I'm Sorry Dave, I'm Afraid I Can't Do That (or 8 Pillars of Business Fundamentals)

 ...and so it begins:

Me: Ok, computer, I want to start an online travel agency. Help me get started with the basics.

ChatGPT (edited for content - otherwise everyone will think I'm just writing this blog using AI, which is just, um, no.  I've also added my asides to its advice.  If it's not obvious where I'm speaking and ChatGPT is, well, then, the robots have already won and all hail our new robo-overlords!):

1. Market Research

• Identify your target market [This obviously isn't something I'm considering at the moment, because I never expect the OTA to see the light of day in the business world.  However, I do think a lot of businesses struggle with this, as many companies refuse to turn down the incremental dollar, even if it got picked up from the mud.  Although that tends to be a problem for larger businesses, especially when they need to satisfy Wall Street's insatiable demands on a quarterly basis.]
• Research your competitors [I'm fairly certain that my space is small.  I don't know too many people interested in making fake travel sites for promotional purposes.  But it's still good, if not obvious, advice.  Make sure to find ways to differentiate yourself from your competitors rather than just copying them.  Otherwise, you're playing the game by their rules, which typically doesn't end well.]
• Study industry trends [From 2020 onward, travel has been both an extremely scary and exhilarating space.  It's amazing how much of it is still run by antiquated systems, like Cobol-based GDS systems for airline reservations, and still relies on people who, loosely speaking, align with the role of travel agent.  I also wouldn't focus on the most recent weeks of travel trends where every mention of Boeing seems to garner negative press.  Just nod at that trend politely and run the other way.]

2. Business Plan

• Define your business model [What?  Wishing to make money isn't enough?]
• Set your goals: Establish short-term and long-term goals for your business...[I'll come back to this time and time again, but this is where Large Language Models (LLMs) are maddeningly elusive when asked to provide specifics.  They're a great tool, but don't offer novel insights that will set us free and aren't yet the bane of mankind.  They simply catalog information and give you prompts to spur your own creativity.  In the past, I've asked ChatGPT to write a 500-word essay on the causes of World War I and, frankly, I wasn't impressed by its output (other than the appreciating the original novelty when ChatGPT first gained prominence that a computer could write a mostly coherent paper in a matter of seconds).  But, when it comes to critical thinking or creativity, even the worst poet on the planet can do better.  Don't believe me?  Ask it to try writing song lyrics.  I did.  I think I used one word from the output.]
• Develop a marketing strategy [How about "create a fake travel website using AI and use that as an engine to get others interested in your work?"]
• Financial planning [As I nose dive into the red with start-up costs, I'd prefer to ignore this one for now.  Needless to say, it is key to starting a business (though not as key as spending your first weekend designing your logo).]

3. Legal and Regulatory Considerations

• Register your business [Coastal Chicago LLC is now up and running and has its invoice-ready logo.  Let me know if anyone wants me to bill you so you see this at the top of the letterhead]:

  

• Obtain necessary permits and licenses [I had to file with FinCEN the other day listing myself as a beneficial owner of my company.  Sadly, my money laundering days are through before they've even begun.]
• Understand liability issues: Consider obtaining insurance coverage [This is good advice and something that, out of sheer naïvitety could probably bleed you dry.  I registered my business through ZenBusiness and would recommend it due its simplicity of use, but if I selected every possible service they offered for all possible what-if scenarios, I don't think it'd be unreasonable for me to spend $2K - $3K on business maintenance costs alone.  For larger companies, or even my own company in the future once it's actually making money, that's not unreasonable, but for a company with a single owner that has yet to see a dime in revenue, I'd say weigh your risks at your appropriate stage.]

4. Technology and Website Development

I'm going to defer this one until the next blog post, as it's ostensibly the heart of my project and shouldn't be buried in the middle of this one.  However, as I go through several of the points above and below, I realize that many of them merit separate posts themselves (if not several posts each).  Looks like content generation isn't going to be a problem for the foreseeable future (those of you who know me probably could've suspected as much.  If you haven't guessed, I tend to be wordy.).

