When I was still a child, thinking about nothing more than hanging out with my friends and little else, my parents sat me down one day and changed my way of thinking.
That day, the atmosphere felt different. It wasn't tense, but it wasn't the usual calm of our home either.
After the family meal, my parents asked my sister and me not to get up; they needed to talk to us.
Summary of that conversation: Take advantage of your youth, the opportunities we provide, and start something; create a source of income, not to support yourselves, but to learn how to venture out without pressure.
Years have passed, and I haven't forgotten a word. Something changed.
It was a turning point.
Within a week, we both had "projects."
Many years have passed, and many of those projects failed, while a few succeeded very well, but we always learned, or at least that's what I believe.
After traveling around the country, we decided to turn all that knowledge into something (Estilo Viajero, in English something like Traveler Style).
For the first time, my sister and I joined forces to create “something” together.
On weekends, we would travel to different tourist destinations in the country. Each weekend, we would change the destination. All of it aimed at university students and families wanting to escape the routine.
We never planned much; we never thought it would be a long-term business. Just a way to relive what we had experienced, simple, quick, and without much complication.
Or so we thought!
Since these were weekend getaways, reservations had to be managed during the week. Everything had to be done before Friday when the bookings closed.
But there was a problem: my sister and I were in classes during the week.
Our school schedule was anything but normal.
Studying medicine meant we had to balance seeing patients with making reservations. (Hiring someone for that was not feasible at the time.)
We wanted to offer the best customer service possible, so we aimed to handle reservations within two hours.
This was crucial, but it brought constant stress. If that situation had continued, it would have been unsustainable.
As the weekend approached, the workload doubled. By Thursday, reservations would double or triple. It became difficult to meet our goals. Communication between my sister and me had to be nearly perfect. (All this was done via WhatsApp)
We had to create travel itineraries and manage hundreds of details, handled by two students who knew nothing.
Today, after learning a bit about marketing and processes, there are many things I would do differently.
During that time, our way of relieving stress was a bit unorthodox.
Overnight, we went from studying eight hours a day to working until the reservations stopped coming in.
There were nights when we finished well into the early morning; there were other days that felt like 48 hours due to shifts and customer service.
The stress was immense.
The only way we found to relieve stress was to enjoy the trip ourselves.
Although the most important thing in any venture is to make money, we had forgotten that for us, the experience was what mattered, both in entrepreneurship and in reliving the stories we created with our parents.
So on each trip, we acted as guides until we reached the destination, and at a certain point, we gave the customers the freedom to enjoy their day as they wished.
This allowed us to ensure that the customers didn’t feel tied to a rigid itinerary, and we could enjoy the destination like any other customer.
During the week, we didn’t stop. Sleeping became very difficult.
Have you ever laid down and your mind stays connected? You keep thinking about everything that’s pending or how to do things better? And in the end, you don’t rest. That’s what happened to us.
The workload was tremendous, but knowing that by the weekend we would be at a beach or in the mountains enjoying made the workload worthwhile.
Just a couple of young people doing the best they could with what they had.
Later, we realized that we should enjoy the journey.
We continued to maintain the three-hour rule, but we started to build connections with our clients.
The clients became regulars and got to know us.
We built trust with the clients, which reduced response times and decreased stress.
Turning clients into friends was another way.
Perhaps, in those early days, we could have done more or done things differently. But that was our way of handling all the challenges that came our way.
Today, Traveler Style has evolved into a private project aimed at a different audience (the country's situation forced us to), but we are quite proud of our beginnings (the truth is we miss them and work to return to those beginnings).
I don’t know if we handled it well or not, but it got us to where we are now.
We went from being a team of two to more than five, with a couple of collaborators helping us maintain several projects derived from Traveler Style.
Thanks to that, today I can focus on finishing my internship. My sister is about to start hers and will go through the same thing, and Traveler Style continues to turn customers into friends.
It’s essential to learn how to manage the workload.
I’m not the right person to give you advice.
I learned that if you feel stressed, you should stop, look at everything from the outside, and see what you can change. And most importantly, understand that not everything depends on you, and you can’t handle everything.
Since I learned this, stress has decreased, allowing us to be better.
This is by no means a motivational post; it’s just my experience, and I can tell you I still have much to learn.
If you made it this far, I would love to know what you would have done? Or what do you do to manage stress? There’s always something to learn :)
I look forward to reading your comments.
See you soon!
[dahpilot]
All images in this post are my own.
