Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kimberly Thomas. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Kimberly , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Do you take vacations? How do you keep things going – any advice for entrepreneurs who feel like they can’t step away from their business for a short vacation?
Does a travel advisor take vacations? The resounding answer is YES! As a business owner in the travel industry, it does make it a little easier to take a vacation, however, my vacations are still revolved around work in some capacity. Therefore, I can’t remember when my “vacation” hasn’t been a totally work-free opportunity. I’ve just learned to keep a schedule of fun time versus my work time slot to enjoy my trip.
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?
I have always loved learning about new places, people, and their cultural history since my World History classes in high school. My teacher at Clarke Central High School (Athens, GA) made my class assignments of learning about different people, places, and cultures EXCITING. That piqued my interest in one day being able to travel. From my husband and I working both part-time and full-time jobs to get through college and graduate school at the University of Georgia, working in state government leadership positions for over 30 years, raising three outstanding daughters who have all excelled in academics and D-1 sports, and experiencing life with the accompanying highs and lows, I never forgot about traveling. This included the loss of my mother from breast cancer who was an inspiration to me and my family. However, through all of these times, I maintained a passion for working hard, helping others in my community, and maintaining a desire to own my own business one day.
I gifted myself two turnkey travel businesses with PlanNet Marketing after discovering the benefits of having everything that I needed to get started: the ability to work my business remotely; back-office technical support; business relationships with national and internationally respected travel partners; a very reasonable entry price point; and 24-hour training support. My travel business, Classic City Travel, is an independent travel agency born out of a love of travel, meeting new people, and discovering new places. While my second business, Classic City Travelers, is my branch that helps others join the travel business industry to begin their own travel businesses. Both of these businesses allow entry into the multi-billion dollar travel industry.
As an owner/travel advisor, I strive to help my clients receive the travel experience that they couldn’t do for themselves within their budget. Classic City Travel is affiliated with industry-respected travel providers at all levels for hotels, airlines, ground transportation, guided or self-paced international trips, designated local tour guides, cruise lines, and all-inclusive vacation service providers. Classic City Travel aims to help our clients find great travel opportunities, offer competitive pricing, and help them see the world! I find great satisfaction in helping my clients check off their bucket-list travel goals, planning family group trips and cruises to reconnect with each other, and working with businesses to get their employees to corporate training events. My clients have traveled everywhere from solo traveling through Dubai/Northern Africa, taking family reunion cruise trips to the Caribbean, hiking in the jungles of Costa Rica, and taking couple casino trips to the Bahamas, and more! Additionally, I work with a local school district to coordinate their staff travel to educational conferences and large-group student travel for senior class and band trips.
With Classic City Travelers, I have been able to successfully help others begin their own travel businesses. This has helped them to achieve their dreams of business ownership and financial freedom. To increase awareness of small business ownership, I participate in community seminars, online webinars, and other social media platforms to share how I started my journey and how my business has been a financial help to my family. It’s been a great reward to have a community of other small travel business owners to network with, share information on how to improve my businesses, and attend industry training sessions with.
In my two short years as a travel business owner, I have found that my passion for travel and previous professional experiences have allowed me to utilize my knowledge and skills to help others begin their own businesses, earn enough money to pay off household bills for my family, sponsor several K-12 and collegiate academic scholarships, and to offer a needed service to my community.
One of the things that my mother always said to me was “to let my good works show others who I am and to be a blessing to others”. I have tried to do this with my businesses and from hard work.
How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?
I keep in touch with my clients and foster brand loyalty by sending follow-up emails, celebrating birthdays, sending text messages for quick responses to their questions, and by posting their pictures on social media. I also post positive/affirming messages several times a week on my social platforms, send/post “traveling tips” through emails and my social links, and try to have some type of engagement consistently.
My husband and daughters were very supportive in helping me get started in the travel business, and they love to travel with me. A few of my “bucket trip” destinations that we have enjoyed traveling to include Honolulu, Hawaii, South Africa (Cape Town, Johannesburg, Soweto, Pilanesberg National Park), Mexico, and several islands in the Caribbean. I have found that posting our family trip pictures gets a lot of engagement from clients asking questions about the location, resorts, or what we are eating while we are traveling.
Can you talk to us about your experience with buying businesses?
I have brought two travel businesses – one allows me to book travel for others and the second one allows me to help others join the travel business for themself. I decided to join the travel industry because it is a multi-billion dollar industry, I have always loved to help others, and I saw that there was a great need for a travel agency business in my community. The process of ownership was very easy: (1) I researched the industry and price point needed to join; (2) listened to several business presentations and asked a lot of questions; (3) I connected with a regional director for final questions; and (4) paid my ownership fee. After paying my ownership fee, I established my online business presence (website, graphic design production, and created my social media links), purchased my business licenses, and started working.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://classiccitytravel.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/classiccitytravel.ga/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/classiccitytravel.ga
Image Credits
Kimberly Thomas
Anthony Thomas