admin / April 13, 2023

Eight Tips For Launching Your Real Estate Investing Career

Eight Tips for Getting Started in Real Estate InvestingIntroductionThis article is just the basics for getting started in real estate investing. This is not a how to article but an article that gives you some information about things to do to get started. Everything in this article is tools that can be applied to helping anyone get started in real estate investing. I am going to give you my eight keys to getting started. Nothing is right or wrong but reflects the point of view of the author. Laws and legal practices vary from state to state, and laws can change over time. The author does not vouch for the legality of his opinions, nor is there any intent to supply legal advice. The author strongly encourages the reader to consult with professionals and an attorney prior to entering in any real estate transaction or contract. The author is not a writer but he is a real estate investor. There will be grammar mistakes and errors, so don’t be too critical of the grammar but focus your energy on what is being said. With that said prepare yourself to think a little differently and expand your mind. Let’s get started on an amazing adventure.The Eight Tips are as follows1. Desire
2. Goal Setting
3. Learning What To Do
4. Attending a Real Estate Investing Seminar
5. The Billings Montana Market
6. Finding a Mentor
7. Your Real Estate Team
8. Just Do IT1. DesireBefore we get in to the bolts and nails of real estate investing in I want to talk to you about desire. If you are going to be successful at anything in life including real estate investing you have to have the desire to do it. Desire is defined as longing or craving, as for something that brings satisfaction or enjoyment. Desire stresses the strength of feeling and often implies strong intention or aim. In real estate investing if you don’t have a desire to learn and grow as a human being and really get satisfaction out of it, then real estate investing is going to be hard to do. When I go out and look at a property it brings me a lot of enjoyment. Every aspect brings me joy from talking to home owners, figuring out how I can make a deal work, to buying the house and to finding a good homeowner or tenant for the house. Real estate investing may not be for everyone but real estate investing can offer anyone the financial freedom we all crave for. If you do not have the desire for real estate investing that is ok, it can still help you to live your dreams and help you to get where you want to go in the future.Why is real estate investing an amazing avenue for anyone to live out all of their dreams? Let me ask you a few questions. Do you have enough money to do anything you want? Do you have everything you want? No debt? A nice house? Great Marriage? The freedom to do anything regardless of how much it costs and the time it takes? If you have all of these things then you are one of the few people in America who does. Most people may be working fifty hours a week and making just enough to pay their bills. In today’s day and age most people are living pay check to pay check never really knowing if they will make enough to pay the bills that just keep piling up. If you cannot keep up with your monthly bills how are you going to plan for retirement or send your kids to college or have time to enjoy life. The answer to all of these questions is becoming financially free. Now it’s not going to be easy everyone will have to get off the couch and out of their comfort zone. Real estate is proven to be one of the fastest ways to get your out of the rat race of the nine to five and begin living the life you deserve to live. Everyone wants something different out of their life. Some dream of traveling the world, spending more time with family, volunteering, golfing, laying on a beach, giving back to the community, or anything that will make them happy. There are thousands of things that make people happy.Making it in real estate takes a person who has a strong desire to change their lives for the better and think big. Anyone can become a great real estate investor. It is going to take a lot of work and can be a struggle at times but in the end it will be the most amazing feeling ever. The people that make it in real estate investing all have a few things in common. First they run their real estate investing business like any other business out there. Second they get out there and network with anyone and everyone. Some people might be like me and have a hard time talking to other people. If you are that is ok, anyone can learn how to become a people person, it just takes hard daily work. You have to push yourself past your comfort zone. The third thing is that you cannot be afraid to fail. Everyone has failed at something but the most successful people out their learn from their failures. The fourth thing is that you have to put a good team together. I will go into putting a team together in a later chapter. The concept of putting a team together is so that when you don’t know something you have team members that know what to do and can help you with questions. The can also make sure that you are not working yourself to death. You do not want to be the person doing everything in your business. Doing everything is a receipt for failure. You have to put together good people who you can trust and rely on. The fifth thing is that you need a mentor. Sixth and final is the desire to do it. No one can become successful at something if they don’t want to do it and don’t get satisfaction out of what they are doing.2. Setting GoalsHaving goals is one of the most important aspects of achieving what you want in life. You don’t want to just have your goals up in your head you want to write them down and past what you have wrote on the wall somewhere or in the bathroom mirror. You want to review your goals daily and read them out loud to yourself. This way you remind yourself everyday why you are building your business.How should