9 technology tools provided by TTAND that support my business

Technology can be a huge headache for people who are not skilled at the many online tools needed to grow your business as a home based agent, or growing agency.  Working from home and having an online business, requires support.  The Travel Agent Next Door provides technology tools to market your business to the public, receive ongoing training and product information, and easily share billing information about the trips you book to ensure you get paid.   You can access this information from anywhere, whether that be from home, a coffee shop, or on a beach, as long as you have good Wifi and a computer.









Here are 9 technology tools you can expect from The Travel Agent Next Door.

1. Training Portal

On joining TTAND you are given extensive training so you can provide expert service to your clients.  You are given a login to a portal that leads you through a series of modules to train you on the history of the travel industry as well as information about various destinations and styles of travel.  Once this is completed, all agents are then prepared for the intensive week long in-class training that follows at TTAND's head office in Toronto.

2. Extranet

The Extranet is a resource portal available to all agents, filled with useful information on suppliers, industry news, ongoing training, upcoming webinars, and supplier events, as well as marketing resources and important company updates.  This portal centralizes and makes sense of the vast amount of information needed to run a business from home, keep you connected no matter where you are in the world, and stay up to date with resources as they are made available.

3. Booking Engines

Each airline and larger suppliers have their own booking engines, as well as consolidators who group together multiple brands under one umbrella for easier search capabilities. To build these relationships as an independent agent would take years, and only when you were able to grow your client database to a significant size. TTAND provides these preferred relationships and booking tools so that a new agent can hit the ground running with their business.

4. CRM

ClientLinq is a client relationship management software tool (CRM) where the agent records the customers' personal information and marketing preferences, as well as all the trips they have taken.  It allows the agent to efficiently manage the relationship, stay up to date with their clients' history and keep organized with upcoming trips.

5. Accounting

In the ClientLinq system, each agent is able to record all the necessary trip costs, commissions and service fees for their clients so that commissions paid out by suppliers, and any money owed to you, can be issued to the correct agent, a feat of accounting mastery which is a mystery to most agents.

6. Website

All agents are issued with a robust website built on a wordpress style site, complete with built in landing pages, supplier offers and trip information, that are updated for you.  The site, however, is customizable if you are a niche agent and want to put specific content that relates closely to your offerings.  You can create pages that are specific to your style of travel and the suppliers you prefer to work with.  Training is available to help you navigate building a website if you need assistance.

7. Email Marketing

Email marketing is key to the success of any agent. Being able to stay top of mind with customers who are considering their options, so that when they are ready to make a decision, they contact you to help them with their travel plans. The Travel Agent Next Door sends out regular emails to your clients based on their travel style preferences you allocate in their profile in the CRM system.

 
8. Lead Generation

Websites are often no more than a calling card. The TTAND website given to each agent contains an additional lead generation tool to help you follow up with people who come to your website.  Each page has a call to action to the customer to input contact information.  Once entered, you are notified either via email or through the back end dashboard, so that you can follow up with them and help them with their enquiry, and ultimately get the booking.

9. Metrics

Tracking how people are coming to your website or respond to your digital marketing efforts is essential to the success of any digital marketing strategy.  Along with the website, email marketing and any other social media campaigns you create for your business, you are able to track the traffic that you drive to your website, and see where it comes from.  Digital marketing can get expensive quickly so it's helpful to know where your customers are coming from and how well each of your various marketing campaigns are doing so you can optimize your strategy.

For more information about The Travel Agent Next Door please visit www.thetravelagentnextdoor.com

How I found The Travel Agent Next Door

I made the decision to be an independent consultant so that I could be my own boss and have the flexibility I wanted to be available for my family. Having had a business in the UK earlier in my career, I knew the work and dedication it took to be a business owner.  I also knew that the right support system was critical to my success.

As I was researching my options I found out early on that launching a travel consulting business in Ontario came with restrictions due to TICO ensuring that businesses followed strict guidelines that protected consumers.   I could either work for someone else for three years to gain the requisite experience necessary to register an independent business in Ontario, or work with a host agency who was already TICO registered and gain the freedom I was looking for to be able to work from home.

There is a lot of information out there about being an independent travel consultant and lots of host agencies explaining why they are the best.  I found a great site, Host Agency Reviews, created by a great lady, Stephanie Lee, who I have now met, where you can see reviews from members of each of the host agencies, as well as articles on what to look for when choosing an agency.

