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I enjoy watching the talent show American Idol. I often mentally vote for an eventual loser, but I also thought Frazier would last two weeks before the network pulled the plug. I went on record to forecast that Megan Mullally (Will & Grace) would last a little less than a New York minute.

Back to American Idol. I just love seeing talent. All those kids can sing. Most are very good. But why weren’t you up there sharing the spotlight?

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If you’ve been in this business for very long, it’s likely at some point you’ve found yourself completely overwhelmed with the things you’re supposed to do. Are you on social media? Do you have this app? What about this CRM? Have you done this online course? What about listening to this marketing pitch? It’s hard to know who to pay attention to, where to invest your money, and how to most wisely use the only asset you really have — your time. Read the rest of this entry »

Someone wrote a crappy review about us. Here’s what we did about it.

We’ve all had that client: one minute things are going along smoothly, and then suddenly things start to go south. Maybe you didn’t respond to an email quickly enough. Maybe a well-intentioned friend gave them advice that completely contradicts the advice that you gave them. But there’s nothing worse than that nagging feeling that your client has suddenly lost confidence in you. Read the rest of this entry »

When I started my business in November 2005 I didn’t really have much of a plan. I had a lot of hope, ambition, and education, but no real work experience in the industry, and wasn’t exactly sure of where I was headed.

When I look back at the last nine years, I’ve had a lot of successes and a handful of failures as well. Here are a few things I’ve learned along the way: Read the rest of this entry »

Last month I represented TRO in their booth at the Trade Show for Travel Weekly’s Cruise World 2011 and the Home Based Agent Show in Ft. Lauderdale. The best part of being at Trade Shows is the opportunity to meet agents from all over the US, Canada and even South America and showing them all the great tools TRO has to offer. If you haven’t already taken a look around the TRO site and utilized all they have to offer, you are missing some great stuff.
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In so many ways technology has shrunk the world over the past couple of decades.  Twenty to thirty years ago a travel agency owner in Poughkeepsie, New York would never had imagined having clients that didn’t actually live in Poughkeepsie.  Nor would they have ever thought they’d have agents working outside of the store front agency, possibly in a different state.  But those were the days before email, Facebook, cell phones, text messaging, and e-faxes.

Today it isn’t surprising to hear about agencies with clients and independent contractors spread out geographically.  This is great for travel professionals; not being tied to the well-being of the local economy in order to survive.  But at the same time, it provides some new challenges. Read the rest of this entry »

I recently attended Travel Weekly’s Leisure World and Home Based Agent Show in Atlantic City, and wow, what an experience!  It was a week chock full of fun, networking, and learning.  It was terrific to meet so many TRO members there, and to meet many people who will become TRO members!

I have always found trade shows to be beneficial on many different levels.  First, getting the chance to meet supplier representatives in person is very important.  Often, these are the same representatives who become your point of contact for that supplier: having a face to face relationship with them cannot be valued highly enough.  Understanding how a supplier’s product could fit into your product mix is vital to growing as a business and offering what your clients want from you.  Hearing about new experiences and new suppliers is an important part of the trade show, too: in fact, Atlantic City marked the debut in the United States of Wendy Wu Tours, a tour operator specializing in China and well-known in the United Kingdom.  Wendy Wu herself was present, and it was exciting to learn about her, her company, and explore the new options she presented. Read the rest of this entry »

Mustering up the capital resources and the time to attend a trade show so is surely no light matter. A travel agency’s investment in both travel and accommodations are often significant. Yet, the opportunities afforded by a travel trade show are considerable. Most importantly, travel agents can delve deeply into the tenor of the companies they select for their business partners. There are few venues that provide the opportunity for face-to-face evaluations of travel suppliers like a trade show especially considering the chance to compare notes on suppliers with other agents. Indeed, trade shows afford an almost unique opportunity to learn about new product.

The face-to-face experiences inherent in a trade show are very valuable to a professional travel counselor. Strong supplier relationships are an important component of a thriving travel practice, and there is no substitute for meeting a supplier representative in person to take the measure of his or her company. But there is also the additional benefit of interaction with your peers. Read the rest of this entry »

For those who were around in the late 90s, the travel mantra was fees, fees, fees. If you wanted to survive a reduced (and subsequently eliminated) commission environment, you needed to make it up in fees. And you needed to add some value to the transaction. Now we are in the early 10s and fees are now de rigueur. The old mantra has been replaced. Niche, niche, niche. But what happens when the carpet is pulled out from under you?

Richard Earls, publisher of Travel Research Online had a column discussing your “plan b” for when the unexpected happens—war, illness, recessions, terrorism, etc. Everyone needs to be prepared for the “what ifs” of our business. Richard’s examples were fairly immediate—if a volcano that no one can pronounce erupts in Iceland—we know about it pretty quickly and can react. But, are you able to react appropriately when something equally as significant sneaks up on you? Read the rest of this entry »

We interrupt your regularly scheduled diary to bring you this important update.

Last year, we launched the TRO Travel Agent Diary series which was an extremely popular column for TRO. If you recall, we followed the paths of Laura Frazier (Bliss Honeymoons), Nia Frieson (LK Cruises & Tours), Chuck Flagg (Cruise Holidays), Pat Saizan (Saizan’s Travel), and Mary Stephan (Allons Travel) as they tried to survive the horrors of 2009. Knowing that the travel industry is a fickle creature, we decided to check in and see how they are doing now that we already have a full quarter of 2010 in the books. And I have good news to report! Read the rest of this entry »

It seems like it was just a couple of weeks ago that I wrote my first agent diary article outlining my goals for 2009. While the calendar shows that nearly 12 months have passed, it hardly seems possible.

