When Mar Pages took her first journey overseas, leaving her native Spain for London when she was 21, she was hooked. However she didn’t simply get hooked on touring, she acquired hooked on touring alone.
After a interval within the company office, she determined to comply with her ardour for each journey and feminine empowerment and create the Solo Female Travelers group on Fb.
As her group grew, so did the enterprise. She expanded to different social media, created a website, and began organizing excursions for girls.
She and her co-founder, Meg, design distinctive journeys for girls that assist women-owned companies within the locations to which they journey. Their purpose is not only to take ladies on memorable journeys, however to make the trade extra equitable and supply employment alternatives and assist to ladies.
Since that journey to London, she has been to over 130 completely different international locations, 60 of these on her personal. Not solely is her enterprise producing 7 figures a 12 months, however she’s additionally serving to to redefine the tourism trade.
Maintain studying to search out out:
- What skilled expertise Mar had previous to beginning her enterprise
- Why she created the Fb group
- How she grew it
- When and why she expanded to different platforms
- What she did to higher perceive her viewers
- Why she created a journey firm
- What her enterprise imaginative and prescient is predicated on
- Her ideas on constructing a group
- How she helps female-led companies
- How she builds hyperlinks
- The content material creation course of she follows
- Her strategy to her e mail record
- How she works along with her co-founder, Meg
- What number of hours per week she works on her enterprise
- The assets and instruments she recommends
- Her best problem
- Her greatest accomplishment
- What she needs she knew when she began
- The principle mistake she’s made
- Her recommendation for different entrepreneurs
Meet Mar Pages
I’m a long-term expat from Barcelona at present in my early 40s and residing in Singapore since 2011. Earlier than that, I lived in Dubai and Johannesburg.
I’ve a enterprise diploma, an MBA, and a 15-year profession in finance and technique consulting within the telecoms trade and at Google. I’m additionally the co-founder of Solo Female Travelers, a platform that empowers ladies by journey.
I typically describe myself as being in my fourth skilled iteration. I began out as an auditor, then a method guide, then a venture lead, and at last a blogger-turned-travel entrepreneur.
Though it could appear that I’ve had 4 fully completely different jobs in my 20 years within the skilled world, there are two underlying frequent parts to all my jobs: a ardour for journey and a dedication to feminine empowerment and equality.
I took my first solo journey on the tender age of 21 once I introduced to my mom I used to be going to spend the summer time working at a bar or cafe in London to study English. I’ve since been to 130 international locations, greater than 60 of these alone.
Once I was a guide, I volunteered to get entangled in recruitment so I may improve the feminine illustration within the firm, which was decrease than 10%. Working in a male-dominated trade and in a male-dominated geography introduced these inequalities to the forefront much more. Even at Google, my instant workforce was comparatively gender numerous, however my day-to-day workforce was nearly completely male, too.
It took me a while, however I lastly managed to carry my two passions collectively beneath Solo Feminine Vacationers, the place we create unforgettable journeys of a lifetime for girls whereas actively working to make the journey trade extra equitable by employment alternatives and assist.
Why She Created Solo Feminine Vacationers
Solo Female Travelers began as a Fb group in 2015 as a spot for girls who beloved to journey solo to attach, share recommendation and suggestions, and collect beneath a typical umbrella.
Again then, solo journey for girls was not as well-liked or widespread, and it didn’t get the extent of consideration and consciousness that it receives as we speak.
It was not till the tip of 2019 that the group began to develop considerably and we had been including greater than 1,000 members a day. With development got here the necessity to increase the workforce and discover a option to handle it sustainably.
Our development took off as a result of Fb began to advocate it. We consider that Fb will all the time advocate good high quality, engaged, clear, and well-moderated teams, so we give attention to that, and Fb recommends our group to in all probability lots of of individuals every single day.
Then the pandemic in all probability helped gas this additional with the truth that we couldn’t journey however yearned to, so individuals turned to on-line communities. Groups on Facebook grew dramatically throughout the first few months; you’ll find stats from Fb about it.
Increasing the Group on Fb and Past
On the time, it was me and my enterprise associate Meg Jerrard moderating the group, vetting and accepting new members, and approving posts submitted to the queue. And we had been doing it 24/7, three hundred and sixty five days a 12 months, and not using a break.
