Snowdog Arctic Adventures
Role:
Head of Business Development and Operations
Duration:
March 2022 - January 2023
Type:
Hybrid
Address:
Alttavaaravagen 10, 981 92 Kiruna, Sweden
Main responsibilities:
tour optimisation, booking system management, animal care, customer relations, social media management, partnership development, website development, content creation, operational support, efficiency enhancement, marketing and branding, multichannel management, crisis management
A little place in the North
Haunting melodies of Alaskan huskies echo through the hushed snow covered forest as the northern lights weave their luminescent tapestry across the night sky. In the embrace of Kiruna's serene wilderness, one can find solace and inspiration, immersed in the profound beauty of nature's untouched sanctuary. The stillness of the forest and the vivid colours of summer awaken a profound connection to the Earth, inviting contemplation and a deep appreciation for the magnificence that surrounds us.
Work and Life Experience
During my time in the enchanting wilderness of the North of Sweden, I had the chance to experience working for the dog sledding and arctic adventure company Snowdog. It allowed me to fully immerse myself in the awe-inspiring beauty (and harshness) of nature while facing the humbling challenges of living in semi-off-grid conditions 200km North of the Arctic Circle. From enduring extreme winter temperatures to navigating through swarms of mosquitoes in the summer, this unique environment taught me valuable lessons of resilience and amplified my deep appreciation for the wonders of the natural world.
#Operational Support
#Animal Training & Healthcare
#Attention to Detail
Central to our operations was the care of our remarkable team of 61 dogs (plus/minus through the year - mostly plus, sadly some minus as well due to old age).
I dedicated myself to their well-being, undertaking tasks such as daily feeding & cleaning (later taken over by volunteers), grooming, and washing as well as training and fostering their growth and development. In times of injury or illness I conducted a thorough research to understand and address their ailments, administering medications, attending vet visits, and providing the necessary care.
(Not sure if this is obvious or not but all the footage/photography and editing is my own work. Ive been advised to point that out :))
#Efficiency Enhancement
A significant aspect of my role involved optimizing processes within the kennel, continuously seeking innovative solutions to address existing challenges and improve infrastructure such as a solution for prevention of dog skin infections by building an outdoor dog shower; optimising the feeding process and installing compatible piping to support an outdoor hose, preparing and helping on a project of a new shower house (incl. creating floor plans and 3D visualisations, laying pipes and isolation), identifying and sourcing specific car parts, turning the unused cabin into an Airbnb, etc
The unique circumstances of living in the forest and enduring extreme winter conditions, including temperatures as low as -40 degrees, required me to think creatively and implement effective measures to ensure the well-being of our team and the dogs.
#Multichannel Management
#Booking System Management
As the overseer of our booking systems, I managed our presence on platforms like Viator, TripAdvisor, Airbnb Experiences, Airbnb hosting, and Checkfront. I integrated these platforms with our social media channels to maximize our online reach and enhance customer engagement. Facilitating communication with local agencies further strengthened our network and contributed to our success.
#Tour Optimisation
#Partnership Development
# Product Development'
Checkfront - blurred for privacy
I took pride in creating new activities and overseeing their implementation: from concept, research, over connecting with external parties, budgeting, and logistics to crafting promotional material, including photos, videos, flyers, brochures, posters, and graphics, which were shared on various social media platforms.
Liaising with external partners, I have achieved adding a number of external agencies to our roster, extending the opportunities of larger groups of guests, as well as handling all the administrative tasks connected to it (drawing up agreements and licenses, book keeping, organisational communication and custom requests)
By setting up and co-hosting our two Airbnb accommodations, I ensured that our guests experienced a comfortable and memorable stay, taking care of repairs, cleaning, and decoration to create a welcoming and comfortable environment.
BUSINESS AND PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
RESTRUCTURING DOG SLEDDING TOURS
The first challenge was cleaning up the booking system which has been built in a copy-paste fashion with products doubled or tripped to accommodate different requirements and conditions, instead of using functions and options within the intricate and very powerful Checkfront system (and truly brilliant in-house customer support).
Another very time-consuming and unreliable practice was the insertion of tours by hand, via emails, phone calls, and text messages from different 3rd parties. I solved this by configuring partner accounts, creating contracts/licenses, negotiating better percentages, and establishing a system of communication and procedure when it came to communicating any custom requests.
The dog sledding tours were synchronized in name, duration, new pricing made, and a comprehensive pick-up and drop-off schedule created for 6 hours per day, 6 (later 7) pickup/drop-off locations, and a max of 40 guests with 2-4 vehicles and an equal number of drivers. The optional inclusion of farther locations and custom requests was planned in as well, as well as the factor of nature - stuck vehicles, snowstorms, accidents, and delays therefor.
