We’ve fielded a lot of questions about how we came from nothing to becoming Nashville’s “Best Thing to Do.” We are not mad scientists or smarter than anyone else who has a tour company. Our team just believed in the idea of innovating an old industry, aka the party bus industry and turning it on it’s head with superior service design.  We will give you 8 lessons on how we rose so fast and will continue to be the best.

Lesson 1: Identified Our Niche in Nashville’s Tourism Scene.

Our team saw a huge gap for Nashville tourism that wasn’t being filled. That gap looked like this; Nashville tourism was continuing to climb, Nashville just regulated a massive law against pedal taverns limiting their hours, Nashville’s party bus scene was outdated and lame, Nashville was the country’s #1 bachelorette city in America which means large groups needed a large vehicle to keep everyone together. This wasn’t rocket science. We saw a need and went for it.

Lesson 2: Created a Unquie Product

Now we admit, this one took some time to flesh out and create. Thankfully we did have some luck but really more research on our side to figure out the next logical step in Nashville tourism was going to be a bigger open air something. Once we nailed down the idea it all more lining up the right stragetic players. Honestly, if your product is a “Me 2” product you will likely have a harder time getting out from other companies shadow you are copying. Worse, you will have to compete on price rather than brand which will ultimately have you wokring harder for less compared to the other guys.

Lesson 3: Paid for a Professional Webpage

Sounds simple right? Wrong. Everyone and their brother creates a webpage now. Finding the right person for your needs without breaking your budget as a start up can be harder than you think. It was for us atleast. Also, if you look at majority of tourism. We are talking about the people in the bottom 80%, you will find webapges that look very unprofessional. These pages are usually non mobile friendly and the content is awful. Let’snot get started on the user interface.

We suggest you do your research online about what makes a great webapge for your niche and research the BIG guys in your market. Chances are, the big guys have done a lot of the heavy lifting for you in terms on user interface, design and even pricing. Bottom line. Pay for a professioanl webpage. SEO, design and content marketing are things you can and should learn. You can pay someone else later in time once your business gets big enough.

Lesson 4: Google Ad-Words is Your Friend

We will keep this section short. BUY GOOGLE AD WORDS. Do not worry if you only know 30% of what you doing when you do it. Just do it. Google Ad Words are the single best thing you can do to immedaitely increase traffic to your website for booking. Buy now, learn later.  As your business matures, you can really begin detailed tareting, key words and A/B testing of ads.

Lesson 5: Automation

Again, we will keep this simple. To create Nashville’s best party bus experience we need a lot of automation. We need this becauase it saves the customer valuable time and keeps our communcation with our customer consistant and flowing. We know exactly what happens when a customer books the information they get and what they need to know. Imagine if you tried to write an personal email each time a customer booked or had a question…. We recommend the booking software: Peek Pro. They handle all things on the booking side. Also become an expert at an app called “IF THIS THEN THAT.” You’ll thank us later.

Lesson 6: Social Media the Shit out of Your Brand

There are literlally millions of ways you can use social media for your branding. We hav simplifed it into what we believe is the best after reading hundreds of articles and books.

Instagram: Make a business account, drop all photos here! Don’t just post a photo tell the stroy behind the photo. They who, what, why

Facebook: Make a business profile, use for promotions and targeted Facebook Ads. (Use “If This Then That” to post all your instagram photos to Facebook.)

Twitter: Use this to reach out to brands or large companies. We honestly think Twitter is dead and limit your time on it

Snapchat: Snapchat is great but we feel instgram is taking over and will be the platform moving forward. We suggest using Instagram

Lesson 7: We Hired the Right People

You have to hire with excitment. You have to lead with excitment. You have to not be afraid to hire only the right person and drop the bad ones. Fail quick. We hired and fired 3 people in our first 4 months before we found our perfect person for host. We fired 3 drivers before finding 2 amazing drivers. These things take time. Once you have the right people, it’s easier to hire the next because you have the standard set.

Lesson 8: Out Work the Next Guy

If you want Nashville’s Best Party Bus or Nashville’s Best whatever, you have to be willing to out work the other guy. Most people fail at this. The time, the “no’s” the lack of confidence all lead to new companies beging good but not great.  You have to show up to work everyday. EVERYDAY. Even if you are improving thins by 1% a day, after a year you are 365% better than you were a year ago. Those small improvements make for huge gains over time.

Click Here: Use Promo code “Honkytonkbus” and Save 10%!