Attention: Travel Agent
“Becoming a Successful hombased Travel Agent is about building relationships and offering the best vacation experience to your clients, then you work will become easier as the word of mouth spreads. So in a word you are the important element to your business”
Tip 1: Do Your Research
Before you make that all important decision to become a travel professional, you should consider if it will be the right career for you.
Make sure that you do your research so that you will fully understand not only what is involved in being a travel agent but what will be required of you and what you will need to get started.
It is also really important that you decide what type of travel agent you want to become before you take any more steps forward.
When I first started in the travel industry, I was amazed at how many niches there were. It took me a long time to decide which niches I wanted to focus on.
So first decide which area you want to specialise in, because this will be the foundation of your business.
This does not mean that you can’t book travel your clients in different niche areas, just that you will focus your energies mainly in your specialised area.
Tip 2: Register Your Business
Travel Agents are seen as independent business owners, it is also important to see yourself as such and will be required to file your own taxes, and manage your own expenses under your business name.
The good news is that you will find that you have many tax advantages being a business owner.
So I would strongly recommend that you seek financial help in setting up your new business.
Tip 3: Get Trained
Vacations mean a lot to people. So when a client come to you to help them arrange their travel, they are look for expert advice.
If you have no experience in selling travel, or you have not travelled yourself.
You will need to make sure that you have the proper training so that you can have the necessary knowledge and tools that you will need to provide a high level of service and expertise to your clients.
Your clients will be expecting the best service possible from you.
There are a lot of free and paid programs out there that will provide travel agents with training and certification.
You will be able to find them easily on the world-wide-web.
It would be also useful to you to find out if your current state or location require you to be a certified travel agent.
Tip 4: Join A Host Agency
Before you will be able to legally sell travel, you will need to become part of a host agency.
Host agencies are IATA, ARC, CLIA and ABTA, these are host agencies that will allow you to use their respective agency membership numbers so that you will be able to work directly with vendors and earn commissions for each of your sales.
These host agencies will also offer a ton of training, tools and other resources that you will need to become successful in your travel business.
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