We by no means needed to depend on volunteers we couldn’t pay to run the group, and we didn’t wish to depend on donations or exterior funding. We needed to be a financially sustainable and impartial enterprise with a social affect mission that might do good within the ways in which we felt had been proper with out having to reply to anybody and with out strain to ship income to shareholders. We knew we may leverage our attain and group to assist form the journey trade and needed to stay impartial.
Solo Feminine Vacationers expanded past the group at the start of 2020 once we created all different social media channels (Instagram, Fb web page, YouTube, TikTok) and our web site, the place we publish related articles and assets answering essentially the most generally requested questions within the group.
As veteran content material creators and bloggers, each Meg and I knew that we may generate passive revenue by promoting and associates of our web site, each by search engine optimisation and thru the referral site visitors generated by way of our channels.
However we knew this wasn’t sufficient to have a real affect. To learn how our distinctive mannequin would work, we wanted to higher perceive our viewers.
Despite the fact that we’re each skilled solo vacationers with greater than 50 international locations visited alone, we aren’t consultant of the solo feminine journey inhabitants. As a former technique guide, I wanted to grasp the market; I wanted knowledge.
So we launched the biggest solo feminine journey survey, now in its third version. We collected 5,000 responses to an in depth 30-question survey and sliced the information to search out solutions to our monetary sustainability.
There have been a lot of helpful findings, however the obvious was the conclusion that launching excursions for girls by ladies might be the reply to our mission of serving to form the trade.
Ladies-only excursions fill a necessity available in the market and tackle all solo feminine vacationers’ considerations and challenges: loneliness, boredom, nervousness, concern, lack of time/curiosity to plan a visit, willingness to fulfill new individuals, not having a journey associate to go together with, and so on. Additionally they present superb experiences and convey financial and employment alternatives to female-owned companies around the globe.
That is how Solo Female Travelers Tours was born, in the course of the worldwide pandemic. We launched the primary excursions to Iceland and Tanzania in April 2021. Since then, we’ve got taken company on 25 journeys and have 22 extra scheduled this 12 months.
Mar’s New Progress Alternatives
Simply after launching our excursions, we had been additionally accepted into Fb’s Neighborhood Accelerator, which gave us the monetary assets we wanted to increase the workforce and bridge the time from launch to monetary sustainability.
Yearly this system is completely different. Our program lasted for a 12 months, with 8 months of curriculum periods and mentoring with a coach, the place we needed to outline a plan of motion, and funding was supplied.
There was extra funding on the finish of this system, and extra funding went to a small record of shortlisted communities. The overall got here to 80k. This 12 months’s is completely different. The periods had been much less useful due to my profession in finance, enterprise, and as a administration guide, however it did make us give attention to a plan and execute it, and the funding was key.
Meg additionally acquired pregnant round that point, making the necessity to rent workers to cowl for her maternity go away an much more pressing necessity.
In addition to the unique funding this system supplied, we had been shortlisted to obtain further funding.
In September 2021 we added three new members to the workforce, 2 full-time and one part-time, and shortly after, a second part-time member. We graduated from the Communities Accelerator in August 2022.
This 12 months, we’ve simply joined Barcelona Activa Construim en Femeni, a program for female-owned companies which have a social affect mission, and our subsequent purpose is to proceed fine-tuning and bettering our consciousness on the planet of social enterprises and the methods wherein we will proceed to have a optimistic affect within the journey trade.
How A lot Cash Mar is Making
Solo Feminine Vacationers is on observe to generate 7 figures in 2023 by all our income streams.
Since launch, we’ve got taken 235 company on tour with us, and we’ve got nicely over 300 company booked on future excursions. Our excursions are priced between $2,995 for five days on the Amalfi Coast or Venice, to $8,500 for 15 days on Kilimanjaro with a safari extension.
Our web site receives near 100,000 web page views a month and is monetized in conventional methods together with by promoting (we’re on Mediavine) and affiliates.
We additionally run occasional promotional campaigns within the group, which now has 250,000 members, and in our publication, which has 60,000 subscribers and a 40% open fee. I ship out one e mail each week and have been doing so with out fail since we began three years in the past.
We associate with only a few manufacturers that completely align with our mission and values and supply a service that’s priceless to our members. All the pieces we advocate must be a win-win-win for us, the associate, and our viewers and must be a product we use ourselves.
