Home Based Travel Agent Part Five is about knowing what involves to be a Home Based Travel Agent and setting realistic goals to avoid disappointment...
If this is all sounding too good to be true, I know exactly
how you feel.
I felt the same way. In fact, I still feel that
way.
Part of me keeps wondering when I'll find "the catch."
So far there doesn't seem to be one.
But if what you've read
on this site has pumped you up too much so far, perhaps it's
time to bring you down to earth a bit.
If there is a catch to the new travel game, it's letting your
goals outstrip your gumption.
Another way of saying that is
you've got to determine, first, what you want out of your
travel business and, second, if you have what it takes in
terms of skills, time, commitment, and whatever to get it.
So
the first step is top get clear on your goals.
As I mentioned
in Lesson Three, there are any number of ways to go: "There
are home based travel agents who earn pin money, home-based
travel agents who earn a tidy part-time income, home based
travel agents who bring down a substantial middle-class
income, and home based travel agents who earn six-figure
incomes."
My advice is to restrain yourself from being over-
ambitious or over-optimistic.
If you set realistic, reachable
goals , you can always "up the ante" later and be joyful in
doing so.
On the other hand, if you have unrealistic goals,
it can be very disheartening to have to scale them back.
The next step is to determine whether you have what it takes
to reach your goals, whatever they may be.
To help guide your
thinking as you ponder whether you want o proceed and perhaps
purchase my home-study course, let me share some thoughts
that may help you put all this in perspective:
Those who make large sums of money selling travel work very
hard and earn every penny.
How much money a person makes and
how hard they have to work to make it, varies from person to
person.
Some people have more time to devote to their travel
business than others.
Some have more drive and determination
than others.
Some folks are natural salespeople; others will
have to work harder to hone their skills.
It may sound like a
cliché, but how much money you make is up to you.
I certainly
can't predict how much you'll make, but I can guarantee you
that if you think you can make a small fortune working just a
half hour a day while watching television, you'll be
disappointed.
The statistics tell us that the majority of new businesses
fail in a year or two.
There's no reason to expect that your
travel business won´t meet the same fate.
The saving grace is
that, if you follow my strategies, you will not lose more
money than you can afford in a failed venture.
Also, if you
decide being independent is not for you, you should have
enough of a track record to make you an attractive employee
for a local agency.
It's quite possible to use my strategies
knowing you'll earn just a few hundred dollars a year.
If
that's fine for you, then every thing's okay. Of course, you
can also seek to make selling travel a moneymaker. And that's
fine, too.
Whatever else you are selling, you are selling customer
satisfaction.
If you have never worked in a setting in which
you had to "please the public," you may be surprised at how
much people will expect from you and how readily they'll
blame you for things over which you have no control.
Believe
me, if the toilet in the luxury hotel in Rio backs up and
overflows, it's your fault!
Most people who go into business have at least some bad
experiences. I certainly can't guarantee that you won't have
some of your own.
You may just accept problems as a natural
part of life.
I think that's a healthy attitude.
On the other
hand, you may decide that the kinds of problems that tend to
come up in this business aren't worth whatever you're getting
out of it.
So be it.
For those who are truly serious, my home
study course discusses in depth some of the things that can
go amiss and some ways you can protect yourself.
No matter how glamorous travel may be, to make real money at
it you have to sell.
That means looking for new customers,
finding out what their travel needs are, presenting them with
attractive options, answering their questions, dealing with
their objections, and, above all, asking them to part with
their hard-earned money.
I happen to have a background in sales and marketing. In
fact, over the years I have trained hundreds of salespeople
in a variety of industries.
I know from experience that
selling is a skill and that like any skill it can be learned.
I also know from experience that not everyone is cut out for
selling.
It's not so much that they can't, it's just that,
for whatever reason, they find out they don't enjoy it that
much.
You may be one of those people.
Above all, here are no guarantees.
I can show you every trick
in the book (and I do!), but ultimately the only one who can
guarantee your success is you.
Now that we´ve eliminated the faint of heart, we´re ready for the last lesson in which we´ll discuss the secrets of successful home based travel agents...
This mini-course on becoming a home-based travel agent is
brought to you by the Home Based Travel Agent Resource Center
and The Intrepid Traveler, publisher of a comprehensive home
study course for home based travel agents.
Copyright © Kelly Monaghan
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