ACTA also lists host agencies and TTAND was 2nd on the list.   It was important to me to that the host agency I worked for understand the TICO regulations and so wanted to work with a Canadian host agency.  The Travel Agent Next Door had their head office in Toronto and I liked that I had a local office I could gain access to, and meet face to face if I needed to.

The Travel Agent Next Door has been in business since 2014 and as a start up I immediately felt akin to how they operate, having worked in this environment for years. Their article in TravelWeek as they launched clearly showed they were dedicated to their customers, the agent.  I knew this dedication and their size would allow them to be more dynamic and flexible in their approach.   I contacted them and received an almost immediate response.  Definitely a good sign.  I also contacted a few other agencies with varying success, with some not responding at all, which of course is the worst sign, to one or two contacting me a week after and then being consistently slow to respond to follow up questions.

I spoke with Rhonda Stanley, one of the founding partners of The Travel Agent Next Door, who very patiently walked me through how host agencies work and what The Travel Agent Next Door offered.  As I was not quite ready to sign up, as I was looking at my other options, Rhonda patiently allowed me to ask a myriad of questions over the course of 3 months before joining up.  I knew that whatever challenges I faced I would be met with patience and a caring attitude.  I knew The Travel Agent Next Door was the host agency for me to build a successful adventure travel business and the freedom I was looking for.

For more information about The Travel Agent Next Door please visit www.thetravelagentnextdoor.com

The skills from my previous careers that are useful in my new role as a travel agent?

Before becoming a travel agent I worked in small businesses and start-up environments.  I either worked on my own, or with a small team of committed individuals, requiring me to draw on my resourcefulness to troubleshoot problems.  There is no room in the startup world for people who want to just coast, or give less than 100%, and so invariably the people I worked with were lively and passionate individuals, making for an exciting and dynamic environment.

My first experience in a start up was with my own business as a wellness consultant in London, UK. I was a solo entrepreneur and so all aspects of the business fell on my shoulders.  I sourced suppliers, building relationships and forming agreements that benefited the bottom line of my business.  I worked with clients on their health plan and became very adept at reading people and understanding their needs, sometimes before they did.  I learnt how to balance books and market my business to the local community.  The one thing I learnt above all else though was tenacity.  My success came from showing up every day, even when there were no clients, and giving my all to every interaction and conversation.  I never knew where the next opportunity would come from but knew that my hard work would pay off eventually.

Other people saw my commitment to my profession and my passion for my craft, and I built a reputation for being reliable and someone that could be trusted.  As well as the repeat business I got from direct marketing, I received referrals from people who had been watching me on the sidelines. They knew they could trust their personal reputations with me and referred their friends and family. It taught me a valuable lesson about making sure that I upheld my business ethics and integrity, even when I thought noone was watching.

I also learnt to create balance in my life.  It is so easy to get caught up in feeling like you need to be available 100% of the time, but I learnt early on that when you set realistic boundaries for yourself and others, it's amazing how people will accommodate them.  I didn't want a life where I was working 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  I also knew that I wouldn't be able to maintain it and would eventually burn out, which would be no good for anyone.  I made sure that I had time away from work and completely shut off from my business.  During the quiet times I made sure I didn't stress but just took that time as an opportunity to look after myself and enjoy my family.  It seemed to pay off.  I was able to be 100% present when I was working and was able to separate myself and be present for my friends and family when I wasn't at work.

After I moved to Canada and started a family,  I took a position with an environmentally focused energy management company, ecobee Inc., in Toronto. I started in their finance department, working in an operations role, creating systems and processes for the daily finance operations.  I managed a variety of positions, from finance, to customer service, to business development, that in a larger company would have had many people managing, but because of the nature of startups and their need to be lean in the early days, I gained skills in multiple areas within this growing company.

We were all managers of our departments, even if that department was made up of one, which meant I had a lot of autonomy in my position to make decisions that would improve my position, and positively impact the rest of the company.  It was a question of working smarter not harder. With little to no budget to help solution ideas, I relied on my ability to think my way through a problem and work with what I had to be successful.

After three years I created their inside sales department to manage their growing support needs for both clients and their sales teams, and then on to build and grow our North American enterprise partnerships within the energy and multi retail space.  It was a great time to learn how to be a consultant rather than a salesperson.   I have never considered myself a 'salesperson'.  I like to help people find a solution to their problems, and if I can offer something that works for them then it's a win win in my book.  I would never want to be in a position of having to sell something to someone that they didn't want.  That doesn't work for me. My integrity is all I have going through life and so it is important to me that what I am offering is of value to the other person.