For instance, we ran a marketing campaign with the Tourism Board of Korea selling the vacation spot’s wellness focus and temple stays.
Her High Advertising and marketing Methods
We’re an built-in journey enterprise constructed on belief and a 360-degree, self-sustaining strategy.
Most tour corporations use very conventional advertising channels: media & the press, internet advertising, brochures, conferences, and so on. however lack a group.
Publishing corporations/blogs within the journey trade generate income by associates and promoting, typically based mostly on search engine optimisation, and whereas this can be a 6-figure enterprise, it’s also extraordinarily aggressive and hardly passive.
Influencers and content material creators generate income from collaborations, model sponsorships, and promoting. A few of them have an precise group, however conversations are one-way and belief is missing (as demonstrated by our survey).
We put collectively the perfect of all these three worlds with our community-driven, trust-based holistic journey firm for girls by ladies that’s making an attempt to form the journey trade to be extra equitable for girls.
We’ve direct and instant entry to our viewers. Once we consider a brand new article or tour, we will merely ask them instantly and get a solution right away.
Our complete enterprise is constructed on belief and a long-term view. We don’t wish to generate income tomorrow on the expense of our long-term success and the belief we’ve constructed. Lengthy-term belief has confirmed not solely to be the perfect enterprise technique but additionally what aligns finest with our private values and our social affect mission.
Our group is a supply of inspiration and concepts for content material and new excursions, and its members are additionally the readers of our articles and assets and the company of our excursions. We assist them of their solo journey journey, and so they devour our content material (social and internet) and are available on our excursions.
The group grows organically because of suggestions by members in different communities and thru search. Referral site visitors is important, and phrase of mouth, which is free and completely constructed on the worth delivered and on belief, brings in new members to the group and company on our excursions.
Site visitors on the web site converts into doable future leads by becoming a member of our publication or our group. New group members are added to the publication once they be part of by new member entry questions.
Mar’s Concentrate on Feminine Empowerment
Finally, our excursions assist native female-owned and led companies. They’re led by an area feminine information, they keep at female-owned motels and eat at eating places owned by ladies as a lot as we will (typically this isn’t doable as there are none).
We additionally join with and assist native feminine entrepreneurs, activists, enterprise homeowners, group leaders, and varied ladies in positions of energy.
We’re about 80-90% female-run journeys. Drivers are often male, some companies are owned by a household or a pair, and a really very small share are owned by males. We discover them by contacts, as a result of they attain out to us (we obtain many emails every week), referrals, and thru being on high of our trade and interacting with friends. We vet them by their mission and imaginative and prescient, a name, after which a scouting journey.
For instance, in Tanzania, we collaborate with the Tanzania Ladies Guides Basis to assist pay for the certificates of native porters to grow to be certified Kilimanjaro guides. We then rent them as trainees on our all-female climbs in order that they get the expertise they should discover jobs elsewhere.
We even have safari journeys the place we will probably be serving to newly licensed feminine safari drivers with on-the-job coaching on our all-female safaris to allow them to get the expertise they should discover employment.
Our viewers is aware of we’re trustworthy and wish to do good and recurrently have our backs and recommends us to others. Belief takes years to construct and is strengthened with each interplay that we’ve got every single day, however in the end, it’s the solely passive revenue technique we want.
The Significance of search engine optimisation
We mix search engine optimisation with what we all know is a generally requested query within the group. As a result of we’ve got instant entry to our group, we additionally detect new tendencies as they occur and may anticipate new search phrases.
When it comes to the method, I exploit KeySearch to do the key phrase analysis, then put collectively a quick for our content material Supervisor to jot down the piece. I then overview it and he or she publishes it.
Hyperlink Constructing
We’ve been constructing hyperlinks in some ways, however principally by turning into a acknowledged trade skilled. Once more, it is a long-term technique, however it’s paying off.
We frequently get approached and quoted by the press around the globe and have constructed quite a few hyperlinks from respected excessive DR web sites comparable to The Telegraph, USA As we speak, UpWorthy, Elle, Forbes, The New York Occasions, Oprah Journal, and so on. this manner.