you start to write down you goals? First off you should think big, and by big I mean HUGE. If your goals are too small you will easily achieve them and have nothing else to look forward too. You should start off by asking yourself the question if I had all the money and time in the world what would I do, what would I buy, how would I spend my time, and how would I spend my energy. Are you starting to write these down? Well you should be. Think about what you want, spending time with family, traveling the world, the best cars, a castle, owning a small country, running for president, having the biggest real estate investing business in your area or in the country. Whatever your dreams and what you want out of your life, write it down. Some of my goals are becoming free, traveling the world, having a Ferrari, having 10 vacation homes all over the world. Right now I am just trying to get you out of your comfort zone of thinking and let your imagination run.There are several ways to set goals. I have learned a lot of ways you can set you goals and there is no right or wrong way. The best ways that I have found to set your goals is to break them up into two categories. First your short term goals. This should be goals from a month out to around a year. The second is your long term goals these goals are you think big goals and what you see for your future.For year one I like to first make a list of what I want to achieve this year and I will give you an example of how to do that. For year one you want to be very specific first you want to list what you want your income to be at the end of the year, next how much cash in the bank you want (this is money in your checking account, not assets). Next you want to list how much you are going to give. Giving is a very important, this can be giving to charity, giving of gifts to friends and family, giving to your school or anything you can dream of. As long as what you give brings joy to others who need it more than you. Next list what bad habits you have that you want to eliminate. Weather is be quitting smoking, spending too much on junk, drinking too much, working too much, not spending enough time with family, too much TV, not exercising and many more. We all have bad habits that need to be changed in order for use to grow as human beings. Under each of these bad habits list out some steps that you can take in order to quit them. If you bad habit is being lazy and not exercising enough what can you do to change that. Well you can get a gym membership or a home work out program. Commit yourself you following through with a plan to work out 3-5 days a week. For you to change these bad habits you have to be totally committed and follow through with a detailed plan you set for yourself. After you have your plans in place you should start listing several things you want to achieve or do in the next year. This can be start a successful business, spend time with family, travel to 2-5 places and so on. Now under each of these you should also write a detailed plan on what you need and what you need to do in order to achieve these goals. Finally you should take all of this information you have a write on page on what you see your life being over the next year. Doing this is a great exercise to really see what you want out of life.Goals Year OneThis is what I am going To Do This Year
Income: $500,000
Cash: $100,000
Give: $20,000Bad Habits that will be changes:Over Sleeping 1. Go to bed at 11 p.m. 2. Use a timer and set it for 8 hours 3. Set the timer on the other side of the roomBuying things that you don’t need: 1. Going out shopping less 2. If you have the urge to buy something think to yourself is thing item going to help me to achieve my goals of becoming financially free? 3. Tell friends what you are doing, so they can help to stop you.What I want to Achieve:Start a successful Real Estate Investing Business: (you should write a detailed step by step plan of everything you need in order to achieve your goal)Travel: Where do I want to visit? 1. Gators football game (what I need to do it, money, etc)And last your own page about what you want to achieve using words like I will and only positive words.For long term goals you don’t need to be as specific right now, but you should list them and under them list a few steps or smaller goals that need to be achieved before you are able to achieve them. With the long term goals always think big. Another good exercise for long term goals is to make a collage of you goals. Put pictures of the house you want on it, places you want to travel, a picture of your family, a number of what income you want in or anything you can think of.3. LearnKnowledge builds confidence and destroys fear. If you are starting any kind of business you need to learn the ins and outs of that business. The best way I have found to learn about real estate investing is to read all about it. But once you know it you have to apply what you have learned. Learning and reading is just one step to take. There are thousands of books on the market about real estate investing and everyone has something you can learn from. You don’t just want to read real estate investing books though. You also want to fill yourself with motivational and leadership books. Every successful person that I know if a reader and they all spend at least thirty minutes a day reading something that will teach them about improving their business or helping themselves to become a better person. Some of the best books that I would recommend reading are listed below.1. Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki (read this first and also ready everything in the rick dad poor dad series, great books to start with and will expand you mind)
2. Be a Real Estate Millionaire by Dean Graziosi
3. Flip your way to financial freedom by Preston Ely (this is an E-Book)
4. Four hour work week by Timothy Ferriss
5. The Attractor Factor
6. Short Sale Pre-foreclosure Investing by Dwan Bent-twyford and Sharon Sestrepo
