Interview with Sara Wild at MBT - Part 2

In those days, all the business came from the website. So it was more the technology side of things to make sure, it was performing, and people were seeing the website. And in those days, we didn't have the expertise of Ed (our web developer). So there were a lot of problems initially, with just getting the wrong people to do the website and work. And I did quite a lot myself. So how did I get over that? Well, I used to spend a massive amount of time on social media trying to promote the company through that, relentlessly, to try and get the name out there, because that's your only platform until you've got the client base. It still is now, generally speaking, because I know we do have a lot of existing clients, but actually, each year, you need a load more new clients  to do all the treks that we offer during the summer here. So it's vital that that’s correct, because you just don't get the bookings otherwise and you don't get people coming, visiting the site etc. So I suppose that was the biggest challenge and absolutely not having any idea of what I was doing because just everything was completely new. I'd never worked in that field before. Yeah, I had worked in the outdoors, but I'd never promoted a company, and tried to get people interested in booking and all the rest of it.

First of all, when people inquire, we're trying to give them the most detailed information about what they're letting themselves in for. These days, and over the years, we've adapted this because we've had people turn up that aren't quite fit enough, not fully prepared, so at a very early stage before we take the booking, we get them to fill out a questionnaire to see what experience they've got. Once we're happy that they've got some sort of experience, or at least, prepared to put in the training before they come. Yes, people are generally fit enough to start with but they might just live in an area of the world that they've not got easy access to mountains. There are methods of getting fit and preparing for something like this, so we give them quite a lot of support with that. If something is glaringly wrong, then we'll flag that up at the point before we take the booking and maybe suggest something slightly easier for them. So once we've got the booking, we then make sure that we send interim emails to remind them of the preparation they should be doing. And then we give them all the other information, so they have everything to hand with the daily statistics and all the rest. When they arrive, they're in the hands of the guide, and the guide is obviously trained, not just to lead people in the mountains, but to care for their welfare during the trip. We're here to support the guide as well. So it's the guide’s initial responsibility, but of course, supported by us here, and because we're here we can get involved quite quickly because we're local.

Normally, it would be something that I'm interested in doing. The inspiration is an area of the world that I fancy looking at, a trek that I fancy doing and then we would go and do a recce. I would obviously do all the reading up about it and buy all the guidebooks and maps, get all the knowledge prior to going. Then we go on a recce and do the trip ourselves, or I go by myself. Once you've done it, there's always things you think, “Well, I wouldn't have done that bit. Or actually, it would have been better if we'd have spent more time there. Or the accommodation wasn't so good there but there was a better place just down the road.” Because you've done it and you've seen it you can actually make those decisions to improve the itinerary, and then just come back and do some admin work, creating the itinerary, and then eventually putting it out to people and seeing who's interested in joining.

That's a difficult one because, obviously when people are here, we can impart knowledge on how to move around this area in an environmentally friendly and sustainable manner, but obviously people have to get here. A lot of people travel very far to get here. So it's a bit of a double edged sword really. Once people are here, we're quite keen on making sure people appreciate this amazing place and also the difficulties it faces on tourism, over exploitation and all the rest of it. We support environmental and conservation projects as well, local projects and European projects through our partner EOCA (European Outdoor Conservation Association). So we put money back into projects.

We make sure we use local providers, so that means accommodation, local guides, local transport companies. If we're traveling further afield, we’re using their local services.