We keep watch over HARO and reply to queries which can be related. Sometimes, we attain out to on-line publications for interviews, podcasts, and visitor posts however we’ve got restricted assets so this has been much less necessary than we’d prefer it to be.
We additionally attend conferences, such because the UN World Tourism Group, as audio system and have networked and been quoted/discovered this manner. Being lively on LinkedIn helps community and be recognized. Meg just lately recorded an episode for a program on Australian nationwide tv and we’ve got additionally been talked about on TV stations from California to Finland.
Our technique is long run and we view media protection as each a option to discover new company for our excursions, proceed our activism efforts to empower ladies by journey (we frequently speak about this subject for no different motive than to carry consciousness to this journey fashion or break stereotypes and obstacles), and construct hyperlinks which ultimately drive site visitors, bookings, consciousness, and so on.
It’s all a virtuous cycle and we view it like that. We obtain requests for interviews and media quotes nearly on a weekly foundation and barely say no (until the piece doesn’t align with our mission). We’ll assist college students as a lot as we’ll assist Oprah.
Our Solo Female Travel survey is a significant supply of credibility and attracts common passive hyperlinks.
Her Content material Creation Course of
I maintain a spreadsheet of content material concepts based mostly on key phrase analysis and questions requested within the group and provides our content material supervisor a listing of content material items to jot down each month with their corresponding key phrases. I prioritize based mostly on low competitiveness and in addition how typically these are requested within the group.
If a content material piece doesn’t have search engine optimisation potential, however it may possibly assist our members, we’ll nonetheless write it. Some items we don’t rank for however get learn lots of of occasions a month by our members.
On the similar time, some items have low site visitors however are particularly designed for our tour company. I write packing lists and journey suggestions myself for our company to learn earlier than a tour with the really helpful objects I pack for the excursions since I’ve been to the vacation spot earlier than the journey, for scouting, and go on each first tour we launch. We obtain affiliate commissions from what company purchase from these packing lists. Low site visitors, however excessive conversion.
We do not publish fairly often, although we intention to publish 2 to 4 articles a month. We’ve about 75 articles solely plus the tour pages for every vacation spot.
Mar’s E-mail Listing
We’ve a 60,000 subscriber record that grows by about 2,000-3,000 each month. We’ve a pop-up from OptinMonster selling the excursions, Mediavine Highlight bins all through, and a signup field on the fitting sidebar of the web site.
Nevertheless, our greatest supply of signups for the publication is our group. All new members get requested in the event that they wish to be part of and about 30% go away us their e mail. We’ve automated that course of to robotically copy them over to Mailerlite and we’ve got a easy welcome sequence.
I ship out a publication each week. It’s detailed and full of helpful suggestions, recommendation, and information for our subscribers, and it additionally mentions our excursions. We’ve a 40% open fee constantly and rising a bit each week. I’m aiming to have a 50% open fee by the tip of the 12 months.
Our publication will get a whole lot of responses and we see a site visitors surge each time I ship them. They’re learn and appreciated by our members and they’re forwarded to others. That is the perfect funding we’ve got made.
Mar and Her Enterprise Companion, Meg
Meg and I began a tour enterprise in the course of the pandemic. When most journey companies had been closing or going bankrupt, we determined to launch our excursions.
Whereas this was very daring, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Busy companions who wouldn’t have had the time to fulfill small “nobodies” like us with no observe report within the tour enterprise had on a regular basis on the planet to talk to us and had been prepared to brainstorm and be extra versatile.
Funnily sufficient, Meg and I’ve solely ever seen one another in particular person in 2015 at a celebration throughout TBEX. Regardless of that, we’ve got constructed a 7-figure enterprise based mostly in Spain, 50% owned by every of us, and globally distributed with workers from El Salvador to Australia on Google Meets and WhatsApp.
We communicate a number of occasions every single day and all the time joke that if something occurred to both of us the opposite one can be the primary to know. Each day I get up to WhatsApp messages from her and he or she from me.
When she went into labor, I used to be ending off our first Solo Feminine Vacationers Tour in Tanzania and was with the company at our farewell dinner. I used to be the primary particular person she advised her waters broke as a result of I wanted to know she can be offline. It was Sunday and I needed to take over the group administration from her. Fortunately her child got here early however waited for our first tour to finish!