7. Keys to success, by Napoleon Hill
8. Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
9. How to win friends and influence people
10. Any Book by John C. Maxwell (he has tons of amazing leadership books)
11. Getting Started in Real Estate Day Trading by Larry Goins
12. The E Myth by Michael Gerber
13. How to be a quick turn real estate millionaire by Ron Legrand
14. The Power of Full Engagement
15. The It Factor
16. Anything by Anthony RobinsThere are tons more you can read but these will give you a great start. You should also read books on negotiating, sales, motivation, and biographies on American business people.I hope this list gives you the knowledge it has given me. If you learn and apply what you have learned from these books there is no reason that you should not become very successful.4. Attend a Real Estate Investing SeminarAttending a Real Estate Investing Seminar can be one of the best places to learn about real estate investing from some very well known experts. There are several seminars going on all over the country every weekend. If you live in a big city it will be very easy to find one. If you live in a town like Billings Montana you might need to travel a little ways to find one. Now most of the best meeting cost money to attend them. Some range from five hundred dollars for three days and some can be up to $20,000. There are a few that I would recommend. Than Merrill is a great speaker to go hear. I have learned a ton from him. You can find his company online by Google searching him. Also rich dad poor dad has seminars all over the country. I attended one of their seminars in Billings Montana for only $500 dollars and learned a ton from it. There is also Preston Ely, Larry Goins, and hundreds of speakers out there. If you find a great book that you really enjoyed, then just simple search for that person online and see if they are speaking somewhere or offer a seminar close to you.Another reason I recommend going to a seminar is because they get you pumped up and motivated. I have not yet found anything else that just gets you feeling like you can do anything. When you get back from one of these seminars you will have tons of energy and knowledge. Every time I get back from one all I want to do is going out and do a deal or ten.These seminars will also provide you with several opportunities to purchase amazing real estate investing tools, software or learning material at a fraction of the cost. Believe me when I tell you all of the low priced seminars try to sell you something. But a lot of times what they are trying to sell is some really good stuff.Another reason to attend a seminar is to network with other investors and build relationships with them. You can meet other investors who you can partner with on a deal, sell a deal too, people who will provide you with deals and so on. You should have hundreds of business cards made up and try to give them all out. You never know how much one business card you hand out can make you.5. Learn About the real estate market in your areaMost real estate investors start their career off my investing around where they live. This is why I do my real estate investing in Billings Montana. You can venture out when you have more experience. The reason behind this is because we feel more comfortable with the areas and know the areas better. It is also easier to get local real estate information that we need. Investing in your local market is also cheaper to start out, there is less travel costs, you can see what you are buying and it may give you a feeling a comfort.First you have to decide which part of town is the best place to invest in. This can be determined by what kind of real estate investing you choose to do. I have not gone over the types of real estate investing but some include rehabbing (fixing up and selling), wholesaling (finding deals and selling them to other investors), buying to rent, and there are a few others. These are the real estate strategies that I use for the most part. When looking at the market you need to see where other investors are buying their houses. Most of the best deals will be found in low to middle class neighbors hoods. By low I don’t mean drug infested war zones, what I mean is blue collar safe neighbor hoods that might have somewhat older houses and houses that are not on the higher end price side. Now you can find deals in the higher priced neighbor hoods but most will be in the low to middle income neighborhoods. When looking where others are buying ask local realtors, other investors or appraisers.When talking with investors ask them several questions such as what neighborhoods they prefer, what type of houses they buy (3 bed 2 bath), and what they do (rehab, rent, wholesale). You should not look at other investors as competition but try and work with them.There are different types of markets such as appreciating markets, flat markets, and deprecating markets. Appreciating markets are markets that there is no enough houses or a very high demand for houses which causes the price of houses to go up. The reason there is a high demand for housing can be because of job growth, a very appealing area, or several reason. Flat markets are markets that have no or very little growth. This means that there is not a lot of demand; buy just enough to fill every ones needs. Depreciating markets are where there is a lot more houses than people to fill those house. This causes house prices to start going down. This can be because of a large employer leaving the area, a natural disaster or just over building. There is an old saying buy in a bust and sell in a boom. In depreciating markets you can pick up several deals, while in appreciating the house prices are going to be much higher and harder to find great deals. The deal will still be out there you just have to know where to find them.Learning your market is another key to becoming successful. Real estate Brokers and experts in your area can be the best source of information for you. Learn to use them to