Today we’d like to introduce you to Valerie Phelps.
Hi Valerie, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
My passion for travel began at a very early age. My dad would travel on company business and on occasion the entire family would travel with him. We went to Hilton Head Island, Orlando, Florida, Atlanta, Georgia and many other places. That began the spark; I loved going to new places and staying in hotels. Later on in life, I worked with a group of young people in our church and we began to tour various cities; Florida, North Carolina and Indianapolis. As Youth choir director, it was my job to plan and organize the trips for our group. It was such an exhilarating feeling to organize, make arrangements, and execute trip planning. It gave me joy when a trip was completed and successful.
About 20 years ago, I began arranging trips for friends and family. It was at that time, a good friend of mine gently nudged me and shared with me that I could use my passion to become an entrepreneur and be compensated for my time and efforts in organizing trips by becoming a travel agent. In 2004, A & M Travel was birthed; I used my children, Aaron and Mikayla’s initials and later changed the name to Travel by Vee, LLC.
Booking trips and excursions for others became a huge passion of mine. With my travel business underway, I quickly realized the best way to sell these properties and to book trips for clients was to visit them. Word of mouth is the best form of advertising.
I began my international travels with my first trip to Cancun, Mexico. This sparked a fire within and I continued to travel. One of my most memorable trips was to the Greek Islands (Athens, Mykonos, Crete, Turkey and my beloved Santorini). I truly fell in love with Santorini’s sunsets!!!
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
While my journey has been rewarding and fruitful, my road to my travel business has not been smooth.
Initially, I was trying to book any trip I could; I was new and wanted to make money. This was hard for me to get to but I came to the realization that every client could not be my client because our ideals did not align.
While I spent time and energy researching locations for my clients, sometimes they would go with another agent or not book the trip at all. One of my biggest setbacks came when I was working with a potential client. This client was interested in booking a trip to celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary so I began to research the location I normally offer two destinations; however for this occasion, I researched Los Cabos, Cancun, and Barbados. I submitted my findings to my client and they reviewed my quotes and then asked if I had any other destinations. I researched again and submitted the quote for St. Maarten. They loved the property! So much, they booked directly with the resort instead of me. The agent who spent time and energy researching, gathering quotes and finding out other vital information needed to book the trip. I was crushed! However, I learned an important lesson, in that my time is invaluable and whether you book or not, I deserve compensation.
This also caused me to put actions in place to avoid this happening in the future. After this, I initiated a pre-trip questionnaire and began charging a research fee. Some potential clients have no problems with the research fee; others do. This has been the perfect opportunity for me to determine my clientele and move accordingly because as I stated, every client is not for me. Without having to navigate the tough terrain, my business would not be what it is today.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I presently work 9-5 in the education arena and spend evenings researching and booking travel.
Any big plans?
I have big plans to grow my travel business in the near future. Focusing on family and social group travel; adding elements of surprise that other agents do not offer. The COVID-19 pandemic has incurred a substantial economic and social impact around the world. I suffered a direct hit; conferences, vacations and groups all canceled due to the pandemic. These losses caused an economic burden on my family.
During the pandemic, with all the changes (wearing masks, Covid test and requirements to travel) and cancellations; there was also a fear of flying the major airlines; therefore I was able to add a new area to my business, private jets! I successfully curated a ski trip for one of my clients and they were able to travel with their entire family on a private jet. Shout out to SaharaJets for being an amazing vendor to partner with!
My plans for the future are to focus more on social group travel. For 2023, I already have a milestone celebratory trip planned to St. Maarten, a group traveling to Jamaica to celebrate a retirement that trip has already doubled and another group of 50+ people booked to ring in 2024 in Dubai! Literally, the sky’s the limit!
Contact Info:
- Instagram: travelbyvee
- Facebook: Travel by Vee
Image Credits:
@saharajets @beavercreek
