Early in my travel business I set a big monthly revenue goal, and hit it. Champagne moment, right? Then I did the math on what I actually kept, and it was roughly ten percent. That was the day I learned the lesson I now open every business training with: the revenue numbers are very smoke and mirrors. You can sell two million dollars of travel and finish with five dollars a trip after everything's paid.
“The revenue numbers, they're very smoke and mirrors.”
Set goals in profit, then reverse-engineer
Write your life map in profit, not sales. If your markup is $2,000 a person and you need a number to live the life you're building, divide: how many sales is that? Divide again by months, how many trips a week? Suddenly the goal stops being a vision-board number and starts looking real. And pay yourself from day one, even if it's $300, a business that can't pay its founder isn't a business yet.
Claire's own numbers
The framework, step by step
- 1
Every trip is a line item — staff flights
staff rooms, overhead, a leadership line to pay yourself, and roughly 3% in processing fees. Then you get your price. It doesn't matter what you think
- 2
Once a year
rank every departure by profitability — and cut the bottom, even if it sells. A popular trip that doesn't pay is a hobby with logistics.
- 3
Move toward markets where the value is high and the
Claire's own framework from this essay, in the order she teaches it.
Source: Claire B. Soares, from her own travel business and live trainings.
The annual cut
- Every trip is a line item, staff flights, staff rooms, overhead, a leadership line to pay yourself, and roughly 3% in processing fees. Then you get your price. It doesn't matter what you think the trip should cost: if your cost is $3,800, it can't sell for $3,900.
- Once a year, rank every departure by profitability, and cut the bottom, even if it sells. A popular trip that doesn't pay is a hobby with logistics.
- Move toward markets where the value is high and the cost is low, that gap is where luxury margins actually live.
The honest confession under all of this: I was so emotionally involved in my trips that I was scared to charge what they needed. Profit-first isn't cold, it's what lets you keep doing the work you love next year. Read Profit First if you need the system; take the profit out first and make the trip work on what's left.
Common Questions
Should travel businesses set revenue or profit goals?
Profit. Claire once hit a large monthly revenue goal and kept roughly ten percent of it. Setting the goal in profit and reverse-engineering the number of trips makes the plan real.
What belongs in a group trip budget?
Every vendor as a line item, plus staff flights, staff rooms, overhead allocation, a leadership line so the founder is paid, and roughly three percent for payment processing, before you set a price.
How do you know when to cut a trip?
Rank every departure by profitability once a year and cut the bottom, even if it sells. A popular trip that does not pay is a hobby with logistics.
Written By
Claire B. Soares
6× Condé Nast Top Travel Specialist, Certified AI Consultant, and founder of Travel AI University. $3.4B+ in enterprise travel software sold to Google, IBM, Boeing, the federal government, and the DoD; $16M+ in luxury travel sales with Up in the Air Life.
About Claire
