We started out in 2007 as a small privately owned company in Arusha. After a little debate as to what we were going to call ourselves we decided on the name Fay Safaris as the first letters of each of our names ; Fay, Ambert and Yvette, though the name Fay is one of our directors we thought a short name would stand out in the crowd of operators in Arusha. We started out working at home, got a few tables and chairs, couple of laptops, printers and internet lines and we were off. It was 2007 and the recession had just hit the west and getting in business was an uphill battle. With no agents and connections abroad we had only one way of getting the word out - The Net. I setup the website myself with my little knowledge of webdesign and internet marketing and hoped for Google to pick us up and list us somewhere on its search engine. This is always an uphill task and it took us about a year before our first listing on Google. I had to rely on web based advertising with Google, Yahoo and Travel ads. It finally paid off after 3 years when we started getting a steady flow of inquiries and a good rate of conversion of those inquiries into real clients.
To start with we needed to have cars to engage in the business. With cost of new vehicles in the range of 50,000$ each, I decided to start with a more humble approach. I had just bought a Land cruiser Gx (used) and had done it up completely with a new coat of paint. No sooner it arrived it was taken over by the company and then sent for modification. The car was cut into 2 parts and the back of the vehicle discarded to rebuild it to safaris specs. The car in Tanzania is commonly called the Warbus or land cruiser stretch and is capable of accommodating 9 people including the driver. After a good 3 months in the garage out it came looking brand new with a nice coat of green paint.
This was the car we started with and it is still in operation in our fleet. We eventually added 4 more cars over the years. Business was bad in 2007 and 2008 with the economic crisis facing the world and collapse of the banking structure in the west and keeping operations going meant us putting in money from our pockets. But we never gave up hope of it turning around one day ( which it eventually did ) and we put it down to what we call "teething problems ". In 2009 we parted ways with Yvette, and now the company is owned by husband and wife Fay and Ambert and our three boys Ayden ,Aydrian and recent addition (2012) Ayron.
To start with we needed to have cars to engage in the business. With cost of new vehicles in the range of 50,000$ each, I decided to start with a more humble approach. I had just bought a Land cruiser Gx (used) and had done it up completely with a new coat of paint. No sooner it arrived it was taken over by the company and then sent for modification. The car was cut into 2 parts and the back of the vehicle discarded to rebuild it to safaris specs. The car in Tanzania is commonly called the Warbus or land cruiser stretch and is capable of accommodating 9 people including the driver. After a good 3 months in the garage out it came looking brand new with a nice coat of green paint.
This was the car we started with and it is still in operation in our fleet. We eventually added 4 more cars over the years. Business was bad in 2007 and 2008 with the economic crisis facing the world and collapse of the banking structure in the west and keeping operations going meant us putting in money from our pockets. But we never gave up hope of it turning around one day ( which it eventually did ) and we put it down to what we call "teething problems ". In 2009 we parted ways with Yvette, and now the company is owned by husband and wife Fay and Ambert and our three boys Ayden ,Aydrian and recent addition (2012) Ayron.
What a brave adventure! I enjoy reading about how you and your family took such a courageous plunge. Keep up the good work! :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for participating in the Traveler's Show & Tell blog carnival over at Mental Mosaic: Even Home is a Travel Destination. I hope to see you there again. :)
~Tui