Becoming a Home-Based Travel Agent, Part 5:
Five Good Reasons NOT To Become A Home-Based Travel Agent
Copyright © Kelly Monaghan,
http://www.HomeTravelAgency.com
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:
**This is no get-rich-quick scheme.
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.
**It's a business.
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 everything's okay. Of course, you can also seek to make
selling travel a moneymaker. And that's fine, too.
**It's a service business.
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 Nairobi backs up and
overflows, it's your fault!
**Things go wrong.
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.
**It involves selling.
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. Lesson
Six
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.
For more information,
visit today.
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