As you may recall, I had two major objectives this year-to gain 100 new clients in 100 days and to figure out what it would really take to complete all of my New Year’s resolutions. It became obvious by day 90 that my resolution was overly ambitious and I revised the goal to 100 new clients in the year! I am very excited to say that while I didn’t quite make it to 100 new clients, I did make it more than three quarters of the way there, exceeded my sales goals and surpassed last year’s sales. I also managed to mark off all but one of my resolutions off my list. Here’s how I did it: Read the rest of this entry »

Well, it is that time of year. The geese fly south and the bears go into hibernation. And believe it or not, so does TRO—but just for a little bit. As the year winds down, we ease up on our daily publishing, spend some time with our families, and focus on the loose ends that invariably exist in our own travel businesses.  About a month ago, we all celebrated Thanksgiving. Now we are in the midst of the December Holidays—Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and a few others I probably left off; but I want to take this time to offer my personal thanks to some individuals who have made working on TRO a true pleasure. Besides, my thanks can stay up for two weeks! Read the rest of this entry »

I see a lot of posts in the TRO Community as well as other boards about host agencies. There are a staggering number of opinions about what a host agency should provide and charge, and where to find a host agency that will give you 90% of your commissions without charging fees. What’s amazing to me is that while agents everywhere have implemented fees (and some only this year due to the down economy) due to the value that they bring to the table for their clients, so many are completely aghast at the thought of a commission split or fees shared with their host. Read the rest of this entry »

When I began this year, my number one New Year’s resolution was to learn about why people set goals, and then never reach them. Like you, I’ve made that list year after year, only to see it fall by the way side; usually around March.

When I look back at the last ten months or so, a lot has been accomplished. The new website is finally done thanks to our local website designer, and I couldn’t be more pleased with it. Read the rest of this entry »

The past few months have been intense. I think I have worked harder this past year than I have ever worked in my life, and I’m no slacker! But battling the economy, working with my slave driver of a marketing coach, and making over my marketing materials has been an exhausting experience.

I’ve learned some interesting things over the last nine months. I think the most interesting thing of all though, is that despite the economy, we did not change our business model. We have always required a deposit for our services before we start putting together prices and itineraries. That didn’t change.  Sales are up, and 78% of the people we’ve met with, Read the rest of this entry »

I’m in the travel business. Day after day I work diligently to help others take the most memorable trip of their lives. After all, they’ve just spent months on end working hard and planning a wedding. They deserve a rest that usually includes a great destination or property, lots of memories, and endless amounts of good food and drink.

I’ve done quite a bit of hard work myself these past few months. I made a commitment at the beginning of the year to try to double my sales, and accomplish every single one of my New Year’s resolutions. Some of what I set out to do was easy, and has already been checked off as finished. Some items are still a work in progress. Other projects got off to a great start, and then suddenly hit the wall. Read the rest of this entry »

A few weeks ago I made the decision to work with a marketing coach. While I had been hesitant to work with business coaches in the past, I had reached the point where I needed to maximize my business potential and to grow the services we can offer our clients, and felt that it was time to bring in someone outside the travel industry to give things a once over. Read the rest of this entry »

One of my goals for this year was to figure out why people set goals, and then never reach them.

Setting goals is easy. Sticking to them is not. Who hasn’t started a diet on Monday only to find themselves caving to the temptation of Cinnabon by Thursday? Who among us hasn’t sworn we’d pay off our debts or finish school, and then realized that we were no closer to meeting that goal than we were five years ago? It’s always been a mystery to me that when given the opportunity to do something that is completely within our control and would create a positive change in our lives, we can find a variety of excuses not to do it. But this year is my no excuses year. So rather than letting myself down, I decided to go for 100% completion of my resolutions. Some were easy, like fixing up my yard. Some were fun, like getting a puppy. But then I had the two tricky ones-starting an exercise program and getting 100 new clients this year. Read the rest of this entry »

The light bulb finally went on.  I have begun to realize that I allow potential clients to “pick my brains” and not give them a reason to book with me.  I have stopped hiding behind “how can they do this to me” and now understand that not all people think like me.  Certainly I would never gather information from someone like me and book elsewhere.  Well, while I would never do such a thing I have come to accept that the majority of people in this world will.  Thus the light bulb is now on. Read the rest of this entry »

In my first submission for the Agent Diary series I talked about my goal of having 100 new clients in 100 days. So far I’m over a third of the way there and I am very excited about how things are going! But there’s a long hard road between setting and reaching goals. While I’ve never been adverse to hard work, patience has never been my strong suit. Since success rarely happens overnight, I had to develop a strategy where I could actually “see” the end result.

I am a firm believer in two things when it comes to marketing. First, you have to be proactive and second, you need to plan. Usually the plan starts with a technique I’ve learned called “backwards planning”. Read the rest of this entry »

Like many of you at the beginning of each New Year I take some time to consider what I want to accomplish in the year ahead. Some of these things are very personal, but most of my goals had to do with business. When Richard Earls, Publisher of Travel Research Online, asked me to participate in the Travel Agent Diary Series, and document experiences throughout the year, I wasn’t sure how I felt about “putting it all out there”.  But if someone else can learn something from our experiences this year, I am game. Read the rest of this entry »