me $8,000 out of pocket that I had to pay several months in advance of the client’s wedding. I did not have the $8,000 in a savings account or anything but I had to pay it in order for the client’s wedding to proceed. I was defeated and wanted to throw the whole business in the trash right away. I ended up putting the balance on a credit card and had to wait until I receive my commission check about 4 months later to repay myself. Although it was a costly mistake, it could have been worse if I wasn’t able to make the payment and the client’s wedding plans got disrupted. Instead the planned outcome occurred for the client and on top of that I now had access to 125 clients for sales and marketing pitches.
What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?
The most effective strategy has been conducting a 15 minute consultation with a client to understand their “Why” for this vacation they are looking to book. Their “Why” helps me creatively think about the direction of the conversation for destination recommendations. Equally important is understanding my clients budget. I have found that some clients do not know how much a vacation actually cost. During our consultation once I learn of some of the interesting destinations I quickly look up airfare pricing on google flights. From here I present the current airfare rates and that immediately helps the client and I begin to form a budget or decide if their ideal destination is currently out of their price range.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Planejj.com
- Instagram: PlaneJamesJanes
- Facebook: Plane James And Janes
Image Credits
Qtouchphotography