Remodeling - February 2009 - (Page UR51)

Interview Ten Minutes With Sara Ryan Duffy is president of SRD International, in Los Angeles, a travel concierge company with two full-time staff and five or more seasonal employees (www.srdinternational.com). She has been in the travel industry for 17 years. Previous to launching SRD International in 1995, Duffy booked studio and corporate travel for Paramount Pictures. A reality show on Bravo, First Class All the Way, captured her company’s services. Q: A: excited over it because many times they’ve forgotten how the home used to be,” she says, “and because this isn’t something they’ve taken the time to do throughout the construction process.” WORTH THE EFFORT Who are your clients and what type of travel do you book for them? Other than a few hundred dollars spent on a digital camera, printer ink, and CD-ROM discs, the cost of creating that “wow” is minimal for the company, which uploads select before-and-after photos to its Web site to serve as a marketing tool. For Johnson and the rest of the team at Small Carpenters at Large, taking the photos, creating the CDs, and uploading the images to the company Web site has become a natural part of each project. “The investment is small and the payoff is significant,” Johnson says, “especially when you see a client’s face when he or she sees the before and afters side by side for the first time.” Bridget McCrea is a freelance writer in Dunedin, Fla. I do offer more traditional travel, booking trips for clients. But I realized that there was a need in the travel market that bridged concierge work and a travel agency, so I started doing high-end concierge travel where either I would travel with clients or send people with them. It would not make sense to do just the concierge work. For the concierge side, April to November is the busiest time, and with standard leisure travel, major holidays are busier. I needed to have a balance. For the concierge work, my clients are Hollywood producers, company CEOs, and billionaires. They are looking for something different and come to me for a one-of-akind experience. Q: A: How do you go about setting up these exclusive experiences for clients? I’ve been lucky in my personal life. I’ve met interesting and influential people and can take those relationships and turn them into unique experiences for my clients. When it comes to people like this who are exceptional at what they do, they want to be around people who appreciate the artistry of their work. Some people think that if you throw enough money everyone will cave in. But people who are true artisans are careful about the people they allow in. I spend four to nine months per year traveling, for two reasons. One, there is nothing like face-to-face conversations to cement relationships. Two, you see trends and view properties in person. I know what my clients like, so I look at it through their eyes. Traveling is 50% travel and 50% psychology. You do not take a type-A personality and put them on an island where it will take an hour to get a cocktail. Some clients come to me and say, “I was told I should go here,” and I will say, “No, you won’t like that destination.” You have to stand up [for yourself] if you know you are right about something. Q: A: remodelingmag.com Do you generally travel with clients on the trips you have arranged for them? A certain percentage of my clients request or require that either myself or one of my concierges travel with them. That happens Remodeling February 2009 UR-51 http://www.srdinternational.com http://www.remodelingmag.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Remodeling - February 2009

Remodeling - February 2009 Contents First Word Market Watch Linda Case Mark Richardson Shawn McCadden Ways + Means Bottom Line Sales + Marketing Field Notes By Design Tech@ Work Good Form Close Up Second Look Going Green Clinic Specbook Upscale Remodeling Start Right People, Process, Profits Interview: Sara Ryan Duffy, President of SRD International New + Notable Products Final Touch Green Speak Green Spec In Focus First Look Benchmark

Remodeling - February 2009

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.