Building a Business Chapter 11/16/25-11/22/25

This week in business 11/16-11/22

The week that just passed was a great week to get back ahead of things. I had pushed myself into the tiktok world once again and was very consistent in posts. I still have about two and a half weeks of posts to go through before I completely run out of reserves. I still have plenty of past events to go through, and two trips coming up soon. I feel strong about where I am.

I got a lead from one of my family members that a person might need a destination cruise with 30 cabins to book on a group rate. It has made me excited because maybe this could turn into something, that is 60 people needing rooms. 60 people to turn them from non-travel agent people to turn them into travel agent customers.

The group trip I am about to go on at the end of November has already pushed me with so many different requests, and so many different days of monitoring the website for price drops. I wonder if there is an app for that to check manually the deals instead of looking every time a new deal drops. It is almost ready to set sail, and I haven’t come up with an idea of a travel agent extra. Should I get them custom cups with a personal thank you note written? Would that be better than cash though? Will the custom cups be here in time? I checked and it would be a gamble. I will ask to see if that is worth it or if any of my family has a cricket or something. Perhaps I could get off even cheaper. Everyone needs a reusable water bottle on a ship so maybe this could help. Something they can USE. A gift card is another option but where is the shock factor.

The amount of work I did was almost exactly two and a half hours once again. This week’s issue is a sickness that I just can’t shake, and it has made it a bit harder to focus. 149 minutes was good enough to make 20 tiktoks but it wasn’t good enough for bettering the content, or really stepping out of the comfort zone. I am still hovering in that comfort zone of creation.

After a few tests I have to take earlier in the week, my schedule will be freed up. Even though I am still under the weather, I can spend my time wisely to get more ahead on this project. Where I can have the freedom to take days off, or to hopefully expand the type of content I create.

On the last day of the week before I get on my cruise, I started to hit a groove of production. I was typing so many blogs, and I am still hovering around a two to three week buffer on tiktoks. I have been trying to remove my phone and giving me some scheduled time for phone usage which has opened up so much time to put some work in.

Now, I have to push myself into the next project. How do I make my clients feel good from booking with me. Let’s ask our robot to make the best gift possible.

This is very much a drinking cruise, filled with a bunch of people with the drink package and will be full of long nights, and alcohol.

Some items in a gift bag, a $20 gift card, and a thank you note. Trying to keep this around a budget of $25-$30 per cabin which would leave me with $250-300 for myself while giving $250-$300 to the guests.

I finally gave most of the money out that I got, but unfortunately the disposable camera idea didn’t work on the Bahamas booze cruise. Maybe they turn up eventually, maybe not. Getting on the ship and experiencing the clients’ patterns, I think it would be best to give them a lanyard, an easy way to keep your valuables safe, and to have the card ready to go at the bar. It was the most useful thing on the trip. Maybe the disposable cameras could work outside of a booze cruise. Maybe it just works better in my head. This was the first large group trip that I booked at 12 cabins. It had its ups and downs but overall it wasn’t too bad dealing with that many clients. I think the biggest issues were on Royal Caribbean’s end. Sometimes software didn’t work, I was given wrong information when I called Royal, and it was little things like that when added up could make me have some stressful nights.

The total amount of work I did in the venture this week was about six and a half hours. This was a good week to get back on track, and their was work that I did six out of the seven days, and I could have easily gone for more. I hit three hours in one day, and didn’t hit an hour any other day so if I could spread out the time, and make it a consistent, hour to two hour per day, I should be able to ramp up the amount of time I put toward this project to the final goal of ten hours per week. This will be good enough to maintain posting standards, improve content, and learn more about how to do pretty much anything. I am still flailing around trying things out. I have entered my 9^th month in this, and it does give me hope that maybe I can break into this market and solidify a spot for me. I just need to do it for years and years and years.