Guest interview – Sam Daams of Travellers Point
Written by Karen Bryan
Sam Daams is co-founder of Travellers Point, who “nurture your travel addictions”, sounds good to me!1 What is the aim of your business?
Well, the ‘corporate’ objective reads this: “Travellerspoint’s objective is to enrich the travelling experience by offering numerous services, content and products that have significant perceived and added value for travellers worldwide. To travel means to meet other people, experience their cultures and to make, but also to keep good friends. By bringing more people together – albeit before, during or after travelling – Travellerspoint will create more understanding for different cultures and countries and ultimately a better world for everyone to travel in.”
Basically we try to create features that bring travellers together on our site, regardless of whether they are planning a trip, already on the road or have returned!
2 What prompted you to start your own business?
It actually started out as a hobby more than a business. My brother Peter and me came up with the idea in 2002, when Peter had just developed a few websites. He was interested in building one around travelling and I was working in the travel business, so we teamed up and launched Travellerspoint as a ‘Travel Friends Reunited’ type of site. It’s come quite a way since then, but we still have quite a few reunions through the original feature!
3 What has been the hardest aspect of having your own business?
Personally I’d say trying to find the balance between work and a private life is the toughest. It’s easy to get carried away and when you run an online business you can pretty much work from anywhere. So being able to walk away from the computer and spend some time with family and friends while there are 100 emails waiting to be answered is an absolute necessity!
4 What is the funniest thing that has happened to you running your own business?
Hmmm, I don’t know if anything really funny has happened, but it’s been heaps of fun seeing the business grow and being able to travel more because of it!
5 Is there anything you would do differently with the benefit of hindsight?
To be quite honest, there’s not much when it comes to the site and it’s features! We were really lucky in hindsight to have chosen the name Travellerspoint since it was broad enough to allow for adding other features without needing a new brand/domainname. Imagine if we had gone for ‘travelreunions.com’ or something similar!!
My comments
Thanks for talking to us, Sam. Interesting that you mention the importance of choosing an appropriate name when you start your business, as Darren of Worldwide Holiday Homes touched upon this, when he spoke to us. You really want a name that is specific in describing what your business does but not limiting your possible diversifications in the future. You really don’t want to have start changing domain names once you are becoming established.
As Sam says, I think it’s really hard to say enough is enough when you have your own business. I know I say to myself I’m going to have a day off today, then I just go to check my emails and end up sitting for hours at the computer.
Argh, yes, the days you are going to take off but end up trawling through other sites and emails for hours on end!
Thanks for the interview!
Sam
It does seem to be the case that your business takes over your life It some ways it almost has to be like that. When it’s your own business it’s difficult to say I’m only going to work 8 hours today and clock off at a precise time. The fact I am home based can make it even harder.
Are there any business owners out there who succeed in compartmentalising work, home and leisure?