It's been an exciting week. Actually it's been exciting since the start of the new year when Adios Adventure Travel was featured in a couple of high-profile travel blogs. Several people contacted us to ask about employment. As guides. And a few asked about setting up trips. Even better!

But that was nothing compared to what happened when money.msn.com mentioned Jacquie Whitt, one of the Adios co-founders, in a story featuring 10 new careers after age 50. (check out career #7!) We didn't know the story was going to be featured on MSN until you called, you texted, you liked us on FB, you sent emails about once every 20 seconds all day long. And you visited our website in unprecedented numbers. Can you say 3000% increase?

We were stunned. In a good way! We know you're out there and we know you're paying attention. Thank you! We tried to reply to every single inquiry. If we missed anyone, we're very sorry. It was not intentional. For all of you interested in a job as guide, unfortunately, we don't "hire" guides to accompany our groups from the point of departure. We would apply for those jobs too! We hire local English-speaking guides. But you inspired us to look at how we did organize our company.

We looked back to see what steps we took to get where we are now. There are 3 very clear principles:

  1. Finding the RIGHT business partner is more important than finding financial support. Our equity partnership is based on being honest, trustworthy & dependable. These core values could be the foundation for any business. We know that running this company would not be possible without each other & we both share the same customer service philosophy. Being in complete agreement on that principle, makes everything else work.
  2. We each started out having another source of income. A paycheck that is dependable. The travel business fluctuates not only seasonally, but from year to year. It's a good idea to hold on to your paycheck. If you have a paying job, keep it while you build your new business.
  3. We have not accumulated any debt. If we can't afford it, we don't buy it. We make hard decisions about spending. Some years, we invested in travel trade shows, other years we invested in fees for membership organizations and others we have spent on advertising.

This is our simple formula for success. We hope you will follow your passion wherever it takes you and we hope you will continue to share your stories of success as you go.