PLANNING TO VISIT PRINCETON?

As some of you may know, I've recently relocated to Princeton, NJ. Princeton is a great place to visit (and to live). It has everything you could ask for; culture, shopping, history, restaurants and of course, the University. In an effort to familiarize myself with the locale I came across a wonderful company that gives tours, Princeton Tour Company. It is owned and operated by Mimi Omiecinski. Princeton Tour Company is not your run-of-the-mill tour company. The tours are exciting and inventive. And you get a free cup of Starbucks! Among the offerings are bike tours, ghost tours, kids tours, pub crawls.......and there's different, fun stuff, like scavenger hunts, stroller tours, President tours, Einstein tours........and more!

When I met Mimi I was immediately impressed by her energy and enthusiasm and asked her if I could interview her for my blog. Here goes:

1. How did you first become involved with giving tours? My husband travels globally, and has for most of our marriage. I would tag along to places all over the world and take tours. We would stay an extra day and I would do a “best of” in each place. I’ve done “best of” tours for my #1 guy in London, Paris, Tokyo, Bangkok, Costa Rica, Rome, Venice …… you get it …. He travels A LOT so I got a lot of practice! When we moved here, I fell in love with town and thought I could manage running it and my family.

2. Is Princeton Tour Company your first entrepreneurial venture? Yes and no – My career positions landed me in development and serial start ups since I seem to do best with a blank canvas and a good idea. My first “real” job was as a social worker and my last “real” job was equity partner of a dental HMO we sold to United Healthcare. After we sold it, I took time to have a baby boy, Stosh and never could figure out a balance to go back with Steve’s schedule.

3. What did you do before Princeton Tour Company? I did healthcare and insurance – 24/7 until I had my son.

4. When did you move to Princeton? We moved here in 2005 – June – I think the movers arrived at 10:15am – that’s how excited I was to move here. 5. What do you love about Princeton? No, that’s too BROAD! I love everything! Make that EVERYTHING. I’ll TRY to give a top five and, remember, like any good love affair, it changes the more I learn!

• I love the merchants. They’re scrappy, hardworking, funny and tired all at the same time. Many are third generation owned so they have a legacy to protect. I’ve never worked beside a lot of retailers and, let me tell you, it’s a daily grind. It’s GREAT days and SCARY days – there’s no middle ground. If you ever have something you need and it’s in Princeton, I hope you’ll support my friends. I really admire the merchants.
• I love the service employees. My garbage guy has his Masters in Divinity. When you ask him why he doesn’t preach, he says he didn’t want to preach, he just wanted to know the information. One of the parking meter guys gives your kid candy when he sees you on the sidewalk (or, if you get the dreaded ticket!) THAT’S the kind of people who live and work in Princeton. To me, it’s the real Princeton……we have millionaires too. They give a lot back to the town too. More than anyone would guess. If you love the Princeton Public Library you should thank a millionaire or two in Princeton!

6. What are your most popular tours? Albert Einstein, Ghost Tours, Town/Gown, Movie, Literary Greats and Pub Crawls – in that order. We just developed Grub Crawls and I see those becoming a favorite too! 7. What are your personal favorite tours? The one I’ve just researched – I’m on the 007 Tour about all the spies in Princeton and it shocks and thrills me so I’ll be into that for the Fall. There’s not a bad tour in Princeton – the place is absolutely, knock your socks off special. Seriously, there’s not another 2 square miles that could challenge Princeton’s story. It’s just too good. 8. Do you give tours in any other towns/cities? Nope and never will. It wouldn’t feel sincere. I have people call me about franchising and I just give’m a list of my local vendors and tell’m to call me when they get turned around. As long as they use my local providers, I’ll consult for free. 9. Where do you advertise? We don’t take tips but we count on word of mouth. We couldn’t keep the price at $10 and $20 with advertising. I don’t want this to get so expensive people can’t afford to know about Princeton. We’re banking on interviews like this! (thanks!) 10. Any plans for expansion? Not unless you mean more types of tours. There’s enough for lifetimes of tours within Princeton. I don’t see us trying to take over the world with this. I just want to be the crazy hometown tour lady …… I’m at a stage where my identity has morphed past just “me” and “my family” …. “community” is huge for Steve, Stosh and I. 11. What advice do you have for other women in business? I’m not good at advice at all! I fly WAY too much by the seat of my pants! I need it so if someone reads this and has some ideas, I’m all ears! 12. What else would you like to say about your company? It’s fun to find a channel for my passions and I hope it shows in the tours and the silly blog.

-------- Well, I hope this whets your appetite for a visit! See you soon!

P.S. The tour photos are from the genius tour and the stroller tour.