I believed in what I was doing at ecobee, helping corporations and energy companies be more environmentally responsible.  Being involved in an environmentally focused company introduced me to people that were more conscious of the planet's resources and our impact.  It made me more aware of my own impact on the world, and started me on the road to figuring out how I could make a more immediate and positive contribution to the planet's future.

Towards the end of my tenure at ecobee, I decided I wanted to move into an industry that aligned with my own passions and would allow me to positively impact the environment and the people in it.  I knew that the world had become digital since my last entrepreneurial endeavour and so it was necessary for me to learn the skills of the modern age.  I took a position with a social media marketing company, PostBeyond, as a customer success manager, so that I could learn about social media for business.  I worked with global marketing teams who were creating their own digital strategies, including within the travel space.  The information I gained from this experience has been invaluable to my own success on various social media platforms, understanding where my customers are and the types of posts that are of interest.

My passion for travel, combined with my own entrepreneurial endeavours, and my experience working for an environmentally focused startup company, gave me the skills, and the desire, to launch my own environmentally and socially conscious business from within the travel space.  
I believe that responsible and sustainable travel is the best way to empower communities around the world to start protecting their own environments. By showing tourists a more immersive experience in these destinations, meeting the locals and experiencing a different way of life,  I am helping to create a more meaningful experience for the traveller, create awareness around the issues small communities face, and above all help to alleviate poverty that can prevent communities from being able to protect their local environment.

For more information about The Travel Agent Next Door please visit www.thetravelagentnextdoor.com 

Why I chose to become a home-based travel agent

It took me about two years to finally decide to become a home based-travel agent.  It started when I was on vacation with my children at a secluded beachside villa, Cerritos Surfer Colony, in Baja California, Mexico.  I wanted to be on a quiet beach away from all the tourists.  We had a villa right on the beach and a gorgeous pool with a swim up bar, and no tourists.  The only people that stayed there were other people in the know, and surfers looking to hone their skills on the only swimmable surfing beach on the pacific side of the peninsula.

Cerrito's Surf Colony Beach

I was slightly concerned that I had chosen somewhere a little too remote for my children and that they would not find anyone to play with. Was I wrong.  A couple of days into our vacation a campervan, not too dissimilar to the one I had lived out of for a year in my earlier years in Europe, pulled up with a family of 8 children, looking to go surfing.  My children homed in on them immediately and ended up having the best week ever, showing off their somersaults into the pool, culminating in a big gathering in our villa making smoothies with our combined left over fruit.  We are still friends to this day, and they are still travelling.

Working from a friend's cottage in Ontario

Watching the freedom this family had, made me think about how I could bring that into my life.  I was a traveller at heart and being in one place, not travelling, was a cruelty I could no longer bear.  I was not necessarily wanting to pack up all my things and head out in to the big blue yonder as I had done a couple of times in the past,  but I did love the idea of having the freedom to work remotely, whether that be in a coffee shop in my home town, at a cottage overlooking a lake, or on a beach on the Baja Peninsula.

When I came back I knew that my life was going to drastically change, and now it was a matter of figuring out how to make that happen.  I sat down and thought about what my passion was in life and kept coming back to the fact that travel had always been there through thick and thin and that my fondest memories were from when I was on an adventure, experiencing something new for the first time.  So, travel had to be an important part of my decision.  

G Adventures FAM in Nepal - October 2016

I also knew that the happiest time in my career was when I was working for myself as a wellness practitioner in London, UK. I loved the autonomy, having complete control over the direction of my life and my business. Although owning my own business came with great responsibility and cojones, I knew I could do it as I had done it before.   I had taken a leap of faith to start my own business and learnt that when I was working for myself, I put more energy and passion into it than I had with any other job I had ever done.  It was more than a job.  It was my life and my passion.  It didn't feel like work because it was all I ever wanted to do. When I thought about doing this again, and being able to travel, I felt myself light up inside.  I knew I was making the right decision.

Earth Day at Toronto Zoo

I had some restrictions about what I could do within the travel industry.  Although I knew I wanted to travel more, I also knew that I could not be on the road for too long at any one time.  I have children and they are the most important part of my life and so being there for them was my number one priority.  I wanted to have the flexibility to be at my children's school functions, and even pick them up from school sometimes.  Being able to stay at home, but have the option to go travelling when it suited my schedule, was important to me.   I knew that working as a tour operator was not an option.   I couldn't take groups of travellers out to far flung destinations on a regular basis without it becoming too intrusive on my desire to stay close to my children.  

