I this episode Zodizach sits down with old friend and business owner Mike The Driver! Mike shares his experience owning and operating his own business Trypps in Palm Springs California! Trypps makes travel, tourism and hospitality painless and easy by handling the logistics for you to enjoy your time in the Valley! Mike shares how he started and founded Trypps and the future for his business! Mike shares how he pivoted as a business owner to survive the pandemic. Mike shares how 2020 was projected to be his greatest year of growth thus far as a business and how covid changed everything! Trypps is a full hospitality service from start to finish, top to bottom! If you are in the Coachella Valley, Palm Springs area look for Trypps and Mike the driver! https://trypps.com/
I remember seeing on the news that there were a group of people who were being quarantined on a ship because of a virus.
I wasn’t paying nearly as much attention to that headline as I was the Impeachment Trial. It seemed all eyes were in one direction, and there was this deadly virus that was about to change the world in the other.
All of a sudden, there were talks of Coachella and Stagecoach being re-scheduled if not cancelled all together for the calendar year.
“C’mon!!! No way…”
Festival Season, which is 3 weekends in April, counts for close to half of our annual business. Most of us here in the Coachella Valley are Hospitality workers and we rely on this traffic.
There was an email that came in one morning. It was from a client who had to cancel their booking because plans were changing. Then about a day or so after, another one, then another one until EVERYTHING that was booked for festival season had CANCELLED.
No Transportation! No Vacation Rental Services! No Eating Out! No Dining In! No In Person ANYTHING!
People were literally afraid to leave their homes.
Our Delivery / Courier service started to SKYROCKET!
Thru all of the chaos and destruction of the hospitality industry, which is a HUGE industry, came a NEW NEED. People now needed Delivery / Courier more than ever.
After having a few conversations with some very influential people, I decided it was time we switch focus back to the Delivery / Courier side of TRYPPS.com.
I was inspired to get back into the Restaurant Delivery Arena. But not in a traditional way. If you know anything about me or the TRYPPS Inc. brand, you know that we are always thinking Outside the Box.
I had the thought of partnering with restaurants, and assisting them in their online presence, and eliminating their need or dependency on the 3rd party platforms like Uber Eats, Grubhub, & DoorDash. I know their commissions are extremely high and unfair.
I figured, if we can help them with their websites and building their own online menu, and show them how to generate their own online orders, then the last piece of the puzzle was the delivery. Which of course WE will also be very happy to assist with, keeping ALL THE BUSINESS LOCAL.
I hopped on my computer and put in about a month to month-and-a-half of solid lab time. I’m talking about days were I did literally nothing, from the time I woke up till the time I passed out, but work on this delivery platform.
Ta-Daaaa
We put together some major components that are Essential to Online Business in today’s world of Restaurant Delivery. – Sales Optimized Websites – Online Ordering Capabilities – Automatic Delivery Dispatch – Reporting and Analytics
These are the 1st restaurants who have hopped on and are now taking control of their online presence. Please go visit these sites and take note of their functionality and ease of use. These sites are editable so it can be customized for any business who wants to offer online sales and / or delivery. These sites are “Optimized” with Google and other search engines and there is a dashboard where you can actually see your site climbing ranks within Google.
The analytics are the best though. You can see your website traffic from visits all the way to check out and see your conversion ratios every step of the way. You can run reports on your sales, trends, missed opportunities, etc. and have access to ALL OF YOUR customer data.
Please get in touch for more information.
I’m creating a movement against the “Big Guys” to Support Local.
In June of 2016, I was looking for my next business venture. I tossed around a couple different ideas while I was quickly running out of time, money, patience, etc.
Around that time, Uber was marketing very heavily and rideshare was hitting it’s stride. I wasn’t sure I would be a good candidate since at that time, I drove a 2 seater sports car. They explained that they had rental car programs that I could use to work. I went thru the on-boarding process, which seemed like it took forever, picked up a car and I was on my way.
I had no idea how much fun I was going to have. I am from Los Angeles, born and raised, and I was seeing parts of town I never knew existed. I was meeting very cool people, driving all over town, making money and really enjoying myself.
My first week, I hit all the introductory bonuses. It was looking great. But after that first week, I had to work harder and harder every week to make the same money. I was still having fun but after adding up all the dollars and cents, it wasn’t making as much sense.
Now on the app, you can see the difference in fares between the entry level Uber X and Uber Black SUV. I wanted to make Black SUV money.
I bumped into an SUV driver at a Starbucks in Orange County and started picking his brain a little. He explained to me what was required to be a Black SUV Driver and how to get into it. I wasted no time, I started immediately working towards getting certified as a Professional Commercial Limousine Driver. I went thru the motions & got myself the nicest SUV I could find. Game On!!!
My first weekend in the SUV was like night and day. Entirely different clientele all together. Needless to say, I was having fun before, now I was having a BLAST!!!
I met Starlets, YouTube Stars, Business Owners, Celebrities, Pro Sports Stars in my first month.
I met a guy one day and we were started working the streets together. One day he told me about this rock thing that was going on out in Palm Springs. We decided to come out. That event was “Desert Trip”
The first night we spent the day Ubering. It was a disaster!!! Drivers couldn’t get riders and riders couldn’t get cars and it was a mess. After making the best of my first night in town, I found a dark parking lot and rested my eyes.
The next day, I’m brainstorming on how to make the best out of the remainder of the 3 day weekend. I decide that I should go back to my old training and I started “Pounding the Pavement and Knocking on Doors”
I drove into the valet of The Riviera Hotel in Palm Springs and introduced myself to the lead. I gave him my card and told him that I’m a driver who’s in town and available should anyone need assistance. He then gave my card to someone at the desk, who then gave my card to the concierge. Within about 20 minutes, I received a phone call and was connected with a group of gentlemen who also had a tough time with Uber the night before.
I took not 1 more Uber request the rest of the weekend. After the weekend, all of the gentlemen in the group went back home to Australia but the main guy was staying in the States for another couple weeks and used my services the whole time.
The following weekend was weekend 2 of the festival. I received a phone call from the same concierge at the hotel. He told me that he had received great reviews of my work and wanted to use my services again. I explained to him that I wouldn’t be in town for weekend 2 but I would take care of his guests none the less. He put us in contact, I billed the guest, dispatched my driver buddy, everyone got paid and TRYPPS was born.
I started coming out on the weekends and sleeping in my SUV and showering at the gym. I began networking with the hotels soliciting my services.
The rest is history…
A Full Service Travel, Tourism & Hospitality Company
