ZARA STASSIN, founder of Zara's Planet travel company, describes her day
I’M UP AT 6.30AM to go horse-riding. We have five horses, and they have to get exercise before the three children go to school. I ride out through the Dublin Mountains, and nothing sets you up better for a busy day.
My office is built beside the house, so I’ve no commute, which is great. Three of us work here, and we have another two staff members based in Kerry.
I’m at my desk by 9am. The first thing I do is pull up reports to see what’s profitable and what’s not. I used to be MD of the fifth-biggest travel company in the US, with 400 staff, and the beauty of working for a large company is that you become very good with systems and reporting, and small businesses really benefit from that.
I set up Zara’s Planet nearly four years ago. My old firm went public in the US; I sold off my shareholding, made a bit of money and moved home to Ireland.
I wanted to do something that dovetailed with travel, my area of expertise, and horses, which are my passion.
Every morning at 10am the three of us have a staff meeting to allocate work for the day. I’ll check e-mails to see if any calls or requests have come in overnight and to look at how the trips we have sent out are going.
Then we have suppliers to contact and flights to book.
It’s a small office but a very busy one, and with a fairly informal atmosphere.
One of the other perks of the job is that I get to travel to some amazing places. I was in South Africa recently, and next month I’m off to Botswana and Zambia. We recce everything we sell, and the ultimate goal from any trip is that it is interesting and exciting – that’s what people want from our holidays.
According to our feedback, 98 per cent of our customers come back saying it was the trip of a lifetime – even the conservative holiday buyers who may never have gone on anything other than a package tour before.
For lunch I’ll go back to the house or head into town for a meeting with one of our media partners or a supplier who has flown in.
Afternoons are spent mainly on strategic planning and marketing, everything from designing brochures to organising advertising campaigns. I might talk to our franchisee in Scotland, too, or work on our plan to roll out the franchise to the US and Australia.
I’ll finish up by 5.30pm and head in for dinner and time with the kids, but by 8.30pm I’m back out here. That’s what you do as an entrepreneur, and I get a great buzz out of dreaming up new initiatives.
We’ve doubled turnover in the last 12 months, which is terrific for a recession.
Zara Stassin is founder of Zara’s Planet travel company
In conversation with
Sandra O'Connell