Memorial Weekend Podcast Postponed to June 4, 2006

Announcement - This weeks Home Based Travel Agent Podcast will be postponed until June 4, 2006. I am planning to spend some extra time with family this weekend.

I hope you enjoyed the music in this announcement. The song appropriate for this weekend was "The Mariners March" by Robert Kahler. I obtained this podsasfe music from GarageBand.com.

All comments and questions can be directed to me at the email address of barry@hometravelagent.net.

Thank you for listening!

The How To Start a Home Based Travel Business Continues with Host Agencies and a Site Inspection of the Pride of Hawaii

Podcast Number Sixty-two

In the listener email we have a critical comment about Dugan's Travels as a host agency. We also have a call out by Joe Fratianni to listeners about finding a supplier for Disney Resorts or Hotels that can compete with some of the consumer websites out there. Drop me an email if you have a good website where you can get good rates on Disney Resorts and Hotels.

In the co-hosted segment, Lorene describes her site inspection of the Norwegian Cruise Lines ship "The Pride of Hawaii."

Do you want to learn more about host agencies. The segment about starting a home based travel business describes what host agencies are and what they mean to you as a home travel business. Some additional resources to learn about host agencies are the Outside Sales Support Network (OSSN), the National Association of Commissioned Travel Agents (NACTA)and the Agent at Home April issue of the magazine.

If you would like to subscribe to the podcast and you need a program that lets you do that then check out the Juice Podcast Aggregator. You download and install this program and then you can search for podcasts from within the Juice program or you can find podcasts and copy and past the RSS feeds of the podcast in to Juice.

Check out the short format, five-minute, travel podcasts at the Podcaster News Network!

Stop by my travel business site Special Destinations where you can just browse or create your own account and blog.

Thank you for listening to the Home Based Travel Agent Podcast. You can email me at barry@hometravelagent.net or email Lorene at sharptongued@mac.com

Cruise Line International Association (CLIA) Classes, ID Cards & Part 4 of Starting Your Home Travel Business

Podcast Number Sixty-one

In listener email I answer questions about getting organized and talk about a great book called "Getting Things Done" by David Allen. David has a website at http://www.davidco.com. I would highly recommend David's book. In answering the listener's question, I describe a great tickler file system that you can use to keep track of all of your quotes, follow-ups, information about upcoming expo's or courses and just about anything else that is associated with a calendar.

This podcast has Part 4 in the series about how to start your home based travel business. I discuss some of the preparations that you need to make before you find a host agency. Developing a business plan and deciding on what area of the travel business you would like to specialize in will aid you in choosing a host agency. A great resource to utilize as you start your home based travel business is the U.S. Governments, Small Business Administration (SBA).

In the co-hosted segment, Lorene discusses a recent Cruise Line International Association (CLIA) class that she attended. Learn more about CLIA and the CLIA identification card in this segment of the podcast. Barry also mentions a website where you can find out about meetings and events that are happening in your area. The website is MeetUp.

If you would like to subscribe to the podcast and you need a program that lets you do that then check out the Juice Podcast Aggregator. You download and install this program and then you can search for podcasts from within the Juice program or you can find podcasts and copy and past the RSS feeds of the podcast in to Juice.

Check out the short format, five-minute, travel podcasts at the Podcaster News Network!

Stop by my travel business site Special Destinations where you can just browse or create your own account and blog.

Thank you for listening to the Home Based Travel Agent Podcast. You can email me at barry@hometravelagent.net or email Lorene at sharptongued@mac.com

Travel Cheap with FAM Trips! Perks for Travel Agents

Podcast Number Sixty

Lorene returns from her FAM trip to Hawaii. What's a FAM trip? It is a familiarization trip offered to travel agents so they can become familiar with the destination that they are selling. Quite often these trips are offered at unbelievably low prices. Lorene was on a FAM trip with GoGo World Wide Vacations to become familiar with Hawaii as a destination. Lorene stays at the Hilton Waikoloa Village and describes her stay and adventures that result from this FAM trip.

Here I am at 7:00 p.m. on Sunday evening with very little research and no show notes on the topic that I wanted to cover for Part 4 of Starting a Home Based Travel Business. It has been a very busy weekend and one of the contributing factors to the overall flurry of activity has been the weather here in West Michigan. We've had a beautiful weekend. So, I hope you forgive me but I'm going to put Part 4 off until next weekend. I know I wouldn't do the topic justice if I tried to squeeze something in to the podcast tonight.

If you would like to subscribe to the podcast and you need a program that lets you do that then check out the Juice Podcast Aggregator. You download and install this program and then you can search for podcasts from within the Juice program or you can find podcasts and copy and past the RSS feeds of the podcast in to Juice.

Check out the short format, five-minute, travel podcasts at the Podcaster News Network!

Stop by my travel business site Special Destinations where you can just browse or create your own account and blog.

Thank you for listening to the Home Based Travel Agent Podcast. You can email me at barry@hometravelagent.net or email Lorene at sharptongued@mac.com