For advisors past $4 million

You built a $5 million business. The next five is a different job.

Up to here, growth came from being very good at the work. From here it comes from hiring, managing, and building the systems that let other people do the work your way. Some advisors want that job and some don't. Either way, you shouldn't have to build a company to make the choice.

See the two paths Write to Will

Confidential. Your host, your consortium and your suppliers hear nothing from us.

The ceiling

One person tops out around here.

At this volume you are probably working more hours than you did at $2 million, not fewer. The design work, the part you are best at and the part clients pay you for, is maybe a third of the week. The rest is documents, payment chasing, supplier follow-up, commission reconciliation, and the phone at 2am when a flight out of Papeete is cancelled.

The usual advice is to hire. An associate, then an assistant, then someone to handle the books. Each hire takes months to find and train, needs software, needs covering when they are away, and turns you a little more into a manager. That is a real business to build, and it is a different job from the one you are good at.

There are two honest ways out of this. You can do less of the work that isn't yours and keep most of the income, or you can grow without being the one who builds the machine.

Two paths

Decide which job you want.

Path one

Work less, keep the income

You keep the clients you love and the design work you are best at. Everything around it moves to us: the operational load on every trip, and the clients you no longer have time to do properly. The aim is most of your current income on a fraction of the hours.

How the lifestyle path works

Path two

Grow it, without building a company

You lead a team inside OTA. The platform, the back office, the accounting and the after-hours coverage already exist. Lean on our team for support, or hire your own and we back them up. Either way you add capacity, not infrastructure.

How the growth path works

Or neither. If you are happy where you are, stay there. A $5 million solo practice is a very good business, and nothing on this page is meant to talk you out of it.

Either way

What comes off your desk on day one.

Both paths start from the same place: the work around each trip that isn't design and isn't the relationship. Here is who does it here.

Travel documents and itineraries: Published to the client's own portal and app. They stop emailing you for the PDF.
Deposits, final payments and planning fees: Requested and collected online, with saved cards, and posted to the books automatically.
Flight changes while clients are traveling: Flights are watched around the clock. A delay or cancellation raises an alert and a rebooking task before the client reaches the gate.
Destination disruption: When a cyclone, strike or supplier failure hits, we can list every affected traveler in minutes and work the list.
Your weeks away: Coverage is formally delegated with handover notes, so a vacation does not mean your phone on the beach.
Commission chasing and reconciliation: Host commission statements are reconciled line by line against bookings. You see what is paid, what is due and what is missing.

Path one

Work less, keep the income.

Split is the wrong number to compare here. What you are buying is hours back, so the number that matters is what you take home per hour worked. Three levers move it.

1
Keep the top of the book
In most books a third of the households produce two-thirds of the commission, and they are usually the clients you enjoy. Keep them. The rest come to us under a referral arrangement: we do the work, and you are paid on everything they book.
2
Charge for the planning
Clients who value your design will pay for it, and a planning fee is income that doesn't depend on a supplier's commission schedule. We collect it online when the trip is confirmed, and it goes on the books with everything else.
3
Stop carrying the trip
Documents, payments, flight changes, disruption and cover for your time off all run through the platform above, and OTA's shared team does the support work around them, so there is nobody for you to hire. You stay the person the client calls about the trip. You stop being the person who chases the deposit.

An illustration, in round numbers

$5 million of sales at 12% is $600,000 of commission across 150 households. Keep the 50 that produce $400,000 of it. Charge a $1,500 planning fee on their 60 or so trips a year: $90,000. Refer the other 100 households to us at 25% of what they book; if 70% of them stay, that is about $35,000. That comes to $525,000 of revenue from looking after a third as many people.

Illustrative only. Your own split, fee level and retention will differ, and the first call is where we work out yours.

Path two

Grow it, without building a company.

Doubling a $5 million book means people, and people need a company around them. This is the list of what you would have to build, and what already exists here on day one.

What you would have to build	Here
Client-facing tech: portal, app, itineraries, documents	Running today
Payments: deposits, final payments, fees, saved cards	Running today
Accounting: commissions, supplier bills, general ledger	Running today
After-hours: flight watches, disruption desk	Running today
Coverage when someone is sick or away	Running today
Accreditation, host and consortium	GTC and Virtuoso, as we book
Support staff	Ours, yours, or both: see below

Two ways to staff it

Growing does not have to mean hiring. Some advisors would rather never manage anyone, and that is a perfectly good way to run this.

