Cecily North: Three Years a Hobby, Then a Business

Cecily North ran Traveling North Agency as a hobby for three years before she started treating it like a business. The revenue changed almost immediately. Cecily joins Zaneta Chuniq Inpower to talk about what actually separates a side gig from a company - and why the answer had nothing to do with working harder.

She is a Certified Travel Advisor and a Verified Travel Advisor who is also, still, a special collections and local history librarian. She started the agency in 2014, after asking herself what she would do if money and time were no object. The answer was driving, road trips, and seeing places.

What you'll hear

• Why friends and family are usually the worst first clients - they overstep, expect free work, and do not respect professional fees
• The one-time new client fee, why it is charged upfront, and why some agents bury fees inside supplier taxes instead
• Networking outside your immediate circle as the real path to paying clients
• How travel agents actually get paid, and the services that generate no commission at all
• Use AI to research the itinerary, book it with a human - what happens when a Scotland rental sells out from under your clients mid-trip
• Letting the client base pick the niche: Disney and Universal gave way to custom multi-country European itineraries

The full write-up is here: Cecily North on Building a Travel Agency, and Why AI Can't Replace a Human Agent.

Cecily also hosts Life Between Flights, a podcast for new travel agents covering the business side almost nobody covers - SEO, bookkeeping, client acquisition, websites. She is on Instagram as @lifebetweenflightspod.

More small business conversations at Unscripted Small Business. Hosted by Zaneta Chuniq Inpower.