Tour Guide Service Business Plan, Marketing Plan, How To Guide, and Funding Directory
The Tour Guide Service Business Plan and Business Development toolkit features 18 different documents that you can use for capital raising or general business planning purposes. Our product line also features comprehensive information regarding to how to start a Tour Guide Service business. All business planning packages come with easy-to-use instructions so that you can reduce the time needed to create a professional business plan and presentation.
Your Business Planning Package will be immediately emailed to you after you make your purchase.
Product Specifications (please see images below):
Tour guide services can vary greatly depending on the amount of money that individual is willing to spend in order to explore specific area. Certain tour guide services cater specifically to people that want to have an adventure experience or want to explore in a specific city as if they were a resident. The startup costs associated with the new tour guide service can vary greatly depending on the types of services rendered as well as the location of the business. For instance, a local tour guide service will have a far lower startup cost – ranging anywhere from $10,000 to $50,000 – versus an adventure tour guide service which can have startup cost of the easily exceed $250,000. The barriers to entry for new tour guide service are relatively well given the fact that there is no licensure required to act in this regard and a person he can provide the services on an individualized basis as well.
Most tour guide services typically have gross margins in excess of 90% unless the tour guide arranges for and pays for incidentals including meals. The demand for these services is fully dependent on the quality of the economy given that during times of economic recession most people will reduce their expenditures as relates to domestic and international travel.
A tour guide service business plan should be developed as well if the individual is looking for a business loan or line of credit in order to launch operations. As with all business plans, it is standard to have your profit and loss statement, cash analysis, balance sheet, breakeven analysis, and business ratios page. Special attention should be paid within the business plan to the demographics of people that frequently travel to any specific area and require tour guide services. This includes taking a look at the number of people that travel to the area, their average annual median incomes, and the amount of money at their going to spend on tour guide services and their trip as a whole. This can be very important when developing the marketing plan that is associated with launching a new tour guide service.
As it relates to industry research, there are approximately 9,000 companies within the United States that operate in this capacity. Each year they generate more than $9 billion and provide jobs to 35,000 people. A competitive analysis should also be included within the tour guide service business plan in order to determine which individuals and companies the company will have to face and how it can differentiate themselves from these third-party competitors.
A tour guide service SWOT analysis is typically produced as well in order to understand the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that are faced by these businesses. As it relates to strengths, tour guide services can readily expand or contract in size depending on the quality of the economy. Additionally, they have very high gross margins and low barriers to entry. Most of these businesses are able to achieve profitability within the first year of operation.
For weaknesses, these businesses are dependent on the economy in a severe economic recession can impact the way in which a tour guide service generates revenues and remains profitable. They also face competition from other service providers on an ongoing basis.
For opportunities, the way that these businesses can grow is somewhat limitless. Additional tour guides can be hired as staff so that additional revenues can be generated. Additionally, some tour guide services will establish additional locations in other cities in order to expand organically in this manner. Finally, some of the owner-operators will seek to acquire operations that are already existing in order to boost their revenues via acquisition.
As it relates to threats, there’s really nothing about this industry that is going to change moving forward. It is not subject to automation, and the only real risk faced by these businesses are economic related.
Tour guide service marketing plan also needs to be developed and this is going to be one of the most important aspects of the world business planning process given the substantial amount of competition that these businesses face on an ongoing basis. Most importantly, the tour guide service needs to maintain an expansive presence on the Internet coupled with an even greater presence on social media platforms such as FaceBook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Google+.
Many people that use a tour guide service want to write a review about the business and their experience, and as such – it is imperative that social media pages are established so that previous customers can write reviews. In time, the strong reviews received by the tour guide service will allow for customers to have a greater degree of trust as it relates to helping people explore city or experience an exciting excursion.
The company’s website should feature information about the tour guide services rendered, preliminary pricing information, and how to book a tour with the business. One of the things that is interesting about this business is that some tour guide services will provide transportation via a van/car to their clients. In this case, this may translate to a higher startup cost given that the acquisition of a vehicle is needed. However, by providing transportation – and including this is one of the benefits and the company’s marketing literature – a stronger reputation and way of increasing revenues can be held as well.
Many tour guide services, especially those that cater to a very high end clientele, may also take out advertisements in popular lifestyle magazines and newspapers so that wealthier people can become aware of the services rendered. This is especially important for tour guides that specialize in high-end tours or adventure travel. In these cases, tours can range anywhere from $100,000 to $250,000 per person. Of course, if the tour guide is going to be entering this type of market and a very expensive marketing plan that is developed in conjunction with a qualified marketing and advertising firm should be produced. In some cases, these tour guide services will hire a public relations firm in order to have their information provided to major lifestyle magazines that may ultimately write articles about the business. This is one of the ways that most high-end tour guide services develop their initial marketing operations and market their services to their clientele.
Depending on the market targeted, tour guide services typically are always able to remain profitable and cash flow positive. Given that very little office space and very little operating expenses are associated with these businesses, taking contract when needed in order to remain profitable. Additionally, maintaining operations in several states or several major metropolitan areas – these businesses can reduce the risk associated with their services given the fact that some people are always going to want to have a tour guide with them when exploring a new city. The demand for these services will remain strong moving forward and it is not wholly subject automation given the fact that many people want to have an authentic experience when they visit a new city.