After all, these are the anecdotes and idiosyncrasies of being a small, female-owned and led startup that’s all the time on, the equal to our “garage-startup” story.
With our workforce’s enlargement, we now have an organization with extra built-in “redundancies.”
Meg and I’ll lastly meet in particular person this June when she is going to come to Europe to co-host our Greek Islands journey and we may have a workforce offsite with the complete workforce in Barcelona.
How Many Hours Mar Works on the Enterprise
Being a small enterprise that’s world, distant, distributed, and based mostly on a web based group that’s operating 24/7 means we’ve got little likelihood to disconnect.
We’re a workforce of 4 managing the group in shifts throughout the week, however on the weekends it’s simply Meg and I, so we’ve got to be on it for a shift of 12 hours every.
When it comes to my hours and schedule, these are very a lot depending on the place I’m and what I’m doing.
Usually, once I’m not touring, I work 10 to 12 hours a day. I take breaks to go for lengthy walks and watch some TV and I learn a bit earlier than going to mattress. I additionally meet with family and friends and attend occasions.
If I’m in Spain, in between excursions or scouting journeys, I work weekends, too. If I’m in Singapore, the place my associate is, I spend a lot of the weekend with him and get work carried out on Saturday morning and Sunday night. I additionally take most of Wednesday off to do one thing collectively.
Once I’m on a tour, I’m working all day lengthy, tending to company, collaborating in actions, and ensuring everyone seems to be having a incredible expertise from breakfast to dinner, then getting work carried out within the early morning and late evenings.
I’m lastly making an attempt to take some trip journeys for myself this 12 months, after not having the ability to take action for the final three years. These are journeys to locations we don’t plan to arrange excursions in and that are often off the overwhelmed path. My subsequent journey is to Togo, Ghana, and Benin.
Her Favourite Assets
I’ve been listening to Area of interest Pursuits for a number of years and I additionally religiously take heed to Authority Hacker. It’s been so lengthy, I nearly really feel like I do know them!
Aside from that, I comply with folks that have an analogous mission to ours on LinkedIn and get impressed by what they do. These are ladies in tourism, in gender research, feminine empowerment, and so on.
I’m following the competitors and am continuously studying in regards to the newest tendencies and what everybody else within the trade is doing. This can be a legacy from my years of consulting and one thing I understand no one does. Everyone seems to be so targeted internally, on what they’re doing, that they neglect they aren’t the one ones available in the market.
We comply with the competitors, and I exploit that as a really free time period to check with mainly anybody within the journey trade ecosystem and get inspiration and new concepts from them. I additionally assist anybody who’s beginning out and consider in sharing what I study on platforms comparable to this one.
I consider the next tide lifts all boats and there may be house for everybody. I additionally consider in giving again to the universe, and whereas I’m not a spiritual and even religious particular person, I belief I’ll get the identical again in different methods.
Her High 3 Instruments
We’re not a really high-tech firm on this regard.
WhatsApp is the core of our enterprise and my private life. I exploit it for messages, calls, and video calls, and coordination with our workforce and with Meg.
Google Suite is what our complete enterprise is constructed on. Since I labored for Google for 4 years, I discovered all of the methods, and we maximize the utilization of all its options.
Our developer has created unbelievable inner instruments for us based mostly on Sheets comparable to the complete automated replace sheet for our index, which updates the content material on 220 pages from a spreadsheet, and we’ve got superb administration reporting instruments which can be additionally custom-made by him.
For our excursions, we constructed a complete in-house portal for our company which our developer constructed over the reserving device we use for our excursions, Youli.io, which is a incredible reserving device for anybody beginning out within the tour enterprise, or wanting to modify to one thing sturdy.
Her Best Problem
Being within the risky journey trade as a startup within the pandemic period is a rollercoaster. Each day is an enormous up or down.
At some point you’re invited to talk on nationwide TV and the subsequent one your web site will get hacked. Having the ability to reside with the uncertainty and the fixed extremes is hard mentally and bodily, even for individuals as resilient as Meg and I.
For us, it’s additionally extraordinarily exhausting to disconnect as a result of once I do, if I’m on a visit or resolve I have to take the time without work, Meg wants to choose up my slack. As we proceed to develop, our greatest precedence is to attain a greater steadiness.