find out what kind of market you are in. If you are in Billings Montana we are in a pretty stable market. Billings Montana has not seen the ups and downs that other markets have experienced. I will have to say that I have been noticing a little bit of a downward trend but not much. Once the first time home buyer credit is over with we might see a little more decline. Every market can vary by neighborhood, so make sure you know you market well. I have seen the same houses just one mile apart selling for totally different prices.6. Find a MentorHaving a mentor to help you can be your biggest learning experience. Mentors can help you with any questions you may have, walk you step by step through the investing process, give you moral support, you learn from their proven system, and also network you with others in the business. Every successful real estate investor that I know says they owe a lot of their success to the mentors they have and had in their lives. I have had one of the best mentors around, my father. He is teaching me something new every day and pushing me to become successful.When trying to find a mentor I would suggest network with the investors at your local real estate investors club meeting. There is a real estate investing club in Billings Montana that meets once a month. You can find information about real estate investing clubs in your area by searching for REA or real estate investors club then your area in Google. When you go to the meetings ask around who the biggest investors are. Then ask if you could get together with them sometime and discuss real estate investing. Ask them if they would consider working with you to get their career going. Offer your services as a bird dog. Bird dogs are people who go out find deals or leads about deals and give them to other investors. A bird dog gets from $500 to $3000 dollars depending on the deal. Make sure that you have a bird dog contract signed with the investors saying that if you find them and deal and they buy it that you get paid a certain amount of money. Being a bird dog helps you to build credibility with the investor and they are more likely to mentor you if you have something to offer them. If you would like to contact me with a question go to my web site Big Sky Property Solutions LLC.7. Your Real Estate TeamBuilding an effective team can make your life as a real estate investor a lot easier. You are only one person and cannot do everything or be an expert in every aspect of real estate investing. Going at a project alone can become one of the most frustrating experiences you will ever encounter. Many people have become frustrated and quite real estate investing because they try and juggle too many things. Make sure that when putting a team together you provide everyone with win-win opportunities. When someone knows that working with you is going to make them money they will put you as a higher priority on their list. But you have to prove it to them that you are the real deal.
People to have on your real estate investing team includeo Real Estate Agents ( find the top agent for volume of sales in your area and other agents who work with real estate investors)
o Real Estate appraisers (find an appraiser that has done a few hundred jobs or more and make sure they carry errors and omissions insurance)
o Real estate contractors (good rehab crews that can get the job done in a timely manner, have 3-5 crews and on every deal get 3 estimates done. Ask for referrals from them and make sure they are licensed)
o Real estate attorneys (every investor needs an attorney, they can help to protect your assets, make sure you find one that works with investors)
o A property management company (can manage your properties and will give you leads on property they are managing that might come up for sale)
o Title companies (take care of the legal process and make sure there are no liens against the property you are buying, choose one that does hundreds of closings a year)
o Home inspectors(charge about $400 but will give you a great inspection and could save you thousands in the long run)
o And your MentorAll of these people can help you in various aspects of real estate investing. You might find that there are a couple others that are keys to your business but this is just a list of a few.8. Just Do itThere is no better phrase out there then JUST DO IT! Once you have learned all you can networked with investors in Billings and learned real estate investing strategies there is nothing left to do but get your feet wet. There is no better learning tool out there then doing a deal. Once you have completed that first deal you will know what to expect and find out that it is not as hard as you thought it would be. You will have learned what you did right and what was frustrating. Take that experience and ask yourself what would have made it run smoother. Apply that to your next deal. Then the next deal will be easier and it keeps getting easier as you go. I will say that every deal is different from the last but that what makes this business fun. You have to be creative and always keep on learning and growing with your business.The average person never uses what they learn. Don’t be average apply your knowledge. When going out and doing your first deal act like you have done 1000’s of deals. The fastest way to change a habit is to act like it is true.Five keys for success
1. Specialized Knowledge
2. Tools of a professional
3. Have the mindset of a winner
4. Mentors
5. Money and the knowledge of leveraging it (you don’t have to have millions to invest in real estate, there are many strategies out there to use other people’s money, or no money at all)This is going to conclude this article about getting started in real estate investing. I hope this gave you some ideas about how you can get started. I didn’t give you any strategies at this point but look for some in upcoming articles. These are simple steps you can use to get started. If you read this article thank you for listening.

