This business idea is for wine connoisseurs who would love to share their unique knowledge and get paid for it by conducting wine tasting tours.
Of course to start this business you must you must live near wineries.
Many people love to spend the day visiting wineries and tasting the many different wines they have to offer.
You could start your own tour business offering wine tasting tours.
A typical tour would be visiting three or four different wineries, and you could charge $50 or more, per person for the tour.
You will need a bus or van to seat about eight people for each tour. If you offer tours and do the driving for them, they can have a good time tasting the wines, with no worries of driving afterward.
Check with the local wineries and set up appointments with them to bring a small group of people for a tour and wine tasting at each one.
This will be good for the wineries and lucrative for you too.
The wineries should welcome your visits, because you are bringing them new customers and added business.
Work with the wineries to offer a discount if your tourists buy while on your tours. Some wineries charge customers to taste their various wines, see if you can get them to wave this fee or at least give a good discount if they charge for tasting.
And also try to work out a commission with the winery for any wine that your tour clients buy during the tour.
This is what you want your tourists to do after all. With any good business idea, you always want to be thinking of more ideas of making money with it, so making a commission on wine sales will definitely be a great way to add to your tour income.
Be sure that you offer enough storage room in your vehicle to be able to bring back any wine they will want to buy and bring back with them.
The ride you offer on your tours should be comfortable for your customers, remember this when you decide what kind of vehicle you want to use.
And if you do not have a the means to purchase a good vehicle initially then consider renting a vehicle such as a limousine.
Remember, the more fancy the ride, the more you can charge for your tours. Your customers will be spending a lot of time in the vehicle, so if you want them to enjoy the tour more, make sure they enjoy the trip too.
Think about how nice it would be to offer a tour of wineries in a limousine then a nice meal somewhere in the local area. You could have fun putting together a higher end tour like this and of course you would charge more too.
This is the type of tour that you can advertise in your local newspapers and phone books.
You could also contact all of the wineries and let them know about your business and the tours you would like to set-up with them.
The wineries can also let their customers know about your tour services. People prefer taking these kinds of tours because they don't have to worry about drinking and driving afterward.
Also make sure you leave brochures at your local Chamber of Commerce and also local restaurants, bed and breakfasts and hotels if possible.
You want to have information about your tours anywhere tourists might be staying in the area.
And as your business grows you should
build a website
to showcase your tours, such as this example of a Napa Valley Tour Companies website:
Wine-Shuttle.com.
Make sure that you know all about the various wineries in your area. The more types of wines that you can include in each tour the better.
Alternatively, you can offer to take a tour for a day to all the wineries offering great champagnes and just sample the different types that the wineries offer, do this with any specific popular types of wines.
If you have to travel for a few hours to get to the winery areas, you could always offer more extensive tours lasting two days in a row, staying overnight in a local hotel, motel, or bed-and-breakfast.
This would obviously cost more, but could be a lot of fun to put together and enjoy.
You might be surprised at how many people would love to spend a whole weekend, or two days anytime during the week, touring different wineries.
If you feel a little uncertain starting out with this business idea, get a group of friends or family together to "take your tour".
You can practice your whole tour with them and see how it goes before you start making your service public.
