Monthly Archives: January 2024

Top Tips For Becoming A Home Based Travel Agent

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Of all the home-based business possibilities, it’s hard to imagine one that’s more fun or potentially profitable than operating a home-based travel agency.

Not only do you get the enjoyment of sending people off on their dream vacation, but you earn a good commission for selling services that you do not have to actually provide yourself. What could be better than that?

If you’d like to become a home-based travel agent, and enjoy discounted or even free trips for yourself as well, then the following Top Tips For Becoming A Home Based Travel Agent will get you started in the right direction.

1. Affiliate with a legitimate host agency that has all of the required certifications.

The most successful home-based travel agents are independent contractors who work with a host agency. You use the host agency’s resources and established relationships to tap into their network of travel vendors and suppliers. It’s important that your host agency has the proper industry credentials and that they have a program in place that allows you to use those credentials in order to establish yourself as a legitimate travel agency.

As a home based travel agent you need certain credentials like the CLIA card. CLIA stands for the Cruise Line Industry Association. This industry-recognized credential allows you special agent rates on discounted cruises and offers a whole array of benefits to you and your customer.

To be recognized as a travel agency most host agencies are usually bonded and accredited through ARC/IATAN. ARC was established by the travel industry to provide prompt, efficient, and secure distribution and settlement of travel purchased in the U.S. IATAN-International Airlines Travel Agent Network endorses travel agents and provides the IATAN ID card, which identifies you as a U.S.- based travel sales professional.

If you are considering working with a host agency that doesn’t provide you with their IATAN/ARC number, and other required credentials, move on and select one that does.

2. Choose a host travel agency that provides comprehensive training

Even though you are an independent home-based travel agent, you still need professional quality training so you know how to operate in the travel industry as well as what you are and are not allowed to do.

Getting up-to-date on the best places to travel, tourism trends, and how to fulfill the needs of your customer is vital to your travel business. You want to choose a host travel agency that offers comprehensive training and courses on various travel services, products, marketing, etc.

For some host agencies, taking a course or training is necessary in order to be eligible for certain travel credentials. And, although it is not required to book travel, your job will go much easier and you’ll develop more repeat business, if you are well-trained and well-informed.

3. Choose a host travel agency that will help you promote your business.

Don’t choose a travel company that does not offer some assistance with marketing your travel business. The best ones will offer a turn-key website or online booking engine for your clients to use when booking their travel.

Even better are the travel companies that also provide you with automated marketing tools such as auto responders to handle email campaigns and promotions.

You’ll save money, and gain more customers, if you partner up with a host travel agency that provides ready-made templates to print business cards, postcards, flyers, etc. These are all the tools in your marketing arsenal that will help you get the word out about your home-based travel business.

4. Choose a host travel agency that handles ALL of the travel details for you.

Most host agencies handle all the booking and routine travel details for your clients, but what happens if a name is misspelled on a plane ticket or your customer wants a refund? Find out what type of customer support is available and read their policies carefully before you sign on as a home-based travel agent.

At a minimum, look for:

How long your host agency has been in business and if they are reputable.
24/7 telephone support, not just e-mail or web-based.
Clear and easy-to-understand refund and cancellation policies.
A track record of speedy resolution to customer service issues.

5. Choose a host travel agency with a fair commission policy.

Notice that money is not mentioned as the #1 thing to look for when you’re choosing a host travel agency. Sure, the commission is important; it’s how you get paid. But the best commission policy in the world does you no good if the host travel company that you choose to partner with is not aboveboard and honest.

Once you have found a travel company that meet the requirements of items 1-4, it’s time to check their commission policy. Here’s what to look for:

Make sure that you know exactly how much commission you earn on every travel product you offer through your host agency. Be sure to find out if you earn commissions for add-on sales like trip cancellation insurance or lost luggage insurance. The best host travel agency partners pay you a piece of everything you sell.

Be sure you know what their commission chargeback policy is when a client cancels a trip or seeks a refund.

Find out at which point your commission actually gets locked in. Is it when the sale is made; when the client debarks on their trip, or when they return?

Find out how long it takes to get paid. Some agencies pay Net 30, some pay longer. Whatever the payment period is, make sure you can live with it.

6. Choose a host travel agency with the best perks for you

The opportunity to go on a FAM trip is the most appealing benefit to travel agents. FAM trips are short for familiarization trips’. These are special trips specifically for the travel agent. These trips are offered by hotels, cruise lines, convention and visitor bureaus, and tour companies.

The intent of the trip is to familiarize the agent with the product or service so that they can then sell the service or product to their clients. By experiencing the product, agents can sell it more effectively.

These trips are either totally free or have a small cost involved to cover the expense of the trip. These FAM trips are offered at a huge discount compared to what it would cost to the average consumer. If your host agency doesn’t offer FAM trips, you should think about finding one that does.

Also, since you will be working out of home and on your own, medical insurance plans or group coverage plans are sometimes offered. Check to see if the agency you are considering has a group plan that you can buy into. Group plans are usually less expensive than buying medical insurance on your own.

