Are you cheap or frugal?

A number of years ago my wife and I wanted to go on a cruise. We met some owners of a CruiseOne franchise. I did a little graphic design work for them and got a little excited about the prospect of going on a cruise. We had never cruised before, but working with them got us a bit excited.

So, we started our discussions with them on where we wanted to go. We talked about Alaska, Hawaii and the Caribbean. We didn’t know what we wanted to do or where we wanted to go because we had never done it before.

We thought we made up our mind when doing some personal research until one of the owners came up with a brilliant plan for us.

So, we went on our cruise… a Disney Cruise with a land package at Disney World. It was, and remains, the best vacation that my wife and I have done in the eleven wonderful years of our marriage.

“But,” comes the question, “what does this have to do with being cheap or frugal?”

During my time working with CruiseOne, I learned some pretty interesting things about the cruise industry. I knew, from my personal experience, that had my wife and I been left to our own research, we would never have gone on a Disney Cruise. We would have picked the cheapest outfit and not had half the experience because the land part of the package was just as important as the sea part of the package. We never would have known what was possible.

We paid more to have a professional help us with the planning, but, in reality, we didn’t pay a lot more. The increase in cost was marginal. The increase in the value we received was immeasurable. We didn’t have to worry about wondering what to expect. Our agent helped set expectations and gave us advice on how to best optimize our budget when we were there.

We could have paid less by booking it ourselves. However, I am confident that we wouldn’t have gotten the same value for what we would have paid.

Being frugal means that you are smart with your budget. Being cheap means that you let the lowest cost be the primary factor in your decision.

Being frugal means that you will find the best value for your budget. Being cheap means that you will find the best cost for your budget.

As a business, you don’t want cheap customers… the other interesting thing about being cheap is that you tend to have greater expectations. Your customers that ask for a discount and shop you with everyone in town will almost always be the customers that will cause you the most headache. They are almost always the customers that will complain because you don’t know what you are doing when you are, in fact, the expert in your field.

If you are cheap, you will never get what you hope for. If you are cheap, you will never get the service you hope for.

If your customers are cheap, you will never provide them what they hope for. If your customers are cheap, you will never give them the service they hope for.

Oh… if you want to experience what it is like to cruise based on the advise of a professional and not based on the incomplete picture of some travel website, call my friend, Kris Washam.