admin / April 13, 2023

Top Reasons Why Athletes Should See a Sports Medicine Doctor

The life of professional athletes isn’t easy. They have to participate in intensive exercises and training activities constantly to deliver maximum performance in front of an audience.While these activities are crucial for athletes to stay in shape, they can also damage their body.Sports medicine is a growing healthcare field dedicated for treatment of injuries related to sports and exercise like fractures, dislocations, sprains and strains, tendonitis, overtraining syndrome and degenerative diseases.Besides injury treatment, it also focuses on helping the athletes improve their performance prevent future injuries.Despite being a relatively new medical specialty, it has become essential for athletes thanks to its ability to address their specific needs and concerns.Who is a Sports Medicine Doctor?A sports medicine doctor is a licensed and trained individual who focuses on the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of injuries related to athletic activities.These specialists treat their patients using physical therapy, orthopedic surgery, massage therapy, exercises, and other techniques so that they can return to their desired activity level quickly, safely and successfully.They also teach the athletes on nutrition to help them maintain an optimal level of health and fitness and achieve their sports performance goals.The sports medicine team includes sports physiotherapists, sports massage therapists, sports orthopaedic surgeons, sports podiatrists, athletic trainers, sports dieticians, exercise physiologists and sports biomechanists.Common Sports Injuries:Some common sports injuries athletes suffer on the filed include ankle sprain, groin pull, hamstring strain, knee injury, tennis elbow, Achilles tendinitis, concussion, shoulder injury, hip bursitis, quadriceps strain and shin splints.They can also experience the exacerbation of pre-existing health problems like diabetes, asthma, allergies and arthritis.Reasons to Visit a Sports Medicine Doctor:There are many reasons for an athlete to see a sports physician.Let’s take a look at some of them.(1) Customized Care:Sports medicine doctors are specially trained healthcare professionals who have an in-depth understanding of what could be the impacts of an exercise on their patient’s body. They collaborate with physical therapists and orthopedic surgeons to develop a customized treatment for their patient.(2) Injury Prevention:Sports physicians can provide the athletes with expert advice on the how to prevent injuries during the practice or play and how to reduce the likelihood of resurfacing a previous injury. They also conduct pre-participation physical exams of their patients to determine whether they are fit enough to resume sports activities.(3) Pain Management: Sports injuries may lead to several orthopedic issues that often cause chronic pain, making it difficult for the athletes to return to the game and carry out their activities.While the primary aim of sports physicians is always to diagnose, treat and resolve the injury, they also use pain management therapies like electrical stimulation, spinal decompression, prescription medications and injected medications, to help their patients prevent or defer the need for surgery and continue their daily activities without any hindrance.(4) Rehabilitation:For an athlete, a return from an injury can be a complicated and lengthy process. If you find yourself sidelined by an injury, a sports physician can help you restore your movement and function and return to same or higher level of fitness quickly.(5) Improving Athletic Performance:Sports physicians diagnose and treat uncomfortable conditions to help you deliver your maximum performance, both on and off the field.They also suggest you exercises and techniques to improve your strength and balance that contribute to your success as an athlete.(6) Improving overall Fitness:Sports physicians help athletes prevent muscle sprains, strains and tears to keep their bodies in shape.They also conduct full body and musculoskeletal examinations to help them maintain their overall fitness.(7) Non-Surgical Treatment:Sports physicians try to avoid surgery in less severe cases and instead focus on treating injuries with non-surgical methods like physical therapy and acupuncture.These treatments are often non-invasive and require shorter recovery time.(8) State-of-the-Art Surgical Treatment: In the cases where surgery is indispensable, sports physicians use advanced surgical procedures, like arthroscopic ACL repair, platelet-rich plasma (PRP) therapy, hip arthroscopy, stem cell therapy and rotator cuff repair to restore the function of injured areas.(9) Education & Nutrition:Sports medicine doctors teach you how to fuel your body properly to deliver greater performance consistency.They also focus on each athlete’s dietary needs depending on his/her general health and athletic goals.(10) Rehabilitated Mobility:Sports injuries can impair your mobility and flexibility, thus preventing you from conducting your athletic activities. Sports physicians help you restore function, increase strength and flexibility, improve range of motion, and prevent injuries from occurring.(11) Improving Confidence:An athlete fights with different type of injuries on the field that could make him/her self-conscious. Sports physicians address their specific needs, thus helping them regain their confidence and enjoy their game.

admin / April 13, 2023

What Makes a Good Sound Tech?

