IGNORE: The countdown to craziness, the 24/7 working week and my first grey hairs
Monday, 13 Oct, 2009
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Running a ski holiday company – the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth
TravelMole’s regular column from the sharp end by Olivia Gascoigne, marketing manager of specialist operator The Independent Mountain
It’s October, which means one thing – the official countdown to the season has begun along with the stomach churning anxieties of have we done enough prep for the season?
Will all the prep already done pay off? And how many sleepless nights do we have ahead of us as we dream up plans and schemes of how to squeeze as much as we can out of the next couple of months?
The first ticks of the countdown clock have signalled the end of what we are calling our preparation phase and has in turn launched the barmy period otherwise known as the start of the 24/7 working week and the countdown to my first grey hairs!
It would be a fair account to say that things here in the Independent Mountain office have gone from busy to crazy busy over night with our enquiry rate increasing ten fold, website hits growing daily and our PR campaign hitting the pages of Woman & Home, Zest, Sainsbury’s and Woman’s Own Magazine – phew!
In any corporate sales office with a staff budget, this increase of traffic and workload would usually equate to an increase in staff, however, as our entrepreneurial team is one of two and certainly one without the luxury of such funds, it instead means we have to be a bit more creative with our staffing. In other words we have resorted to the more traditional ethos of getting stuck in and doing it ourselves!
Therefore, this PR and marketing gal is now donning her sales hat and honing her dulcet brummie tones as I step into the ski holiday sales arena and try and compete with the sales guru that is my partner James.
Let the competition begin (all healthy of course) however, as we are both competitive to the point of what some may call fierce and work in perfect hitting distance, I fear it may be staplers at dawn!
Yes, our days here in the office for now and the near future are going to be at the least eventful right through to the insane as we work our socks off to secure as many bookings as possible, build the brand with clever PR & marketing ideas (and by clever I mean free!) all whilst trying to grab a few winks of sleep along with some quality non business related time together. What do you reckon our chances are?
Be sure to join me next time to find out who’s stapler won out as I try and cut it in the sales world, the level of craziness we manage to reach and if I’ve managed to keep those disturbingly ageing hairs at bay.
*IndependentMountain.com is a ski holiday company promoting over 1,000 independent properties in 30 ski resorts to independent travellers.
Phil Davies
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