I've got four crypto news reports opened tabs on Brave, I've got a twitter and leofinance feed full of charts and data analysis pointing at the unknown Bitcoin is heading, and NO, I'm not writing about Bitcoin this evening. Let it breath for a while. I will take you on a journey instead, sort to speak.
My life is not all about crypto and I haven't yet managed to live off of crypto, I've stated that multiple times on my blog, I do plan on making it happen as of next year so wish me luck!
For a couple of years though, besides savings and other side income ways that I personally have, I am living, at least for about six out of the whole 12 months that a year's got, from tourism. I don't have a business in this area, but I am involved in a friend of mine's and thus far, despite the pandemic, it worked pretty well for both of us. What exactly am I talking about?
Well, my hometown is quite nicely positioned on the left shore of the Danube, next to the Serbian border, and just a few kilometers away we have quite a few historical attractions that got to see a lot of advertising over the last decade, which lead to tens of thousands of tourists visiting the area. The main activity that this type of tourism involves is: boat cruises and that's what I've been part of the last two years.
I've partnered with a friend of mine owning a boat and a small deck and we make such cruises happening, starting from spring and usually ending at the beginning of October. Getting involved in such a businesses requires a lot of time, dedication, nerves and patience, but getting home at the end of the day with an average of $40, sometimes up to $100 in my case, is not an opportunity to be wasted and it's what made me do this for two consecutive years since I got back to my hometown.
I honestly hope to one day match that by blogging and other related crypto activities that I love doing, but for now it's not possible. Maybe 2021 will be more crypto friendly and I won't need to work anymore. Well, can you call this work?. I do, and I'll tell you why it is to be considered work and why it's sometimes a pain in the ass to.
First things first, what do we offer for $12 a person... because that's what we charge for such a cruise. An eight meter long speed boat with 12 comfortable seats, 45 kilometers of riding the waves, up to 2 hours spent on water and 4 historic attractions visited, along with other beautiful areas that one can witness while riding on the boat. My friend acts as a guide as well and it's not just like a Charlee Chaplin show , the whole trip as people interact, as it is in the case of some of our competitors.
When we have foreign visitors I play the role of translator also with my modest English and my below average German. We do all of that for 12 damn dollars per person and this price is a fixed one for as long as I can remember, some could say it's all due to the increasing competition that we can't ask for more. I wrote above that it's a pain in the ass sometimes and will not get into all of the details of what makes it a pain in the ass, but will mention one thing: people still try to negotiate the price.
I being the hustler for clients and making all the appointments am in direct contact with the customer and get to do all the organizing stuff and believe me that quite often I get the question what discount do we get for four persons or more... and my answer is that, first of all, we require a minimum of eight persons, and what of a discount would you expect for $12 spent for an almost two hour journey, visiting some of the most spectacular views of this area and getting to enter two caves, one by boat and one on foot, while also visiting the biggest rock sculpture in Europe, and the second largest in the world, which is the Decebalus face.
People don't appreciate value anymore, they don't appreciate what they have have and quite often the negotiators are the wealthier ones. Same as in here, the ones earning little from the rewards pool expressing more gratitude towards their opportunity than the wealthier ones. Tourists don't seem to bother paying $12 for a shitty meal that ends up in the toilet in less than 12 hours, but they do negotiate a once in a lifetime experience. Foreigners seem to appreciate it more although they don't tip us as much as we would expect ;).
What do you guys think, would you pay $12 for such a cruise that I wrote about above? Is this post worthy of a leofinance one, or should I have wrote about BTC instead?
As much as I love crypto and see the tons of potential it has, and despite being connected to the crypto world and all of its related news almost day and night, I sometimes feel like bringing real world topics to leofinance. Have a great weekend folks, and see you to the next one. Fingers crossed for BTC crossing the $20,000 barrier, I still wish my prediction to come true.
Below you have two @threespeak videos of mine with a glimpse of what tourists get to visit in here for 12 bucks:
Thanks for attention,
Adrian
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Thanks for sharing your story. Sounds like that cruise is easily worth the 12 dollars. Stunning view! Have you considered accepting crypto instead of cash? ;<)
I hope living off crypto becomes possible for you next year, although I think having a life outside of it is very important too. I am becoming more and more aware of that this year, after having been living of crypto since mid 2017.
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Me yes, but my friend who actually owns the business would definitely not agree.
Yes, I don't like putting social life aside. Maybe a mix of blogging, investing in crypto and opening a small business or working part time would do the job perfect.
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Why is your partner so negative? Bitpay could work well because wouldn't it relieve the merchant from having to deal with crypto at all?
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Hw doesn't get the tech...
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Ask him if he can explain how Visa works from a technical perspective?
LeoFinance isn't exclusively about BTC or crypto in general. It's about finance as the name suggests and everything around it! Thus your post is extremely ok and to tell you the truth i would like to learn more regarding the prices, the competitors, the offers, the difficulties! (see i am giving you ideas for your next posts, so me some love :P)
Also i haven't been to Romania yet and i am Greek so it's not that much of a distance!
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Funny, I haven't been to Greece yet :))
The prices are pretty much the same as in your country from what I was told. Maybe one day I will compare some pricings around here with the resy of Europe.
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So it's settled! if you come to Greece send me a message and i'll do the same!
Also, an interesting idea would be to create a "collab" post about prices in specific things. We can talk to each other first make a list of prices we want to compare, create a table which will be in both posts, and then make our own comments or whatever we want in our posts, mentioning always each other!
