About 25% of his boutique firm’s 150 clients have taken advantage of his travel planning expertise.
“I never set out to use travel to differentiate me among competitors,” he says. “I just did it because I liked it, and the fact is my clients liked it.”
Some five years ago, he began joining groups of his clients on trips he coordinated to places in Europe such as Paris and Florence, Italy. Today, he participates in organizing two to three trips every quarter.
“There was one nine-day trip where I arranged a villa on the outside of Florence for 12 people who were all clients except for two,” says Zdenek, who enlisted a chef to teach cooking classes.
His clients have also taken trips to Australia, Southeast Asia, Japan, China, Provence, Tuscany and South Africa.
In recent months, he has dabbled in organizing boating tournaments and fishing expeditions. One such trip involved hiring a captain who happened to be a client, renting a boat with four other clients and sailing around the Virgin Islands for a week.
“It gives us something to reminisce about during tax time when they come into my office to tweak their financial plan,” he says.