Some final thoughts

Owning your own travel business means you can take advantage of many tax breaks. Deductions are allowed for you initial investment, home office expenses, cell phone and land lines, automobile, computer, fax machine, insurance, and other equipment. In addition, when you travel anywhere in the world, it’s a business expense!

Overall, becoming a home-based travel agent has some major perks and benefits. The important thing is to find a good host agency and become familiar with your product so that you can offer the best travel experience for your customers. Doing this will keeps a consistent flow of repeat and new business coming your way.

Good luck and Bon Voyage!

Juice Plus Scam Or Legitimate Home Based Business

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Juice Plus is one of the more larger Health and Wellness companies out there and the demand for their products appear to be growing despite some wailing ‘Juice Plus Scam’. But is Juice Plus the right opportunity for you and is it really a scam? Read this article to find out if it’s worth your precious time.

What Is Juice Plus?

Juice Plus is a line of dietary supplements that contain fruit and vegetable extracts with added vitamins and other nutrients.

Juice Plus was introduced to the world in 1993 and the owners decided that it would be best to sell these products through Direct Sales or Multilevel Marketing.

Juice Plus is advertised as ‘The Next Best Thing To Fruit And Vegetables’ as you can imagine this has created controversy and has attracted the attention of consumer watchdog organizations who say this kind of advertising is misleading.

I’d just like to say at this point, from a business stand point this may actually be good. Having a product that attracts and creates controversy has worked well for this company so far by attracting attention to it.

Products

The Primary products in this line of branded dietary supplements are Orchard Blend and Garden Blend. Orchard blend is a powder based fruit juice and garden blend is a powder based vegetable juice. These products can be bought at a cost of $167 for 4 month supply.

Other supplement products in this line include, Vineyard blend a powder based berry/grape juice, gummies, meal replacement powders, soft chewables, capsules, chewable tablets, Juice Plus Thins(wafers) and even a vitamin formulation for cats and dogs.

There have been criticism from some that go along the lines of ‘this doesn’t work’ or ‘there is no scientific evidence’. First understand that these products are SUPPLEMENTS and are meant to be supplemental to what you are doing now.

In the 21st century we live a hectic lifestyle and don’t have enough time to pay attention to the ins and outs of healthy eating. Juice Plus solves a problem, it negates the need of having to boil vegetables and buy fruits day in and day out(that being said you should eat fruit and vegetables when you can).

Using supplements like this can help all of us reach the 5 a day and bridge the nutritional gap between what we should be eating everyday and what we do eat everyday.

Business Model

The business model revolves around MLM or Multi level Marketing for those that don’t like acronyms.

Products are sold and marketed through independent distributors who receive sales commissions form sales made.

Ranging from 6% for enrolling 5 customers in 30 days to 14% for enrolling 20 customers in 30 days.

Some Of The Things I Don’t Like

This is an MLM company and as such takes a long time for real financial dreams to come to realization. Most people don’t treat MLM for what is is, something that accrues net worth over time much like a mutual fund or a cd.

With that being said however the compensation plan leaves something to be desired. 6% for enrolling 5 customers in 30 days? That is challenging even for the most taxing of industry comp plans.

Couple this with the fact that 99% fail in this industry and you quickly come to understand that most people don’t have the tenacity of a bull headed and thick skinned slick rick-salesman.

So instead of tackling this problem the training provided is the thing that makes everyone fail in the first place.

Posting Flyers, 3-foot rule prospecting, meetings, buying leads, cold calling are effective methods reserved for a select few and when I say a select few I mean it, how is 1%.

However…..you can make this work for you if you can get people asking you about your business on a daily basis. That’s right anyone in Network Marketing worth their salt know that it is far more effective to attract people, become the hunted instead of the hunter.

This is called Attraction Marketing and all the top earners use this method. When you attract people they go into business with you and not your company.

When you set yourself apart from all the peddlers that are marketing replicating websites and offering a business opportunity on the front end then you are a leader.

If you use Attraction Marketing it won’t matter if your company is shut down or you have people leaving your downline because you’ll have a constant flow of leads coming to you on a daily basis by providing leadership.

The Juice Plus scam doesn’t actually exist. The reason most people fail is that they pursue this business in the same way as the 1% at the top. It’s time to stop cold calling and prospecting every man and his dog on the streets.

Attraction Marketing is the way forward.

Home Based Business Scams – Tips on Avoiding Them

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Maybe the reason you’re interested in setting up a home business is because you’ve seen an ad that perked your interest or you were approached by a friend or colleague about a great home business money-making opportunity and those entrepreneurial juices started to flow. Your imagination starts to flow and dreams of quitting your job fill your every thought.

Hello, hey, ok… time to stop dreaming. I hate to burst your bubble or stop your fantasy ride but before you give your boss a piece of your mind there’s a few things you need to consider.

First, you need to realize that probably 99% of all home business / work from home offers out there are flat out scams. After all, if it was that easy to pay a few dollars and make thousands, wouldn’t everyone be doing it by now and why tell you about it?

