Briefly tell us about your business and how you got started.
Cape York Motorcycle Adventures (CYMCA) is a leading Australian off road motorcycle tour company. You can read more about our achievemnets here.
We offer the best that there is to see on our short and long-term off road tours. The most popular product is our eight-day adventure running from Cairns to Cape York (It’s Australia in eight days, minus the cold!).
CYMCA has been operating in this unique, adventure location for over 17 years and no other off road tour company offers an equal experience.
The operation started after Director Roy Kunda did a tour of the Australian stock routes and fell in love with this unique area of Queensland. I came on board to help with the paperwork while Roy was away on tour and neither one of us have looked back.
What have been your major achievements?
Going back to University to gain a postgraduate degree in Eco-tourism has had an enormous impact on the business with our greatest triumph being the achievement of Eco-certification with Eco-tourism Australia. This achievement was a world first and has revolutionised the motorcycle industry. I am happy to say that other businesses in the industry have followed our lead and taken up the challenge to become environmentally friendly.
What have been your major challenges?
The journey has been a long one, there were times when I was completely over the whole idea, I was intimidated because our mostly male clients wouldn’t listen to me, my husband was away for long periods of time and running a business with two young children in tow is hard work. There’s a certain bravado that you have to build in order to survive as a female manager in a male-dominated industry. For me; controlling 15 men that are hanging out to get on their bikes and ride is a daily occurrence and a developed skill. I suppose overcoming all of the little frustrations has helped me develop resilience to overcome the challenges of the business world.
Who has been your greatest mentor?
My husband has been my greatest mentor. He taught me passion, how to soldier through the hard times and that NO is the wrong answer.
The Cairns Business Woman’s Club also deserves a mention here as they have a great mentoring programme that taught me how to present an all round business profile. I was lucky enough to spend six months being mentored by Val Schier who is now the Mayor of Cairns. The networking functions provided by the club are a fabulous opportunity for any businesswoman.
What have you found to be the most effective means of marketing your business and why?
Word of mouth. Unfortunately it is the hardest marketing tool to create and monitor, but it works. You just have to concentrate on setting and maintaining a high product standard. You can advertise all you like but to achieve word of mouth marketing, your product has to be of a standard where your clients are happy to champion it and become repeat customers.
What have you found to be the most effective means of branding your business and why?
Our business is unique and we are the industry leader. Creating an industry is a huge responsibility that we are happy to brand ourselves with. We are the longest running motorcycle tour company and we are industry leaders through our benchmarking, commitment to environmental sustainability, innovations and industry improvements.
What is one thing you have done in terms of marketing you have been proud of and what were the results?
Our web site has been the most successful marketing tool so I guess that’s what I am most proud of. We did an overhaul a few years ago to align the web site with our branding strategy and the number of unique visitors or the revenue earned from website bookings has more than doubled. Streamlining our point of contact with our customers has been a very useful tool.
What is one thing you have done in terms of branding you have been proud of and what were the results?
Becoming Eco-certified with Eco-tourism Australia has given us an internationally recognised point of difference. Achieving Eco-certification was an industry world-first and we are all very proud of that.
How do you stand out from your competitors?
We lead from the front of the pack!
Where would you like to see your business in five years from now?
We are currently building a 70-acre, purpose built motorcycle park in Cairns. This is the new benchmark for the sustainable use of motorcycles. Motoworld Australia will have 3 home bases throughout Australia within the next 5 years and Cape York Motorcycle Adventures will be touring from each location.
What are your Top Five Strategies for Success?
- Dream big
- Plan for reality
- Be passionate
- Be persistent
- Improve one small thing everyday.
