I’ve been working from home for years and years and I LOVE IT!! (Confession, I also recently rented an office because some days I need a distraction-free zone to hyper-focus and occasionally hold meetings.)
But I still love my home office because I love being able to spend most of my days in yoga pants, saving commute time and getting ready time, saving on the overhead expenses of an office, being able to walk to the kitchen and make a healthy meal anytime, and being home to greet service people, get packages, and list goes on.
For me, and for most travel agents these days, working from home is the best way to work. The advantages far outweigh the disadvantages, however, there is one big pitfall that you need to avoid. Once you know and understand it, you can avoid it – which will have an immediate positive impact on your travel business (and your sanity!).
VIDEO TRANSCRPIT
If you’re wondering how to be a successful travel agent from home, you’re going like today’s video because I’m going to share with you one of the biggest mistakes that travel agents who work from home make – and how you can avoid it.
The #1 mistake travel agents who work from home make is… treating their business like a hobby instead of a business. To have a successful travel business, you need to run your business like a business. You need to create structure – set working hours, set goals, create action plans, invest in your marketing skills, invest in your skills as a travel agent, and you need to track your efforts and results so that you can make smart savvy business decisions.
When you have a family and you’re working from home, it can get dicey some days. The way to set yourself up for success is to sit down and talk to your family about your dreams for your business, how achieving those dreams will increase their quality of life. Their life may improve with more family vacations, or more spending money. Talk to them about how they can support you in achieving your business dreams.
For example, one way they can support you is by respecting your designated work times by staying out of your office during those times and not interrupting you unless the house is on fire.
Start the process of treating your business like a business by getting your families buy in on your dreams for your travel agency.
Then, sit down and create some structures for your travel business. Set goals, schedule in time blocks for client calls and follow up, time blocks for marketing, time blocks for tracking and analyzing your stats, and so on.
Just because you’re a travel agent who works from home doesn’t mean that you can’t have a highly successful travel agency… you absolutely can. However, if you want your travel business to be a real business, one that provides you a consistent and solid income, you need to treat it like a business.
Now I want to hear from you, what are the next steps you’re going to take towards treating your travel business like a real business. Please share in the comments below.
Love & Success,
Heidi and Your Marketing Team
Thank you for that important information, it is important to treat your business like a business just as you would a 9-5 everyday job.
Absolutely! You’re welcome, Yvonne.
Thanks for the video. I plan to start working part time from my full time job for several reasons and now that I have started my own home based travel business I plan to use one of my days that I will not be at my full time job and devote to my travel business. My goal is to set myself a set schedule and devote that schedule to building my business. Thanks for all your helpful video and information. God Bless you
Hello Mennie, welcome to the Travel Industry! Yes – schedule a meeting with yourself each week (1-2 hours) and dedicate this time to focus on developing your travel business. You will get further along than you realize! 🙂
Thank you, great information!!!
My pleasure, Rhonda! Glad you found value in the article. 🙂