Below I’ve listed and briefly discussed how to recognize and avoid a few of the biggest scams out there.

Location Location Location Check out every offer and assume it’s a scam until you have iron-clad proof that it’s not. A few things to consider are: Where did you see that work from home offer? If you got it by traditional mail or by email or saw it on a poster taped around a telephone pole, then I can guarantee you right now that it’s not a legitimate offer. On the other hand, if you saw the ad in a newspaper, in a jobs magazine or on a jobs website, then it’s a little more likely to be legit – but not necessarily.

Envelope Stuffing Will this scam ever end? Well, not until people stop falling for it. This is the most established work-from-home scam of all time and it’s been going on for what seems like forever now. How it works is that once you pay your money and sign up to work from home, you are sent a set of envelopes and ads just like the one you responded to. The whole idea is to simply get names of people who are interested in home business ops and get a quick buck. You could make a little money if you mail to the right mailing list but don’t count it. Work from home offers like this are simply illegal pyramid schemes. You will not make money putting letters into envelopes – so get over it and move on!

Shoddy Supplies The practice of charging for supplies is hard to pin down to any one scam – it’s a common most work-at-home scams work (including the envelope stuffing scam mentioned above). You’ll be asked to make a minimal “investment” for whatever materials will be needed to do the work and then you’ll receive a collection of very shoddy materials that are worth a fraction of what you paid for them and last but not least you’ll soon realize that there was never a market for work anyway.

Don’t walk – run if anyone asks for money upfront. Any company worth its salt would be willing to deduct any “fees” from your first paycheck. Any company not willing to do that, is in all likely-hood simply out to scam you into giving them some upfront money and then as the saying goes “leaving dodge” as quickly as possible.

Home Based Business Opportunity Everywhere

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With the pending release of new products on the market for the Home Internet Based Business Opportunity arena, competition has never been more fierce to get you to take on their methods. Some products are promoting themselves with titles such as “Who Loves Money”

The more and more of these that hit the market must make people think, “Well if they are making all this money online using these methods then how come you are selling them and not just doing them?” The answer is simple, there is just as much money, if not more, to be made from selling you the ideas that have made them money.
For example if I have made $100,000 in a month using a particular technique then I write how the technique works and supply a good grounds on how and why it works you are more likely to purchase than if it is not proven. So they put it all in a nice little package (holding just a little back) you purchase it and then they offer you the killer bonus which is double the price. Of course you want it because you are looking for the perfect Home Internet Based Business Opportunity without the bonus you can’t do it.
There are also thousands of Home Internet Based Business Opportunity website’s which are basically complete scams. “Fill out our surveys and we will pay you $100!” Just a guess but that $100 is a voucher where if you spend $1000 you get $100 off the list price. Don’t be a sucker go with the tried and tested.
Here is something to try if you are not sure, type in the product name and then SCAM and see how many results you get, a lot of people promote telling you that something else is a scam but you will find a lot of people will expose a scam once they have found out what it is all about.
If you are serious about you Home Internet Based Business Opportunity then you are not going to want it for free (lets face it who is going to give you everything for free?) A small investment could see you make the difference between making a few bucks to a long term business. The investment could be the information to get you started, a course to learn the information you need or straight forward getting someone to set everything up for you so there is not as much hard work for you to do.

Business Insurance With Regards To Home based Australian Businesses

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Home based companies in Australia are emerging rapidly, with a million new businesses in recent years. These kind of businesses provide people the freedom to run their particular operations from their homes, operate in as much hours as they prefer, and offer new products and services to the community. Right after planning on the product design and the startup, it is essential that home-based companies protect themselves by getting business insurance. Every business is unique and must be examined carefully to find out its insurance specifications.

Those who are running a home based business should realize that homeowner policies in Australia do not normally provide cover for certain business activities. Consider the following types of cover and then decide whether they are applicable for the size and type of your business.

Computer equipment, home office furniture, specific tools for the business and the inventory will all need to be insured. Any one of these items could easily be damaged, lost or stolen, which can cost thousands of dollars to replace. Most businesses cannot afford to take such a loss while continuing to operate.

Suppliers and customers that come to the home to make deliveries or pick up purchases are often overlooked. To keep risks to a minimum, it is a good idea to buy public liability insurance in case of unforeseen accidents. Public liability insurance can protect the business owner from third party claims in case they run into an accident while transacting a business.

Of course, any business owner will go to great lengths to protect their business, but it is not easy to prevent theft, storm damage or fire. Cover insurance can protect valuable equipment and stock investments when the business owner cannot.

Employees working from home-based businesses in Australia are legally required to be covered by workers compensation. As small businesses grow and add employees, they too will need to be covered.

Business owners rarely anticipate problems directly affecting their revenue. Illness, accidents or equipment failure can all be factors impacting a loss of revenue, but can be insured to prevent additional financial risks to home based businesses in Australia.

It takes time and effort to get a new business off the ground. Spending a few minutes to evaluate and buy business insurance cover can prevent unnecessary risks to the business and prevent losses.