This solid primary product base allowed for an expansion of the yet unused potential of creating other tours and activities compatible with the finite number of personnel, equipment, and time.
The dogs did not receive any extra work, except for the previously unused summer time where they were otherwise left to their own devices, and extra cuddling as part of the tours in winter. Another aspect I introduced was tracking each dog's kennel run and forest walk times, to ensure everyone got as many enjoyable extra activities as possible, especially during the off-season as well as retired dogs all year around.
I started creating a new website, as the old outdated one did not have a working booking system link anymore (meaning no tours could be booked) or a clear explanation of all the tours offered.
Tours had to be structured, layouts and information synchronised, and texts were written up. Furthermore, the lengthly information about proper preparation to enjoy the arctic winter as well as policies and house rules had to be drawn up and updated. An intense multi-day archaeological expedition into old drives and ants-nest of folders with glimpses of previous seasons tours brought enough photographic material to equip the tours nicely with visual material until the next season brought more opportunity.
SNOWMOBILE TOURS
I arrived at the end of the 2021/22 winter season, just managing to get a glimpse of the dog sledding tours, one snowmobile, and one ice fishing tour. Yet the latter two were unofficial tours only tried a couple of times before, and were the overflow/recommendation passed on from other touring companies.
Having 3 snowmobiles and a lake right across the road, the idea grew to turn these opportunities into proper bookable tours, however, this was only manageable once the daily processes were optimized and a clearer work structure implemented, daily life being too cluttered with half-finished projects, malfunctioning infrastructure or lack of basic amenities (such as no running water on half of the premises).
This became the content of the long summer offseason: bringing old and defunct parts of the business up to speed, working heavily on the mentality and thought process part which has been the biggest issue; researching and sourcing replacement parts, infrastructure upgrades, and implementing those - from car specialized car parts, water pumps, plumbing, light fixtures to setting up an outdoor shower for the dogs, enabling better hygiene and the prevention of various skin issues that plagued them over summer months.
Eventually, there was enough clarity to start making plans for interesting snowmobile tours. With the stunning nature all around, there was plenty of opportunity, and one such was driving up the Aptasvaara mountain, my own first expedition (at night, in the late March sandy snow - that was fun hehe). A more easygoing option was a drive over the Torne River, the nearby forests, and a stop at the Ice Hotel.
After a lot of spreadsheets, time calculations, pricing, and encompassing things like the varying daylight, opening times, and compatibility with the other offered tours (and pickup/drop-off times), a masterplan table transpired, tuned to each month separately, to catch the exact moments of sunrise and sunset, while allowing for ample time for delays or photo stops.
What was left to do was write up texts for each tour, and preparation instructions, and put it all up on the website and booking system.
One difficulty was, of course, adjusting the system so it catered to the changing tour times throughout the season, as well as a set-up that would block out the remaining snowmobile should someone choose to book only one snowmobile (which again doubled in choices as you could book it to drive yourself, or sharing it with another person, at two price points making it financially accessible to solo travelers). But due to the overlapping tours (6 of them in total), the system had to understand if a tour was booked, even just for one snowmobile, the remaining overlapping torus had to be blocked due to one snowmobile being that for the guide. Within the limits of what was possible, a guide item was created to automatically be added to all tours, effectively blocking all availability for other overlapping tours and thus ensuring no double-booking would be happening. Various other tweaks were implemented such as different price points and combinations for children and students as well as a 5th guest riding with the guide. All of this neatly tucked into the booking system, allowing for an automatic and smooth booking with no headache and time/equipment worries.
There is no scaling of a business without making sure the fundaments are robust, functioning, and as automatic as possible. - an idea I had to keep working on conveying into the thought and practice of the business owner.
AURORA HUNTING AND ICE FISHING
These, while still unused potential, were way easier to create and incorporate into the daily logistics. A separate ice fishing product, one in a combination with a short snowmobile tour.
Aurora hunting in the heavy Chevrolet Suburban, and later on also with the vans, with tea, coffee and snacks as the standard equipment to each activity.
A bit of photography, text writing and putting it all up onto the booking system finalised this project pretty quickly.
SUMMER
While the winter tours were worked on over the off-season (while handling all kinds of acute emergencies or waiting for approvals), the challenge of an unused summer season transpired. It being a "no income - only costs" time, with the dogs also left pretty bored, I worked on creating a kennel experience, and later in the summer also an ATV practice session, to give summer tourists something interesting to experience, the dog's stimulation and cuddles, and the business some extra income to cover all the running costs. All this was happening hand in hand with creating new accommodation and putting it onto Airbnb, creating another stream of income over the low season.
