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How to Start a Travel Agency
or Tour Operator Business
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How to Start a Travel Agency
Think of your favorite spot to travel and combine it with an activity you love to do... and get paid to do it! You can live your ultimate vacation year-round as a tour operator by sharing your interests with others - trekking, sailing, horseback riding, rafting, fishing, biking, camping - you name it!
Or you can take advantage of many travel discounts simply by working out of your home as a travel agent - create your own hours, flex-time for travel or even work as you travel with an internet-based business! This is such a rewarding field with lots of perks - no wonder entrepreneurs flock to the travel industry to start their dream careers.
Professional Travel Consultant Julie Botteri has years of travel business experience, and she shares the ins and outs of the travel industry, showing you exactly what you need to succeed.
Julie shows you:
- How to acquire key skills, what training you need and where to get it
- Steps to making a booking for your client, how to work with suppliers and how to establish relationships that get you higher commissions
- Secrets to getting clients, including low-cost options, high-volume business travel & special interest groups
- Get Started >> How to Start a Travel Agency
How to Start Home Based Travel BusinessesHome based travel businesses are no longer the wave of the future. Home travel businesses are the hot trend right now. So if you're considering becoming a travel agent, this brief guide will provide you with information you need to know.
First, there are generally two types of home travel businesses:
Home based travel businesses that fall into the referral agency category do just that: they refer people to a travel agency. They may have several agencies they refer people to, but most generally have one travel agency that they work with on a regular basis.
- Referral agencies
- Booking and selling agencies
In return for the referrals from a home based business travel agent, the travel agency pays a referral fee or commission percentage on what the travel agency receives from the supplier. Part-time referral agents can earn up to $500 on each sale, and sometimes even more.
The home based travel businesses that fall into the booking and selling agencies category usually work with one travel agency. These booking and selling travel agencies actually do the booking and planning involved in making all the necessary arrangements for great trips.
These are people who enjoy attending to all the little details. They serve, more or less, as facilitators between their clients and a travel agency. Booking and selling home based travel business agents earn a lot higher percentage of the overall commission; but they DO do a great deal more work. A full-timer at this, however, can earn $50,000 or more a year.
Some things you want to consider before you decide to open your own home based travel business are:
Once you've answered all or at least most of these questions, you will need to make a business plan, outlining the steps you'll have to take to achieve your goal of having your own home based travel business. And a plan just isn't any good unless you follow it.
- Do I need any special training or education?
- Should I pursue this part-time or full-time?
- Is my family supportive of my decision?
- Do I have a room in my home where I can set up an office?
- Should I get an extra phone line?
- What sort of office equipment do I need?
- What will I do about accounting?
- How do I manage my tax needs?
- Is this a job I will love?
- How much money do I want to make?
- Should I do any advertising?
- Do I have the contacts I need to pursue this business opportunity?
- If I don't, how do I make the contacts I need?
- Am I willing to put the necessary effort into this business?
- Does my state require me to have a business license?
You also need to make sure your business plan is realistic. If you have to take a course to run the type of travel agent home business you want to have, deciding to open up shop next week isn't reasonable. By being realistic in your business plan, you will save yourself an untold amount of frustration as you start and grow your business.
And starting your own business, whether it's a cruise travel home business or a European vacation home travel business, can be frustrating. Be prepared for obstacles to raise their ugly little heads when you least expect them to, and roll with them as much as you can.
Your goal is to offer superior, professional travel services. Don't let a cranky client get to you. Always keep a pleasant, cheerful demeanor. You can scream later. Better yet, you have a laugh or two over it with friends, while sipping a glass of fine wine that you bought with the money you've earned as a home based business travel agent.
Copyright Randy Wilson, All Rights Reserved | Randy is owner of Profitable Home Businesses. For more information on Successful Businesses check out Home Based Businesses. Randy owned and operated a very successful storefront/mailorder business from 1988 to 2003. Currently full time owner/operator of several online businesses
Complete Idiot's Guide to Running a Bed & Breakfast
Bed & Breakfast owners get to enjoy the pride of ownership and share their own personal business creation with interesting people from all over the world everyday. This is a fun, social business that you can run in a home-like setting which offers many tax benefits.
Author Park Davis is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America and bought, rehabbed and sold several guesthouses before finally settling in Provincetown, where he now runs his own luxurious Bed & Breakfast.
This is a valuable business guide, because the author has not specialized in just one aspect of operating a bed & breakfast, but includes steps A to Z for building the business. Start here >> Start a Bed & Breakfast Business
More Travel Business Resources:
4,500+ Professionally-Written Business, Sales and Marketing Letters
Instantly professionalize your business with minimal effort using foolproof sample business letters and writing guidelines. You'll get more done in less time with this cutting-edge software that we think is absolutely cool! An asset to any travel agency business.
Finding Travel Clients
Internet Marketing for Your Tourism Business
If you plan to work from home, most likely you'll want to take advantage of the internet for its low-cost advertising benefits.
The reason I like this guide is that is narrows down advertising techniques specifically to the tourism business: you'll spend less time and money on the "trial and error" method of marketing.
With this 5 Star Guide, you'll be able to:
- Get search engine and directory listings and develop a traffic-pulling links strategy
- Use tourism newsgroups to reach your target market & win awards and use them to promote your site
- Over 10 ways to find great mailing lists & use email to effectively find new clients
- Get started >> Travel Business Marketing Secrets
Advertise Your Travel Business Online
If you have a vacation property, a tour business or travel service, you can get access to millions of interested customers online with a travel directory like RealAdventures. Find customers who have money to spend and want help planning a vacation. It can't get much easier than this. Start here >> Get customers for your travel businessFind Customers by Giving Away Freebies!
ThisPromoWorks has lots of cool items that you can customize with your logo - hand them out to prospective customers, and they'll think you're cool too! This is an easy way to invite a client to do business with you. Start here >> Design Your Own Freebies
How to Attract More Customers to Your Travel Business
If you can't find customers to your buy your travel services, your business will never survive. The good news is that finding new clients doesn't have to be hard: simply use the techniques that the experts have learned.
Small Business Marketing Expert David Frey has been around for as long as I can remember. He has helped thousands of small business owners find new clients (including myself).
He gives you all the information you need to find customers, get the to buy more and to keep the coming back to purchase from you again and again. You don't have to buy lots of books, pay for expensive courses or seminars or even hire a costly rep to promote your company. David Frey makes it easy and affordable (and even fun) to find the customers yourself. I highly recommend his website to any small business owner starting out.
Visit David's website and get a free marketing newsletter >> Small Business Marketing Strategies
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