The Travel Agent Next Door Founder, Flemming Friisdahl gives his predictions on the continued growth of the home based agent phenomenon.
What's driving the home based trend?
Travel agents who work in a storefront today often make between $25,000 to $40,000 and yet those agents can be bringing in well over $100,000 in commission. Those agents want a bigger piece of the pie.
Many storefront location agents have to work flex hours, and this can be hard on their personal lives.
Going homebased allows you to choose your hours.
Most agents want to sell what they want to sell, yet often in a storefront the owner makes the decision on what should be sold and determines things like service fees for a client who is buying a net air ticket with a cruise. Being independent allows you to decide what you sell and how much you charge your clients.
What will happen to small storefront locations?
You will start seeing more storefront locations going virtual and home based OR start working with a host agency that does all the back end functions for them such as TICO registration, insurances, accounting, marketing and websites.
You are already seeing a lot more flexibility in branding and this will continue. Now many home based agents are using their own branding. So if you ONLY do weddings you would want a brand name that says this about you.
What makes home based agents succeed?
Travel agents are a bit like real-estate agents, it is ALL about your network and circle of influence. So it is all about getting out from behind your desk and getting to know your customers.
All of the above is why the home based agent trend will continue to grow.
Is the home based sector attracting new entrants?
We continue to see many new people becoming travel agents, and it is often a second, third or even fourth career choice. These people are generally 40 and up and just do not want to go work in an office. Becoming a travel agent allows them to work from home.
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