THE KENNEL EXPERIENCE
The easiest way of experiencing the kennel and the dogs was a simple zoo-style visit. Meeting all the different dogs, getting into the dog runs and cuddling them, and learning about how daily life in a kennel functions. We also had puppies, so this was an added bonus and opportunity for those who were afraid of bigger dogs. The reason we didn't let the dogs run free while customers were present was that they have the force of a freight train once running, one of our volunteers having had a personal near-death experience with that.
Pricing points, logistics, and promo material were quickly done, and the flyers went to touristic locations in town, cutting a deal for advertising there and getting an extra stream of customers beyond the online and Airbnb channels.
ATV SESSION (+ KENNEL EXPERIENCE)
Once summer got cool enough to allow for sporadic ATV training sessions in preparation for the winter, we incorporated this into the already running kennel visits, extending the offer to include sitting on the ATV and taking part in the training of the huskies. With the entire set-up, harnessing them, learning about how dog sledding works, etc.
By lovely coincidence one of the first customers were a Slovenian couple! (you barely meet Slovenians around the world as we are such a small nation). Included in the price was also tea, coffee, and cookies in our fire hut, of course along with complementary vacation plan management and local information chitchat :)
Promo creation for this took a little longer due to the limited chances of doing the practices, as per owners' decisions, other things were more important. Nevertheless, I created a promo video and flyer that could be distributed to town.
Little did we know that this product would soon become a lifesaver in its evolved form, as winter that year didn't come for a very very long time.
More to come - overnight, full day, half day and helicopter tours, the accommodation, the grand Lofoten tours (glimpse below), and summer and winter products that didn't make it...
Concept
Research
What do we want to do and is it roughly financially sustainable? Is it doable and replicable through part or the entire season? Do we have the team and equipment?
Market research. Does the competition already offer similar activities? Is it roughly logistically doable (create schedule draft)? What external services do we need? What else is needed? Is it compatible with the already running tours?
Connecting
Reaching out to providers for any 3rd party services, quality checks, negotiating terms and conditions, obtaining promotional material; seeking alternatives and adjustments if needed. Trying out activities, socialising in person.
Budgeting
Creating a detailed budget structure, costs, expenses, in-calculating risks and threats and finally pricing up the tours competitively. Purchase of any necessary equipment, obtaining of licenses and insurances.
Logistics
Fine-tuning (down to minutes) the schedule for each day/week/month or season including photo stops, food breaks, all transportation, time for changing clothes and instructions, any other unforeseen delays, and finalising everything else regarding organisation.
Promotion
Collecting or creating all promotional material, photo material and footage, creating a subpage on the website, coming up with all the text, adding a new product to the booking system and configuring it, sending out the new activity to agencies, starting a promo campaign online and on social media.
#Agile Product Development
#Dealing with the unforeseen
Storytime: An agile product development opportunity arose (translation: we were pretty heavily booked from the start of the official season but snow didn't come for another month and a half) at the start of November, when the official winter season started.
Due to the complete lack of snow, there was no chance of doing any dog sledding.
So what do you do with guests who still came to Lapland, expecting an adventure?
Well, to keep it as close to the original tours as possible, we decided to offer an ATV training tour instead, something, which we have been doing anyway as a standard procedure of preparing the huskies for the winter. But to dampen the understandable disappointment of seeing mud instead of snow, we topped the tour up with a traditional local Sami reindeer meal cooked on the open fire in our tea hut. And if this did not convince someone (though it did, luckily :)) we also had our puppies, again killing two birds with one stone by letting guests cuddle and enjoy them (under our supervision, of course), and allowing the puppies to socialize with humans on a daily basis, thus helping them grow into the signature human-loving and friendly Alaskan Huskies.
As a result, we were able to fulfil all our booking responsibilities, and on top of that take in additional guests as we were the only kennel offering a replacement tour so quickly, while the town was crawling with tourists who came for snow activities which were cancelled.
The product eventually became so popular that we advertised it as a solo product at our in-town outlets in two languages and got a good amount of extra clientele through it.
Once it was finally cold enough that the lakes froze, yet, there was still not enough snow to safely navigate the forest trails where the dog sledding originally happened, we implemented part two of our customised dog sledding - dog sledding on ice!
This again posted its unique challenges, such as transporting up to 24 huskies over the E10 and making them understand the trail on the heavily frequented lake.
Therefore we resurrected the big transport trailer, and established a meticulous schedule of daily morning preparations, packing up huskies and all the 37248624582 items of gear, protection, and other equipment, as well as driving all the snowmobiles, sleds, and ATV down to the lake to establish a daily base camp with chains and fixtures, yet cleaning up any trace when leaving after the last tour.
Furthermore, the dogs had to be trained - very quickly so - to understand the next assignment over the large lake, not trail off to the nearby camp through which one of their previous year's routes went through, and generally get used to the running on ice, amidst occasionally dog walkers, cross country skiers and a horde of accelerating snowmobiles at times (logistics regarding that and an agreement with the nearby snowmobile company had to be reached as well).
