Starting a business from scratch!

This was a mistake.

The marketing manager has to know and have a say in how almost every tiny detail works. So I had been working officially at attracting guests. But my work didn't stop once they checked in, I had to make sure that all was well throughout their stay. The room, food, staff, laundry, bar, taxis, other guests, tours, restaurant toilet, everything. So it was an easy step into the hotel manager position. I already knew we had great guests, tremendous staff, a growing business in a wonderful location and a happy owner. I have never worked so hard and i loved every minute. I had learnt basic bookkeeping because a friend taught me the old business school favourite; if you can't measure it, you can't manage it. And because the records had been sketchy at best, it was hard to say exactly but the owner thinks we trebled turnover in my first year. In years two, three and four we continued to grow another 100%, 50%, and 30%. We were approaching the industry standards of 40% occupancy in low season and 80% in high season by the end of 2011. Passed and exceeded in 2012 and by 2013 we were approaching 95% in high season, despite a 40% rise in room prices. On becoming hotel manager I met with the owner for breakfast everyday. We needed to work more closely on longer term plans, strategy and where to spend the profits. We disagreed often but maintained a very good relationship. Usually it was the Asian culture of saving face, not looking bad in public. I had encouraged any and every guest to review us online because we got much more honest, useful feedback than face to face. We got many bad reviews but it helped improve the business quickly, we could see if we were making the same mistakes. Eventually it bore fruit, we received tripadvisor Certificates of Excellence in 2012 and 2013. We even reached No.1 briefly in the summer of 2012. Tripadvisor had voted Koh Tao the best island in Asia, 3rd best in the World, and Seaview was the No.1 place to stay!

I was appointed as the first ever marketing employee at a 12 room, family-run resort. The owner was a doctor with her own private clinic, she was very passionate about Seaview but didn't have the time and energy to make the dream become real. She had roped in various members of her family to work, Mother, Husband, Aunt, Cousins, and a few others but they were obviously less enthusiastic because it wasn't their baby and because it was so quiet they were getting bored and lazy. The 1st month i worked there, there were 21 days in a row without any guests! My job was to simply get some guests, any guests, in the door. We were on a popular tourist island in Thailand, the resort, rooms, views, restaurant, gardens were all lovely, but we were away from the beaches and towns, up in the hilly jungle. No passing trade, even the locals thought I was working at the end of a dirt track on top of a mountain, so no way tourists were going to venture up the newly paved road only 2 km's from the main port up a small hill and 15 minutes drive from everywhere. We had no swimming pool, no reputation, no repeat business and no friends. It took me a few months of observing the staff, how the guests were treated and how they used the resort. What was important to the staff and guests? learning what the owners fantasy looked like exactly. We made connections with tour operators, diving schools, travel agents, taxi drivers, even the owners medical clinic. We were unbelievably friendly with every guest, we begged for reviews for feedback. We made mistakes, we signed up with any online booking agents and got ripped off and double booked but Seaview was moving! I was fortunate that the owner trusted me and was so patient, and that her Mother was such an immense cook! My Thai language skills went through the roof, i picked up basic Burmese for the cleaners, I read marketing books and articles, and tried it all. Definitely living the mantra; Fail fast & fail often. (ps It works!)

Providence Education Language Immersion Camp was a campus teaching Thai nurses English to a standard sufficient to work abroad. It was set-up by a Brother and Sister who were both medical professionals from Thailand, they had both previously worked abroad. They saw the need for a more formal process for like-minded people and the Thai government agreed, with patronage and funding. PELIC had been going for around 2 years when I joined. They recruited nurses as students through their contacts in the medical sector. But they were struggling to get enough students into each intake to make profit and secure the long-term future of the business. I was hired to help the new marketing manager in the Bangkok office. The problem we had was the large sacrifice students had to make to commit to PELIC. Huge fees, giving up good jobs, and 6 months of immersive study with Thai-speaking forbidden. We couldn't say which country they may end up in, and even no guarantee of a job if their test scores weren't good enough. Initially we toured different city hospitals around the country, and we would speak with hundreds of nurses each trip. We created brochures, gave presentations galore but this was cold, hard, coal-face sales, just hoping for a few leads. Then we would invite them to our office, visit their families at home, take them to visit the campus, anything to secure their commitment. We would help with securing funding, the massively complicated visa process and even begin refreshing their English skills while waiting for the class to begin. There were intakes every 3 months, and we needed 11 students to make profit. the previous two classes combined had 11 students. We organised a class of 10 after one month, and 22 students three months later, PELIC's largest ever class. We were happy with our results and had really begun to know our jobs. We were looking forward to the next round. At this point the whole marketing department was dissolved with immediate effect.

Professional Scuba dive guide and assistant instructor. Duties were split between dive resort on the small island of Koh Tao and leading dives from a boat in the Gulf of Thailand. Koh Tao is remote, undisturbed by commercial fishing or pollution, preserving the abundant sea life and natural beauty of the coral reefs. Hopefully the recent murders will come to some good, less eejits will visit and we can preserve a tiny piece of paradise. In 2009, Carabao dive resort was a mid-sized, reputable, established dive school in the South of the island. I worked as part of the Divemaster team, on the boat, in the office, in class or under the water. We helped/organised/assisted the instructors and their students. Helping the manager with a dry wit and the smooth running of the whole dive school. Supporting the other resort staff and generally being a nice, friendly, funny, handsome, relaxed guy ready to help the resort guests, and the owner of course. Divemasters took turns creating, organizing, planning, and leading safe, fun dives for paying customers. We were ultimately responsible for their well-being throughout the trip, but balancing that with it being a fun activity to do on holiday and looking good with our tops off. We had to know and understand weather conditions above and below, have a 3D map of dive sites in our heads, and know where the interesting, spectacular, famous fish like to hang out. Entertain and inform different customers from different countries and different backgrounds everyday. Constantly surprise with knowledge, understanding, and accent of any language you care to mention. Be able to react to the day and still smell of roses. When not on the boat leading fantabulous trips, we would mostly sleep in the office. Also meet and greet new guests, prepare them for diving class and/or trips. Sell our wares to any and every passing tourist. In a cool way. Fix/clean/maintain life-saving pieces of equipment. Charm the crazy woman who worked next door.

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