Become a Home Based Travel Agent

Springtime -Stop and Smell the Roses
By Jan Shoughnessy

I for one am so glad to see the beautiful yellow daffodils and forsythia bushes in full bloom.  The gorgeous white Braeburn Pear trees, and the white and pink Dogwoods add to nature's palette.   Winters are quite mild here in Tennessee.  But this past winter seemed unusually colder and longer.  It's nice to finally be able to turn the furnace off and open the windows!  It's tempting with such beautiful weather to want to go outside and garden, or just sit on the deck.  Maybe take in the sun, doing a little reading.  Of course that reading would be my travel journal magazines or brochures.  We wouldn't want to feel too guilty about not working, now would we!

Springtime usually means cleaning time.  We put away the Winter clothes and bring out the Spring and Summer.  We spruce up the house and wash the windows.  Have you forgotten your home office though?  Wave season is over now, so wouldn't it be a great time to tackle the mess you left in the wake.  Now would be a great time to go through all your drawers and file cabinets.  Throw out those old brochures and sort and file all the articles you've clipped out all winter long.  Wouldn't your desk look beautiful with all the papers straightened and notebooks organized.  The Spring flowers in a vase would add such a nice touch.   What about your marketing plan?  Could it use sprucing up too?  Now would be a really good time to send out a Springtime newsletter and "plant the seeds" for next Fall and Winter travel. 

It's so tempting to just relax in the hammock on these beautiful days.  It's not to cold, not to hot, just perfect for being lazy.   Isn't it great though with our wireless technology we can still enjoy these beautiful days.  I picture sitting outside with tea and lemonade, sipping away while catching up on our emails and paperwork.   It's great  working from home.  But sometimes it can get so tempting to ignore the task at hand.   There's no excuses though why you can't catch up on your Springtime paperwork;  with Blackberry's, Iphones, and wireless netbooks.

I'd like to end with one last thought on an area I feel everyone misses in their Springtime cleaning.  That's sprucing up our attitudes!  We live in some tough times right now.  Our nation is still trying to economically recover and job losses are still high.  The daily news is constantly polarized politically.  The internet and social networking has made it so easy for people to communicate quickly and to a large audience.  That communication can sometimes be mistaken in writing.  It is often hard to interpret the tone of the writer.  Written words can often be misunderstood and come across harsher then intended.  Also, in haste;  words can be left out or half stories told. Words can sometimes sound more ominous in writing, than they were when actually spoken.   I recently was disturbed by a thread on a travel agent social network.  It seems a popular cruise line mixed up two bookings, and told the client there was nothing they could do because the client didn't book direct.  Within days the number of posts on this topic was up over 100.  It disturbed me to read how many of the post were so sarcastic and snide toward the cruise line.  Some were so quick to judge and suggested that a lawyer be contacted, and the story should be spread throughout any travel news media.  Whoa, let's check those attitudes.  First, you're hearing this story from a third party who wasn't even present.  Second, remember you're getting the condensed version of the story.   How many times have agents had good results with this same cruise line? Is there a travel supplier out there that hasn't at one time or another done something to upset us?  Are we to boycott them all?  Furthermore; who of us hasn't at one time or another made our own mistakes?   Haven't we all had words taken out of context or misunderstood?   How did it make you feel knowing you most likely would lose that client?  Worse yet, how would you have felt if that client had spread your innocent mistake all over every social network?  Perhaps it's time to do some Spring cleaning on our attitudes.  Perhaps it's time to "Stop and smell the Roses."