5. Supplier Relationships

• Establish partnerships: Forge relationships with airlines...[I have an absurd image in my mind of me calling United and offering to pitch the idea of a fake online travel site and my need to access their inventory for a marginal - or better yet, free - cost.  I don't expect that I'd even be allowed to book anything higher than basic economy after that.  Realistically speaking though, this is a generally good idea, but ChatGPT is confusing the scale of the advice it offers - at least at this early stage.  In the same response where it tells me to register my business, it's also telling me to establish a rapport with multi-national conglomerates.  Later on, as I probe it for more in-depth assistance in each area, I know it will help me find partner services that take care of that relationship building in the interim, but this lack of maintaining scale between telling you how to start a business vs. start your own travel empire fully formed from day one can be jarring.]
• Negotiate commissions and contracts [Picture me on my knees, hands clasped in supplicance and near tears.  That's the best tactic I have.]

6. Marketing and Promotion 

• Build your brand [Have you not seen my logo?]
• Utilize digital marketing channels [I expect LinkedIn to be the main channel for my actual consulting business.  SEO and social media marketing are key to any marketing strategy, but I can't really bring myself to post on Facebook or X, for fear of unleashing an army of trolls that stops my business in its tracks before it even gets started.  I'm actually keen to use newer channels like TikTok without looking like a doddering fool.  I'm open to suggestions for a 15-second Coastal Chicago LLC interpretive dance routine (though sadly I'll have to reject any ideas that employ open flames as part of the set).]
• Offer incentives [Travel companies are rich areas to mine for perks, assuming they're not skating by on low profitability.  For this blog, I'm contemplating opening a Patreon account, but need to figure out what perk accompanies different member tiers so I can actually give my patrons something of value.]

7.  Customer Service and Support

• Provide excellent customer service [It'll be worthwhile to explore this topic in more depth later and opine on what actually rates as excellent customer service.  Lots of companies tend to skimp on this with the assumption that their bottom line will benefit by dumping people into call queues.  I don't currently have any data to back this up, but that seems to be short-sighted.  The only companies that can effectively get away with this are monopolies or oligopolies where you have little choice but to suffer through the system because there aren't alternatives.  Otherwise, people will always want to feel like they get the experience of a human touch (even if, in some cases, it's a well-designed chatbot).  So, thanks, robot, for pointing this out.]
• Implement a reliable support system
• Monitor reviews and feedback [I believe this bullet point and the previous one reinforce the initial bullet point.  Regarding this point in particular - data analysis is extremely important as it can illuminate errors or biases that humans tend to overlook (we are extremely bad at grasping statistics as a concept).  It also drives me nuts when teams or companies say they're data-driven when they're obviously not.  At that point, it's a catch-all statement to indicate that people aren't making arbitrary decisions driven by their emotions or market trends (which they are, even when they swear they're not).  Good data and its analysis are keys to moving businesses forward and unlocking new areas of exploration.  However, data can also be used to reinforce foolhardy decisions.  As I said, humans are horrible with statistics, so, a faulty initial assumption coupled with a biased view of the data will only cause us to double down on poor outcomes, because we don't know how to wield such a powerful tool responsibly.] 

8.  Continuous Improvement

• Analyze performance metrics [Agreed.  However, to reiterate what I said above, don't become a slave to your metrics, especially your short-term ones.  It's not healthy for anyone.]
• Adapt and innovate [If this is advice that's novel to you, you may want to re-think going into business.  Unless you're expecting to go all Bond villain and create a monopoly from the get-go.  Then again, large companies spend an enormous amount of money lobbying to protect their own interests against those of the consumer in order to reduce the need to innovate.  Sometimes it works out, but more often than not they wind up being Blockbuster vs. Netflix or Cable Companies vs. Netflix.]

I'll write this final paragraph verbatim from ChatGPT (strike marks are mine):

Starting an online travel agency requires careful planning, execution, and ongoing effort to succeed in a competitive industry. By focusing on providing value to your customers, building strong supplier relationships, and staying abreast of industry trends, you can build a successful travel business.

I'm not sure this needed to be printed since it adds nothing specific to starting a business in the travel space.  However, ChatGPT, and other AI tools are known to be eternally optimistic in their tone to the point that they'll hallucinate an answer (i.e. lie) rather than say "I don't know" or "Nope."  Though humans also have a hard time with the latter two statements - we're social animals who abhor being wrong in front of others due to a latent fear of ostracism - we at least have built-in contexts to determine when others are unsure or lying.  However, because the premise of using a system like ChatGPT (backed by computers!) is that computers don't make mistakes, we tend to give it more upfront authority than it deserves (hence articles on lawyers who are caught falsely citing imaginary court case decisions in their arguments).

Until next time, my human and robot friends.