Let’s All Move to Croatia and Start a Business

On a recent trip to Croatia, I took a chartered day sail around the islands off of Split. The company, Sunburst Sailing, is owned and run by couple from Scotland who decided to go on hiatus from their busy jobs back in the UK and start a sailing charter during the summers. As you can imagine, building a business in a foreign country as an outsider is no easy feat (especially in Croatia). Throughout the sail, we talked a lot about how they made the decision to take the leap and start this venture a few years ago, about how important Trip Advisor is to their business (they have a 5 start rating), and about how their expenditure in Google Adwords probably helped to get the word out, as did their website. It was a great case study in starting a small business.

What resonated with me most, however, was the research process they went through before they even got off the ground (or in the water). Upon arrival in Croatia that first summer, they inconspicuously set up shop in a cafe on Hvar (a very beautiful and trendy island off the coast of Split) – a cafe which they had identified as being popular among the demographic they saw as their target market. They spent much of that summer talking to the patrons, asking probing questions about their interest in a sailing charter, what price would they be willing to pay, and if the addition of high-end catering to a sailing trip would make them more interested, etc. Good old-fashioned consumer research. When you’re trying to set up a business and have countless tasks and unanswered questions at hand, sometimes the best place to start is to simply ask your audience what they want.

At Delucchi Plus, we often leverage the opinions and feedback of our clients’ target audiences as part of our thorough strategy and insights phase. While sophisticated tools can help us to paint a big picture, you often find the most valuable information in the morsels gleaned from polls and surveys. At the end of the day marketing is all about people, and the more you listen to the people you are trying to reach, the more successful you will be.

Sunburst Sailing is a case in point. They found their audience, planned their business accordingly, got the word out, and now simply focus on delivering five-star service. They’ve gone from sparse bookings in the beginning to nearly selling out this summer. While the deluge of glowing reviews pours in, I can’t help but think none of this would be happening if they hadn’t taken the time in the very beginning to find their audience…that most definitely includes myself.