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Good idea. Lets first make a list of products and then check the prices. You can post a comment on this post and I will add mine. I forgot to use excell so it would be nice if you could make tha table afterwards.
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sorry for the long reply!
i will do it in the following days, whenever you have time you can send me your list as well! you want to send it via discord or by screens in here?
also sorry for the late reply as usual :P
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Try selling vouchers to travel agents booking for this coming spring/summer 2021. Read below please.
I have been wholesaling tourist related CLOTHING here in Hawaii since 1998. Today with the about 90% of the local retail shop owners literally have closed, gone for good.
I understand your frustration with the $ 12 tour pricing. What we had to shift gears real fast and sell around the World online (wholesale) not retail. This is why we have added the ability to let customers around the World pay us in various crypto. We feel using wLeo (only the wrapped) can help as many of our customers use uniswap already. And we need the ability to move payments same day.
In the past we had not been able, repeat had not been able to reach actual business owners using steem and or hive.
We feel that possibly trying with Leofinance we might potentially reach actual business owners. SOME OF THE TOUR RELATED BUSINESSES HAVE BEEN SELLING VOUCHERS FOR SPRING AND SUMMER 2021 online getting some cash flow now. I'm always amazed that so many people using hive and other platforms
don't seem to need money ?
If anyone has negative comments about what I'm saying here, please re read. I am talking about business owners surviving and accepting crypto payments helps. I feel LeoFinance.io potentially can attract business owners maybe under a new tab. Some of us business owners are planning on HODLING wLEO but still having the ability to move to other suppliers also. Aloha, Richard
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Most of the tourists were from our own country, especially in 2020 with the covid pandemic, and I doubt anyone would pay with crypto. My friend who actually own the business is not seeing crypto with friendly eyes so it would be a bit difficult to make him accept crypto as a payment. I would though. Again, we're tied to fiat since not many are even aware of crypto in here.
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I've never been a crypto author that much and on leofinance I write about personal finance and real time Investment and economics of citizens that sorrounds Nigerian citizens themselves. I think going forward we'd be needing more diverse contents and I think diversification is key to make here vast. And for 12$ I'll gladly pay that
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I will try and post more often about other finance related topics as well, but crypto is so inviting still.
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Well as far as we keep diversification of finance all these topics seems lucrative lol.
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Indeed. A bit of diversification never hurt nobody 😁
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My opinion is that it would be good to accept other types of posts here because only about finances and coins can be tiring at some point. A mixture of finances and personal life, something pleasing to the eye (photos) might do well.
For example, I would put a cabbage in a post here and if I were asked what the cabbage has to do with the crypto content, I would say that it best reflects how I am in the field ... cabbage!
The habit of negotiating the ticket price or anything else seems shameful to me. When there are groups, there is one who wants to show how smart he is and negotiates only for the image, not thinking about the loss he causes to the other.
To live near the Danube seems to me something magical!
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Well, since the community is crypto and finance oriented we are supposed to post as such and I have nothing to complain about, it's just that I felt like taking a break from the crypto related posts and write a bit abut this business that I've been part of for the last two summers.
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Of course I understand that very well. I just want to say that I was very pleased to see a post with real life photos, photos of the author and not only photos taken from stock sites.
Otherwise, of course, this community must guard its image and interest and what it represents.
The presentation of your money-making business matches LeoFinance topics.
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I have other posts as well on leofinance where I uploaded my own photos. I would do that more often but I don't have a big gallery yet. Maybe in the following days I will snap some pics as I am planning to get to Baile Herculane and do some photo shooting around there.
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Good idea! I think you will take great photos at Herculane, I have never been there but I think it is a special place (what I saw in photos and movies). Unfortunately, the resort was destroyed, as far as I know ...
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Yes. I plan on shooting old buildings and whatever I find interesting over there. The town needs a lot of restoration.
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Yes, you chose the best subject.
Hopefully it will be restored and degradation will stop.
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for me these types of articles should be here since you talk about your work and personal finances
Even for me it seems a ridiculous price, more expensive charges and insurance will pay without hesitation, it happens that when you charge cheap they tend to ask for a discount, I don't know why that happens
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First of all, Romania is still a developing country and we can't compare our wages with the rest of the Europe, but still, the amount of experience that you get for $12 I believe is quite fair, if not cheap.
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$12 is not bad at all.
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Yes, I believe though that the whole trip is worth more.
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@tipu curate
Upvoted 👌 (Mana: 65/78) Liquid rewards.
Thanks.
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@tipu curate
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Shit someone beat me to it
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There's room for everybody.
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Personally I quite like hearing about more real world topics!
$12 is an absolute bargain - and I know how stressful it can be being the front man for 2 hours of the trip - and I bet the keen ones are there an hour early so you've got to keep them entertained too, then a few probably hang around, so I imagine one trip takes you most of the day with all the preparation.
I'd charge a bit more and then a scaled back reduction down to $12 for couples or three or more.
That way they'd already feel like they're getting a bargain.
The videos report a play back error btw.
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I'm actually the front man all day, something like 9-20 everyday especially during summer. We have an average of 5 cruises per day during in the months of July and August.
The competition is tough and unfortunately we can not apply the strategy you are mentioning. I know, it's psychology, but they have choices...
I don't know what's wrong with the videos, they're both drone footage and really nice. Try and access my profile and open them from over there.
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