Trish tells us how In rural Thailand the seeds for BikeHike were planted, though she wouldn’t realize it until years later. Now, 25 years after BikeHike Adventures’ first official trip (in Costa Rica), BikeHike runs tours in more than 30 destinations worldwide…from their office in Vancouver 

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Show Notes

 How Trish Got introduced to the Outdoors

Sadly, my mother passed away at the age of 46. And she always wanted to travel the world. She always wanted to get out and do things, but she was raising a young family. And before she died, she said to me, Don't make the same mistake I made, go out and see the world now, because you never know what tomorrow holds. So when I turned 20, I decided I'd never been on a plane in my life. I was really shy and just didn't have exposure to anything, but I decided to move on a five-year trip, traveling around the world and my first stop was going to be Vancouver to work EXPO 86.

I left for a five-year trip to travel around the world and that wasn't an active trip, but after my five years Traveling all over the world I came back to Toronto and immediately I got a job working for a tour operator who said, Hey, what do you think of going to Costa Rica on guide training? We'll train you on how to be a guide in Costa Rica. And then you can live in Costa Rica for the next two years as a guide.

That was the first time I'd ever camped in my entire life. I started getting into rafting and biking and hiking, I thought, Oh my God, this is what I want to do with my life. I love it.

Launching Bike Hike Adventures

When I came back I said, I want to start my own company. How do I do it? And he put me in touch with somebody who allowed me to work under his umbrella and learn from the ropes of another tour company who took me under his wing.

But there was. Yeah, there was a lot to learn and they're still are.

Some of the things Trish learned

It wasn't marketing, the marketing was something that I had to learn on my own. It was pretty much the operations of the trip.

Pretty much I knew how to design, cause I learned that when I was on the ropes. Put it this way, when I was in the field, I learned everything in the field. So this was like learning what happens in the office. The putting the pieces of the puzzle together, getting the sales, getting the money, booking the insurance, booking the flight.

Yeah, that's pretty much what he did. So I just worked under that umbrella. And then I actually moved a few years later into a bigger company and under their umbrella for another couple of years. And then that's where I learned a little bit more about more of the business aspect of it from the accounting and the IT, the database. They had a bookkeeper, a management consultant which is great because as a small company, just to be under that umbrella and learn from that. That was just so valuable.

Trish's Advice to get into the outdoor adventure business

I would say that it was so valuable for me to work for another Adventure travel company before I  started because like I said I learned what happened on the ground first. Start working as a guide but then make sure you also get in working in an office so you can see what happens on both sides of the coin.

I love adventure travel and I love being out in the world, but it is just a small part of what I do because if I was gone all the time, it would be hard for the business to actually happen. There are so many other elements to it. So be prepared for that.

Trish's Favorite Piece of Outdoor Gear

Proviz Cycling, Running Outdoor, Lifestle Gear

Book Your Trip and Gett $100 OFF

Anyone who wants to travel with us up until December 20, 2022, we're offering a hundred dollars off per person, a hundred dollars US. Use the code outdoor biz 100 and we can apply that to your trip.

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Snippets

00:03:31 - 00:04:16  Intro to the Outdoors

00:04:36 - 00:05:20 Inspiration for BikeHike Adventures

00:28:21 - 00:29:10 Advice for Starting an Adventure Business