Another Day, Another Boob

Winter, breast cancer, and building a small tour business

Bonjour. Hello. Welcome.

I’m writing from my home in frozen, snow-covered southeast Ohio, in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. It’s been a doozy of a winter, I have to say.

I was diagnosed with breast cancer at the end of October—which, of course, is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. How current and on point for me. I was surprised, to say the least, but I’m not going to die, thankfully. At least not right now. At first, I didn’t know that, however, so I was staring down a pretty bad timeline for starting a business. I was talking to myself, like you do, saying, “I can’t believe this,” and, “How am I going to make this all work?”

First came surgery. It wasn’t too bad, and I was back to myself within a couple of weeks. Then my tumor needed to fly all over to different labs to be tested—out there traveling around and living its best life. Chemo was going to last four to six months, but I’m fortunate that my type of tumor won’t need it. I do need radiation, and I’m doing that currently. It makes me tired and sore, but overall it’s not too bad, and I really like the radiation technicians, who are both female. It’s odd talking about the weather, topless, with strangers—but for them? Another day, another boob.

I am very lucky. This isn’t going to stop me; it has only slowed me down a tad. Winter has slowed me down even more with its fierce, frozen grip. I had gotten used to climate-change mild winters, and this one is definitely not that.

I walk and hike all year long, in all seasons, but this winter—with cancer—I have to say I haven’t been out walking much. Walking and hiking, for me, is happy time. I love it, and I never tire of it. Nor do my two dogs: Lascaux, who is six, and Tartine, who just turned two

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I live very rurally. My property is on a single-lane gravel road. The man who owns the property across from me has 250 acres and lives on another road. The property next to me was purchased by someone from out of town, but they also have a lot of land, and I can’t see their home—which is nice. I can walk out of my driveway and take several different roads that will all eventually lead me back home. Sometimes I can walk four miles and never pass a car. I LOVE it.

I have some nuts-and-bolts updates about building this small-group tour business. I, like many I presume, started the business with a website. Once it was launched, I was open for business. Here I am, world! I installed a booking platform because, of course, you need a BOOK NOW button. It took me more than a full day to set it up, figure it out, and get it functional. I was paying $50 per month to have it, and they were also going to charge a percentage every time someone pressed it. So I had to raise the cost of the tour, which I didn’t want to do.

Of course, no one was pressing it.

I have to build the business first and let the world know I exist. Hello, here I am. Hey you—this is a pretty awesome way to explore rural France. Come with me. I’ll show you what I do and where I go.

I was getting several inquiries about what I’m offering, so I contacted the booking service (no names mentioned) to do a run-through and make sure everything was good to go. I had been paying for it for about six months by that time. Turns out they don’t work for multi-day tours; they’re for day tours only. Good to know! I tried to get all of my money back, but they only offered to refund the most recent month—which is better than nothing.

My website now has a “contact me” button, and it seems to be working just fine for now. I’ve received a lot of inquiries, and it feels wonderful.

I shared my booking platform issue in the Tourpreneur private Facebook group. How I love them—let me count the ways. The biggest takeaway from those who have already walked this path is that a random stranger isn’t going to press a BOOK NOW button without first having some contact with me. Someone choosing to spend their precious time and money is going to want to know me first. This is a relationship, and relationships are built on trust.

Someone else in the group mentioned that after talking with an interested guest, it’s easy to simply send an email for payment. Also good to know. Thank you, Tourpreneur. I launched this business with just my guts and glory, not even knowing they existed, and I’m so grateful for all of them.

I sat down today intending to write about St. Antonin Noble Val, France. I stayed there for a week, and I want more people to know how wonderful it is to get out of the big tourist centers and step away from the mass tourism plaguing so many European cities. But I’ll write about that later. I have time, thankfully. I can’t wait to keep writing about all of it.

Thank you for reading. It’s nice to have you here. If you are interested in exploring more of what I’m offering check it out at wewanderfrance.com. It’s all there with dates and costs, but minus a BOOK NOW button. I’m also advertising my tours on Solotravelerworld.com And of course you can find me on Facebook OR Instagram. Au revoir for now. - Meghan