My other restriction as a newcomer to travel was TICO.  In order to be TICO licensed as a business you have to have 3 years management experience within the travel industry, which of course I didn't have.  You also have to register the business which when starting out was a significant investment, and also a moot point without the experience.  I had oodles of management experience but just not within the industry. My options were to work for someone for 3 years and get the experience, which didn't work with my vision of being an entrepreneur, or to hire someone in my business, which financially didn't make sense.   

Round House Adventures

After some further research I found out about another option.  A host agency that supports travel agents who want to either be part of their brand, or, as I wanted, to brand myself as Round House Adventures, and become a home based agent.  This immediately made sense.  I could harness the experience of travel industry experts, get ongoing training and access to supplier relationships I couldn't hope to obtain as a newbie in the industry, and have a personal mentor that I could turn to with any travel related and business building questions.  To top it off, by working from home I would be able to keep my overheads down, and have the flexibility I needed for my family.  Becoming a home-based agent was the perfect solution to my restrictions, and allowed me to live my passion of being an entrepreneur in the travel industry.

For more information about The Travel Agent Next Door please visit www.thetravelagentnextdoor.com

Life before becoming a home based agent.

My varied career within small businesses and start up environments has helped influence and contribute to my decision to become a home based agent. I have also travelled to over 35 countries, starting with family vacations and graduating to many solo adventures all over the world, fostering and maintaining a love of travel.

My first real job after I left college was in my own business as a complimentary wellness consultant, providing therapeutic and sports massage, essential oil therapy for respiratory and muscular conditions, as well as energy balancing through chinese acupressure.   I got to work with customers one on one which I loved and was able to learn many skills of a solo entrepreneur.

After 5 years of running my own business,  I decided to go travelling for a year, something that has been a mainstay throughout my life.  I closed my business, said goodbye to my wonderful clients, sold all my possessions, and bought a 1973 VW van.  I spent the next year living out of the van, driving through France, Spain, Portugal and Morocco, spending time on the south coast of Portugal working for a sailing company.   Travelling for a year, with very few possessions, helped me to learn about what is important to me, foster my love for exploring and enjoy a slower pace of life.

At the end of the year, I moved to Canada with my husband and started a family.  We had 2 children and after my son was 18 months old I went to work for an environmentally focused energy management company, ecobee Inc. in the start up phase of their business.  I joined them in their finance department, helping to put in place the systems and processes needed to facilitate the daily operations of the business.  I managed their e-commerce platform, daily finance operations, and implemented and managed their inventory system and logistics.  I was also the main point of contact for our external sales teams and finance contact for business and consumer customers.  Once we got bigger, I put together an inside sales team that could manage the growing needs of our north american sales teams and North American customers.   

After a few years of growing the team, I moved over to our business development team where I managed our larger North American partners, from multi-retail restaurants, U.S. utility companies and retail energy providers.  I helped implement statewide energy management savings programs, maintained and helped grow accounts to increase revenue.

Working for ecobee taught me a lot about environmental issues and what is currently being done to conserve our valuable resources.  I wanted to find a way to contribute more positively to my surroundings and the world.  I started to think about how I could develop my own business, do more of what I am passionate about, which was travelling, and actively contribute to the conservation of the planet's resources.  

After 6 years I decided it was time to move on but I knew I still had some learning to do before I could launch my own business.   With that in mind, I left ecobee to join another startup business, PostBeyond, specialising in social media marketing, and employee engagement and advocacy, with the express intention of learning about social media for business.  I strategized with global marketing teams of high profile companies, including within the travel industry, on their digital marketing strategies and helped them to engage their employees and create advocacy within their company to increase their social media presence.

In April 2016, I launched Round House Adventures, an adventure travel consulting business, providing wilderness, cultural and activity based small group and customized tours.   The tour operators I work with actively contribute to the sustainable future of the communities and environments they visit, so that travellers can have amazing adventures, have meaningful experiences, create lifelong memories, and feel confident that they are not only minimizing their environmental impact but are also contributing to indigenous communities and landscapes in a positive way.

In the first month of my new business I went to hear Jane Goodall speak in Toronto.  During her talk she said that sustainable tourism is the best way to save the planet.  It alleviates poverty which is the number one issue preventing communities from protecting their environments.  By bringing tourists to these destinations in a responsible and sustainable way, these communities can feed their families and be able to start looking after their communities and surroundings.   This was great validation for me as I started my business.

For more information about The Travel Agent Next Door please visit www.thetravelagentnextdoor.com