139: Vacation Planning that can take you… Anywhere | Zachary Smith of Anywhere®

Background on Zachary Smith of Anywhere Inc:

What started out as an after-college travel adventure in Central America has turned into a multi-million dollar travel and tourism business with over 200,000 adventurers served globally by Anywhere, Inc, a hybrid travel agency co-founded by CEO, Zachary B. Smith, and CTO, Anthony Landis. Meeting on an aerial tram in the rainforest in 2005, Smith and Landis hit it off and began officially working together as a team in 2006. Smith was managing two rudimentary Costa Rica travel websites for an ex-pat and seeing the business potential with Landis’ help, returned to Oregon where he convinced family and friends to invest allowing the team to build Anywhere Costa Rica into the go-to Costa Rica travel website. Currently a team of 50+ global travel professionals, Anywhere, Inc provides customized travel experiences for families, couples, solo travelers and millennials in Costa Rica, Peru, Belize, Panama, Guatemala, Cuba, Vietnam, Myanmar, Indonesia, Tanzania, Nepal and Ecuador. Stay tuned for more countries…

Time-Stamped Show Notes:

[2:40] Zachary Smith is the CEO and Co-Founder of Anywhere.com, which is all about making it easier for people to explore places around the world.
[5:06] The business idea of Anywhere started from a vacation trip to Mexico and Costa Rica.
[6:25] According to Zachary, people are spending more on experiences nowadays. More people are valuing memories rather than buying things that will only be discarded in the future.
[12:37] Since Zachary is in the leisure travel business, he shares some of his previous experiences in traveling.
[15:55] Zachary estimates around 10,000 people per year are using Anywhere.com for their travel experience.
[20:01] There were two serendipitous encounters that led Zachary to the path of leisure travel business.
[27:05] Zachary continues his story about his travels in South America and his experience working in Costa Rica.
[29:55] Getting the job in Costa Rica, meeting his co-founder, and bumping into his future wife on an airplane, were all fateful and crazy experiences for Zachary.
[31:23] In 2005, Zachary bought the travel website in Costa Rica and worked out his business plan and his finances.
[36:24] He bought the two websites for $80,000, which will serve as their entry to the marketplace. The next phase was to introduce their brand, the AnywhereCostaRica.com.
[43:25] With the introduction of the AnywhereCostaRica.com, they essentially changed the way they ran the business and focused more on providing the travel experience that will match the customers based on their interest and budget.
[47:41] When they got the business growing steadily in Costa Rica, Zachary felt bored and wanted to take up new challenges. This idea resulted in building a new business venture in Panama and Peru.
[51:45] Redirecting their websites resulted in losing traffic.
[1:01:19] The partners from other countries are seen as franchisees. Anywhere.com serves as the platform for these partners and they benefit from the company’s leads and existing tools.
[1:03:05] Zachary offers some last words of advice and helpful tips to the listeners and new entrepreneurs.
[1:08:00] When he was 24 years old and only a year into the travel business, Zachary was sued with $300,000 in damages and criminal lawsuit.

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Fabulous 4 Questions:

📖 📚 Favorite Book(s)? On The Road by Jack Kerouac, Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse, Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, Overbooked by Elizabeth Becker, Shoe Dog by Phil Knight, The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, Great by Choice…
🙌😎 Favorite Amazon.com purchase? 4′ Shoe Horn
🌱💸 Favorite Tool that's GROWN your Business? iPhone
💭💡 BIGGEST Challenge keeping your Business from GROWING? Marketing dollars and brand awareness.

Key Point from the Interview:

“As an entrepreneur, if today isn’t your hardest day, you’re probably not pushing yourself.”

Resources Mentioned:

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