What’s the most important part of your travel business? Lauren Rilling believes it’s profit.

For more than a decade, Lauren has been helping small business owners solve their companies’ financial problems. And she believes that most business owners get into trouble by not prioritizing profit. She joins the podcast today to help you understand how to create and maximize profit in your travel company — and why this is essential to every other element of your business.

Lauren discusses how tour operators can ensure that every trip is profitable from day one. She gives tips about how to turn a travel hobby into a travel business and offers essential strategies for managing the seasonality and cash flow irregularities of the tourism business. Plus, we have news about the Big Beautiful Bill’s tourism implications; a Road Tip about selecting the best travel snacks; and a Hot Minute about the skyrocketing costs of tourism conferences.

Lauren had lots of ideas about how travel business owners can improve their companies’ financial performance. Here’s what she had to say about paying attention to profit from the very beginning of a company:

“You can really figure out what your expected profit will be ahead of time. You don’t have to take big financial risks. You don’t need a lot of capital to get started…. Know what your profit margins are. Start calculating your costs… And then know what you’re charging people. Then, the remaining amount is your gross profit.

“Gross profit is everything when it comes to tour companies. Knowing your gross profit for each trip will help you know how much you need to charge.”

Plus, she had insightful thoughts on:

Learn more about Lauren Rilling at savvystewardship.com.

Contact Lauren at [email protected].

Apply to attend our OnSite familiarization trip in Alabama here.

1:13 — Travel News: The Big Beautiful Bill’s impact on tourism

2:44 — Road Tip: What makes the perfect road trip snack?

8:12 — Join us for a trip to Alabama

11:52 — Lauren Rilling’s roots in travel

14:54 — How to know when to turn a travel hobby into a travel business

18:40 — When should you hire a professional accountant for your travel business?

21:20 — Why tourism entrepreneurs should put profit first

23:30 — Planning for profit when your travel business’ income is variable

25:24 — Should you operate tours that don’t make money?

27:45 — Managing cash flow in a seasonable business

30:48 — How travel business owners should pay themselves

35:27 — Don’t spend customer deposits until you have “earned” them

51:06 — Hot Minute: Are tourism conferences getting too expensive?

See the full interview with Lauren on our YouTube channel.

Gather and Go with Brian Jewell is a tourism industry podcast that helps group travel leaders plan, promote and lead better trips. There are also tips and insights for destination marketers and others who support the tourism trade. Each episode reaches thousands of professional tour operators, travel agents and the volunteer group leaders they serve. The audience also includes destination museum leaders, church travel leaders and other tourism enthusiasts around the world. Each show includes an interview with a smart travel pro or an insightful person from outside tourism who’s expertise can help make travel businesses better. You’ll also hear travel news, road tips and more. New episodes are released about twice monthly.

You can find Gather and Go wherever your listen to podcasts or subscribe by email.