There was so much good advice at the Avoya Million Dollar Expo in Seattle last week that I guess you just had to be there to absorb it all. But here are some highlights:

You don’t have a responsibility to tell your clients about commonly known issues like COVID, says travel attorney Mark Pestronk, but if you read in the trade press (where a client would not normally be) that a supplier is having financial problems, you do have a legal responsibility to advise your customers. Have them sign a disclaimer (there are several on his website, Law Offices of Mark Pestronk, P.C. – The Travel Law Office – Legal help for Corporate Travel – Online Travel Agencies – Home Based Independent Travel Contractors). And for heaven’s sake protect your assets from disgruntled clients and the IRS with an LLC. E&O insurance in most cases covers damages but not legal expenses, which can add up to $50,000 in a case that involves death or injury. Always sign contracts in the name of the LLC and not your own—and note that if you deduct travel expenses as a business expense, you are five times more likely to be audited if you file on Schedule C than if you file as an LLC.

Grow your business by creating a simple referral program of some kind. Reach out to your Pied Pipers and incentivize them to talk about you. And don’t forget to celebrate them, perhaps on a Facebook page for only your top customers. In any case, always send an email asking for feedback and for referrals when clients return from a trip. (Travel advisor Carri Kersten, of Carri Kersten Travel Design, told me that during Covid she raffled off a $10 gift certificate to a local business to anyone who shared her Facebook posts or tagged a friend. In return for an $80 expenditure over eight weeks, her followers quadrupled, from 500 to 2,100.)

Keep two questions top of mind when meeting with suppliers: Does my client base have synergy with your product? And, can you help me develop a client base that matches your product?

Celebrity’s new round of shorter Caribbean cruises that stop at Perfect Day in CocoCay offers travel advisors a great opportunity to try the ever-improving product. While you might not think of RCCL’s private island as a perfect fit for Celebrity clients, the itineraries included have seen a high number of immediate bookings as soon as they are announced.

Need a little inspiration? Envision how other people’s lives are better because you are living your dream, says keynote motivational speaker Lucia Onieva (Life and Relationship Coach | Lucia G Onieva | Life Aligned). Write down your dream and then “bring your people into your dream” by visualizing how it will positively your family and your customers.

Don’t overlook the value of selling air. Every single day travel advisors have to prove their value to their customers, and part of that proposition is having a conversation about air. Things will go wrong and you will have to be an advocate for your customers, but you can charge the customer and also retain them by being their airline and travel document advisor.

The headline read: “All Indications Point Toward a Banner Year For Travel Professionals According to James T. Bigelow”

You don’t know the writer, and he doesn’t know you. Yet I am quite certain that you are feeling better about your travel business knowing there is a bright light at the end of the tunnel. Things are looking up, according to some person known as an “authority.” In this case it’s James T. Bigelow Read the rest of this entry »

Today’s lesson comes via the Bassett Hospital waiting room. My wife is in receiving a follow up x-ray after a recent leg injury. (Let’s keep your hang nail pains in perspective.) A magazine titled Golf Journal was left on a chair, so I decided to thumb through the pages. That is when an article on page 48 caught my attention. It was titled STRESS LESS. Message: Article ideas come from anywhere and everywhere. Read the rest of this entry »

One of the more bazaar self-induced challenges I experienced in my life came during the summer of 1970. I had just completed my sophomore year. I was home from the University of Massachusetts, jobless and growing more restless by the minute. That’s when I decided to test my survival instincts by grabbing a crisp $100 bill and began heading west in my pale blue Chevy Malibu sedan.

At the last minute, I decided to “swing by” the Boston area and talk my college football teammate into joining me. He gave a 24-hour notice to his job at 7-11 and grabbed a C-note of his own. I have since looked unfavorably at such expeditious job notices. (That was the exact moment his mother began to dislike me and the influence I had on her son.)

My Malibu 287 4-speed had plenty of rubber at the time and enough power to get us to Read the rest of this entry »