Lean on our team

You hire nobody. OTA's shared team handles your support work: servicing bookings, documents, payments, supplier follow-up and help while clients are traveling. You spend your time on design, sales and the relationships, and your capacity grows without a payroll.

Bring your own, backed by ours

You hire the people, and we onboard them and train them on the same systems as everyone here. They work under your team, with your name on the door if you want it. Our shared team covers the gaps: before your first hire, when someone is away, and when the season outruns the team.

You can start on one and move to the other, in either direction.

Either way, what you do is the part only you can do: set the standards, design the trips, and keep the relationships that matter most. If you build a team, you are paid on what they book as well as what you book yourself.

The arrangements

Two structures, and you can start small in either.

Splits at this level are agreed individually, so we don't publish a number to bid against. The structures are the same for everyone.

Path oneIf you want your hours back

The lifestyle arrangement

You affiliate with us and keep the clients you choose, at a top-producer split. The rest of the book transitions to us at your pace under the referral terms, and the operational load on every trip moves onto the platform.

On clients you keep: Top-producer split, set on the first call
On clients you refer: 25% of net commission for 3 years, then 10%
Planning fees: Collected online, posted to your books
Commitment: Start with a handful of clients

Path twoIf you want to build

The team arrangement

You grow inside OTA. Your own book is on a top-producer split. Your support comes from our shared team, from people you hire, or both, and if you build a team you earn an override on everything they book. We carry the infrastructure; you carry the standards.

On your own clients: Top-producer split, set on the first call
Support: Our shared team, your hires, or both
If you build a team: An override on every booking they make
Infrastructure: Ours: platform, back office, after-hours

And when you do eventually stop

Everything you build here, your own clients and your team's, can convert into the Legacy Program on a formula we agree at the start. You make the hard decision once, while it is still hypothetical, and the business you grow is worth something to you on the way out.

Read about the Legacy Program

Straight answers

What top producers ask first.

I'm already with a host agency. Does this mean moving?

For either path, yes, eventually: the clients you keep would be booked through us. Read your current agreement before we talk. A few have non-solicit clauses or notice periods, and those shape the timing. You can start with a handful of clients under a referral arrangement, which needs no move at all, and decide on the rest once you have seen us work.

Why not just compare splits?

Because the split only tells you how a commission is divided, not what it costs you to earn it. A higher split where you do every task yourself can pay less per hour than a lower one where the trip runs without you. Compare what you take home against the hours it takes, or against what it would cost to build the team yourself.

Do I lose my brand?

No. If your name means something to your clients, it stays on the door, as part of OTA. Your clients keep dealing with you.

I already have an assistant. What happens to them?

They come with you if you want them to. We onboard them onto the same systems as everyone here. On the growth path, an existing assistant can be the first member of your team.

Do I have to hire anyone? Will you find people for me?

No to both. If you build a team, it should be people you chose, because they carry your standards to your clients. You hire them, and we onboard and train them on the platform. But you don't have to hire anyone. If you would rather never manage staff, hand all of your support work to OTA's shared team. That works just as well.

Can I try it before deciding anything?

Yes, and we would rather you did. Send us a few clients under the referral terms, or run a few of your own trips through the platform, and see how much of your week comes back. Nothing else needs to be decided.

What do you get out of this?

Good production on our platform, from someone who already knows how to look after luxury clients. And, eventually, the chance to keep looking after those clients for a long time. We would rather earn that over years than pay for it all at once later.

Bring last year’s numbers and an hour.

Tell us your volume, roughly how your week splits, and which of the two jobs you would rather have. We will tell you what either path would look like for you, or that you are better off where you are.

Write to Will directly

legacy@otadventures.com· Every enquiry is confidential

Arrangements described here are a starting point for a conversation, not an offer capable of acceptance, and specific splits and overrides are agreed individually. Figures in the illustration are round numbers chosen to show the arithmetic, not a forecast. Any agreement should be reviewed by your own attorney and accountant, particularly on your existing host agreement, accreditation, and seller-of-travel registration.