Having the ability to increase our workforce and members who’re blissful to work on the weekends whereas persevering with to search out methods to be extra environment friendly within the ever-changing world of Facebook’s groups is our high precedence.
We’re additionally continuously scuffling with saying no, slowing down, and never falling into the fallacy of chasing development at the next velocity.
We wish to increase at a tempo that’s sustainable financially and personally and this implies saying no to company who need us so as to add new locations quicker than we wish to or launching extra excursions that we all know will promote, so we will have a while to relaxation and keep away from burnout.
We don’t wish to be a sufferer of our personal success. We did not begin all this to be rich however to make a distinction and it is very important maintain reminding ourselves of that.
Mar’s Greatest Accomplishment
Sustaining our ideas and never giving up our values for income.
This can be a fast-growing section and each single tour firm out there may be launching excursions for girls. They don’t care about empowering ladies or equality, they merely see the enterprise alternative and the advertising energy of pretending to care.
Remaining true to our mission and values if you find yourself tempted to prioritize cash is a each day dialog we’ve got and one thing that we’re very happy with. We don’t plan to ever change that; we’ll all the time stay true to our mission.
What She Needs She Knew When She Began
I want I had recognized how exhausting it’s to really make a distinction and the way unequal issues had been in lots of the international locations we provide excursions in.
It’s simple to say that we assist ladies, however when wanting on the implications of that, we realized we needed to go deeper into societal inequalities in lots of international locations, and making a distinction takes years.
If we wish to present alternatives to ladies within the locations we go to and make use of ladies solely, we have to sort out the foundation of the issue. This implies embarking on an academic and expertise build-up drive, financing the coaching of future guides, hiring them as trainees, and supporting small companies which might in any other case don’t have any alternatives as a result of the “huge guys” within the tour trade don’t work with “smaller guys,” they only maintain giving enterprise to the bigger well-established companies who typically don’t have any social focus.
We’re doing this in Tanzania. We assist coaching for feminine guides after which rent them on our excursions as trainees after which full guides. These guides can then be employed by different tour corporations and we additionally develop the pool of certified feminine guides for our excursions.
We additionally assist our native associate by serving to her create her web site, increase her attain, enhance her advertising efforts, and so on., and by hiring her instantly with out intermediaries so she has a daily and dependable stream of consumers that ensures her revenue so she will give attention to rising her enterprise past us, too.
Wanting to alter a complete trade requires a long-term dedication and the acknowledgment that those that we put money into will find yourself working for our rivals, and that’s nice with us.
Mar’s Most important Mistake
My greatest mistake has been dangerous enterprise companions who didn’t align with my values or imaginative and prescient and who weren’t on the similar stage of their private {and professional} lives. Ultimately, the dedication is imbalanced and one of many events (on this case me) carries a lot of the weight for a similar return.
Discovering the fitting enterprise associate is important and it’s also the toughest a part of a start-up’s success. I’m fortunate to have the perfect enterprise associate now who can be certainly one of my finest associates. However I’ve additionally had the improper companions earlier than and people companies ended up failing.
Her Recommendation for Different Entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurship generally is a very lonely journey to do alone.
I do know area of interest website homeowners are usually singular, only one particular person, however until you simply wish to create a website and flip it, my finest recommendation can be to search out the fitting associate who enhances you and desires the identical.
Lengthy-term targets, passions, dedication, and the power to contribute are all necessary points. Should you don’t need the identical in the long run and don’t share the identical motivations and the explanation why, you’ll ultimately must promote your half or purchase theirs, or discover a alternative.
Entrepreneurship, in my view, is a long-term dedication, and lots of get drawn in by a “shiny object mentality” and get drained fairly rapidly when returns take time or challenges come knocking on their door.
Should you’re occupied with constructing a enterprise (not only a web site to generate passive income), take into consideration what you actually need and the way you need it to be in 10 years, set long-term targets, and perceive the implications in your day-to-day.
Once I communicate to associates who wish to begin a enterprise, I have to remind them they need to be prepared to forgo a steady revenue for 2-4 years no less than and have the ability to commit 100% of their private life to the enterprise for the same period of time.
In the event that they aren’t, I don’t advocate they enterprise into the world of entrepreneurship and as a substitute save or begin planning, benchmarking, or researching till they’re prepared.