A convoy with our own snowmobiles at the front and back had to be established, with another snowmobile waiting at critical points to redirect the dogs verbally or physically in case they decided to run the wrong way. Once the dogs settled in, I remained mostly in the house at the computer during the tours, only assisting at the start and end, while monitoring the situation with the drone in between.
The lunch, now value-wise redundant, has been replaced with tea and cookies back at the tea hut, so once everyone was done on the lake, they were driven back to the kennel where one snowmobile-driver already prepared fire and the snacks. The puppy cuddling remained an integral part of the tour and subsequent review-giving.
While we were doing the tours on the big Alttajärvi lake, we were continuously testing out the forest route which included two swamps and a lake - coincidentally named "The Lake of Death" (Kuollitusjärvi; Kuollitus meaning death in Finnish).
While the lake ice had hardened sufficiently, there was still not enough snow to cover the rocks and eventually the big swamp growths, which was risky to cross on a snowmobile, and deadly for any kind of dog sled (and the passengers on it). So to soften the sled-breakers, we spent a good amount of evenings shovelling snow in the middle of the forest. While you might think being in the forest at night, in the pitch black, knowing you are the only human soul in a 1km radius would be scary, it was, in fact, one of the most pristine types of experiences you could possibly get, knowing the entire area, knowing what's lurking in the dark and that were friends with all of them ;)
#Customer Relations
#Social Media Management
#Versatility, Resourcefulness
Meticulously managing the logistics to ensure a seamless and unforgettable experience for our guests, my daily work also included engaging and socialising with the guests - from online support, giving directions, organising local transport in emergencies, and giving advice about Kiruna's infrastructure and establishments to greeting guests on location (Kennel or Airbnbs), introducing them to the dogs and especially puppies, preparing the tea hut for pre and after tour chill-out, engaging guests in creation of memory/online content (and reviews!!) as well as entertaining them after the tours with conversation and sharing of experience, knowledge and the many funny stories about living in the wilderness with a pack of Alaskan huskies.
Furthermore, I was also involved in various tasks such as picking mushrooms and berries, gardening, digging drainage canals (a big deal when the seasons snow starts melting), and many other activities, which challenged as well as inspired me on a (literally) daily basis.
#Marketing and Branding
#Vehicle Operation
Managing the company's Instagram account, snowdogarcticadventure, allowed me to engage with our followers by creating daily stories that captivated their interest.
Handling Facebook, Youtube, transforming the life in the kennel into interesting posts and videos, as well as tending to custom requests of past guests wanting to see their favourite dog or inquire about our ill, injured and old pooches condition, it allowed us to have a constant connection with our past and future guests.
In addition, I acquired valuable skills in driving various vehicles, including snowmobiles, dog sleds, ATVs, and even briefly operating a tractor (technically bulldozer but everyone called it tractor).
#Crisis Management
#Interpersonal Conflict Solving
Finally, I handled crisis management with patience, care and professionalism, addressing unforeseen challenges with resilience and determination, ensuring minimal disruption to our operations and maintaining the highest level of customer satisfaction while making sure internal operations continued running smoothly and efficiently.
Due to the nature of the owner, this has proven to be one of the most challenging parts of the work, despite having a great team.
What does the client say?
Head of Business and Development
March 2022 - January 2023
Craig Robertson
Owner of Snowdog Arctic Adventures
July 2022 (after volunteering period, before real work started)
"Sanja came to join us towards the end of Winter, and we still had enough snow to enjoy a little Dog Sledding and some Snowmobile adventures. From her arrival, Sanja was enthusiastic and enamoured by our Huskies. She soon became one of the pack, and you could always find her somewhere with some of our dogs, grooming, playing, and generally spending quality time with them.
As we learned more surrounding Sanja's extensive skillset, she was able to offer much more than only caring for the dogs. Her photography, graphic design and video editing skills were a real blessing for us. Coupled with a firm understanding of Social Media Marketing, it produced an array of encapsulating media for us, which we continue to use as it has made significant results.
When Sanja was with us, we built the framework for our clients' elaborate, high-end tours from Lapland to Lofoten. She has contributed to many stages of planning and executing these sometimes complex and involved excursions, which continue to benefit our clients and us immensely.
We also had significant issues with our booking system and its integration into the website (which Sanja also rebuilt for us! :)). She assisted in guiding us through an intricate web of technology resulting in a successful restructure and organisational refit, resulting in many antiquated silos back in motion.
Overall, she is a kind, warmhearted and conscientious person with a strong and knowledgable work ethic, second to none. She can start working at 4 am or finish working at 4 am. She will try her best if something is interesting, beneficial, and worthwhile doing. The results for us were compelling. However, please don't ask her to cook :)"
