Viaventure 10 Year Anniversary - Our Story...

VIAVENTURE'S 10 YEARS OF OPERATION!

 

Becky Harris (UK Dancing Queen), James Goller (USA Surf Dude)  

& Beat Brunschwiler (Swiss Ironman) are the proud Founders & Directors of Viaventure - a Tour Operator which in 2012 as well as celebrating the end of the Maya Calendar is celebrating 10 Years of Operation!  Starting a business is no easy matter, and here is the highly amusing story our dear Viaventure...

Becky and her famous Whiteboard In 2001, Becky and James were living in LA.  Becky was bored with her job and James lost his (his Dad fired him!).  One day, sitting in a coffee bar in Silverlake, Los Angeles, the idea for a travel company was hatched - ideas scribbled on the back of a napkin! When thinking of a name for the company they followed a time trusted, highly proffesional method to develop a name.... invite some friends over, offer free drinks, see what happens and hope they don't wreck the appartment! Some slogans were: "Personal development through adventure", "Teambuilding by adventure", "Growth via adventure"... until someone shouted out: "Viaventure!!"

In September 2001 Becky & James borrowed James's mum's ranch truck - Chevy of course - loaded it with Kayaks & camping gear and drove all day and all night for 3 days from Los Angeles to Guatemala. Minor complications - getting  stopped twice by Mexican police, Becky getting too verbal with the Mexican army when fed up at the 100th road block & hitting an ice storm in Texas!  Two months later, Viaventure had its first official paying trip with family friends! What ever happened to those kayaks??

In January 2002, Becky and James moved to Guatemala permanently.  The first Viaventure office was also their house - a 1 bedroom apartment rented for Q1000 / $125 a month.  Their kitchen was donated camping equipment (thanks Bonnie!) and bed was a horrid straw type mattress on the floor. The worst though was the neighbours parrot that would'nt shut up! Easter is always an interesting time to come to Guatemala, and that Easter brought Viaventure's first UK clients to the country... Becky's Mum and friends! We don't think they could tell that we had no real clue what we were doing!    Around May of that year, Becky and James were looking for a company that could do biking and hiking - they heard that Beat (Guatemala Ventures) was the most reputable operator in town although their first meeting yielded little, Beat was really unfriendly and they left rather dejected. It transpired later that his rather surly nature was because he was sick of people coming and stealing his ideas. The other issue had been that they didn't actually understand much he was saying! Have you experienced ''Beat language'' yet?

Becky and James craved somewhere more formal to work, so they went around town knocking on any house that had a 2nd floor and would ask if they could rent a room.  They ended up at Beat's office for a second meeting.  His office was not beautiful - a half broken wooden desk stood in the middle of the room, while boxes, papers and bicycle parts were strewn everywhere else... but it had wonderful views of Antigua and the surrounding volcanoes - we'll take it!

Over the next couple of months, Beat was working downstairs in Guatemala Ventures and Becky and James were working upstairs in Viaventure.  They spent a lot of time working on itineraries and product development together and realised they were all working towards the same goals.  They decided to team up and Beat became a partner in Viaventure! In September Viaventure hired its first employee, Zelda (UK), but now needed employee #2.  The computer repairman, Luis, walked in the door and was surprised with a job offer.  He accepted and still works in the Viaventure family!    The company needed an efficient way of managing trips.  After demo-ing some systems that were way out of the price range, Becky and James decided to ask around for local programmers and learned of an Englishman that hung out at an internet café called "The Funky Monkey".  This Englishman...Mick.... proposed to work on a simple system that would take about three months to do he thought.... almost 9 years on and Mick has a team of programmer and we are still developing what has turned out to be an amazing system.

In 2003 the office was under full steam and hired many new employees. In the first few years, business was sporadic and money was quite tight, especially in the Low Season.  The company would count its pennies in October and pray survival until the high season money started rolling in, in December. Then finally came the day when it actually happened.  It was mid-November (2004), the bank account hit zero, and Viaventure was handed a large bill from a charter airline.  There was no money, and no way to pay.  There were some really tense days in the office, and everyone was at a loss as to why James was suddenly denying ALL expenses, including coffee and even office toilet paper! Mick suggested that we do a local Guatemalan ritual and put a cigarette in one of the masks on the wall - as a kind of ritual to local Maya God, ''Maximon''. Low and behold.....a miracle happened! A general public client pre-paid an unexpected deposit on his upcoming Christmas trip and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.   That cigarette remained in that mask's mouth for the next 6 years until we were sure that the magic was now lasting.

After that close shave, business grew and the office staff expanded. Viaventure has grown to operate more and more countries and sell to clients all over the world.

We thank all our clients for trusting us with your business and we thank all of our staff and suppliers for working as such a strong team - helping us to be the Tour Operator we are today.

We look forward to many more years of development and growth - always pushing to provide the best service to everyone who works with us.

Thanks and HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Personal Training Session Trial with Sales Team

Wednesday morning, just before Christmas, the Sales Team gathered in the tent for a “taller” presented by one of our own - future Psychologist Clelia Aquino! The theme was Confianza, in us and others.

The workshop was very entertaining and with fun activities – for the first one, Silvia stood on a table, the rest of the team was in pairs holding hands waiting for her to throw herself. In the next one, we imagined the very rare case and has never happened at VV about a client not being picked up at the airport. So as Steph and Rachel had to prepare themselves to talk to the client, they got some phrases on paper from the rest of the team that included messages like “you can do it” – encouraging them and “see how you fix it because it’s your fault” – discouraging them, some of them very harsh.

We also talked about different areas where trust and confidence is fundamental, family, colleagues, managers, church etc, common things to make it bigger or completely loose it were open communication and honesty. As well we got some great tips of how to increase our confidence in ourselves which can be applied everywhere and not just work.

We also talked about different areas where trust and confidence is fundamental, family, colleagues, managers, church etc We talked about ways to make it grow or completely lose it such as open communication and honesty. As well we got some great tips of how to increase our confidence in ourselves which can be applied everywhere and not just work.

It was a great workshop and we hope to expand this to the rest of departments – for now the Sales Team were the guineapigs 

La vida no es fácil, para ninguno de nosotros. Pero... ¡Qué importa!

Hay que perseverar y, sobre todo, tener confianza en uno mismo.

Hay que sentirse dotado para realizar alguna cosa y que esa cosa

hay que alcanzarla, con pasión y entrega. Marie Curie