A sound tech’s primary duty is to assist the sound engineer and he has only one major responsibility, which is to be attentive. Load in and load out are second only to that primary responsibility.Be Attentive
There are many facets to being attentive. First and foremost a good sound tech will attend to the needs of the engineer. Being attentive means paying attention. The engineer should have no difficulty at all communicating with his tech. Some of the common means of communication that are used during shows are:
Two-way radios or closed circuit comm. systems
Cell phones
Text messages
Hand signals
A nod of the head
A tech must follow his engineer’s lead and must constantly glance at the engineer to see if he needs something. The engineer of any show has a lot on his mind. There is a lot he has to be responsible for to achieve truly professional results. The engineer must focus on several things at once: the artists, the sound, and the audience. One thing he should not have to focus on is getting his tech’s attention. Anytime the engineer has difficulty communicating with his tech, the tech is failing to do his job. It is the responsibility of the tech to be attentive. The engineer should never have to leave his seat after the artists arrive. The sound tech must be attentive to the needs of the artists too. When the artists are setting up, it is the sound tech’s responsibility to provide the following:
Hand each artist his or her cable and tell them, “This is for you,” or “You plug in here” for example.
We are not to touch the artists’ equipment and they are not to touch ours (within reason of course.) We have to touch the drums to mic them, but we politely ask if that is okay and we make sure to ask if any of our mics are in the way of the drummer. Singers, obviously, will find it necessary to touch our microphones and that is okay too. But, it is the sound tech’s job to make all necessary adjustments to microphone stands to obtain the optimum placement for every artist. No artist should ever have to adjust a mic stand. Whenever that happens the sound tech is not doing his job. The artist should only have to focus on his instrument and his performance. Playing music is an emotional experience and if an artist becomes perturbed because he has to adjust his mic stand it will affect his emotions negatively and that will degrade his performance.
The sound tech must adjust the monitors to suit the artists’ preferences. Sometimes they want them closer, or farther away, or turned this way or that. It is critical to keep the monitors out of the feedback zone, i.e. not pointing at microphones that might induce feedback.
Whenever the engineer leaves his seat to attend to those duties, the sound tech is failing to do his job. The engineer cannot focus on setting up the board, and the monitor mix, and the artists, and the audience if he has to do the tech’s job too. The most important job of the sound tech is to be attentive. Being attentive means more than attending to the needs of the engineer and the artists. Being attentive means attending the show and paying attention at all times. Listen for problems that may arise and alert the engineer of any concerns.Look at the system. If there is a speaker that is off axis, the sound tech should notice something like that right away and correct it without hesitation. If an artist is trying to communicate something, the sound tech should be paying attention to that too. It is the engineer’s responsibility to understand those communications that come from the artists during a show, but, more importantly, it is the sound tech’s job to be attentive to the needs of the engineer and the artist. That might mean helping the engineer figure out what the artist is trying to communicate. Furthermore, if a microphone stand slips, or gets moved out of position or knocked over, the sound tech must correct that at once.Sound techs always wear black. This is partly because they sometimes have to slip out on stage during a performance. Their black clothing reflects less light than any other color and therefore draws less attention to them than if they were dressed in fluorescent yellow for example. But it also tells the audience that he is not a member of the band. He is a sound tech and he is just doing what sound techs do. He is being attentive to the needs of the artist or the engineer, and he is doing it well.Bottom line: if you don’t learn anything else from this article, then at least learn this one thing. A sound tech’s primary duty is to be attentive by paying attention at all times and attending to the needs of others for the sole objective of a flawless show.

admin / April 13, 2023

Start a Home Travel Business and Profit From the Multi-Billion Dollar Online Travel Industry

Yes, it is true. You can make money online working from home and can actually make a lot of money if you work hard, stay focused and execute. You can build a home travel business and live the Internet lifestyle you always dreamed of by operating an online home travel business. This article will put to rest any misgivings you may have had about starting an online travel business. I will not sugar coat it. In fact much of what I have to say will probably cause an up-roar in some parts of the online travel industry. I am aiming to tell it like it is.The TRUTH!Who really Makes Money in Online Travel. The truth is that you can’t really make a lot of money reselling other businesses travel products. This statement is directed towards the home-based travel agent market. Yes, its easy to get started as a home-based travel agent and the online travel agencies can provide you with your own personalized white label branded website, including quality customer support but in the end you are NOT building a business, you are only paying yourself a salary.Don’t be fooled.I am amazed at the amount of junk that there is online out there catering to the make money online from home crowd, touting selling travel as the route to freedom and riches. This truth is probably the most important fact anyone will ever tell you if you are just thinking about entering the online travel business. Let me repeat this for you one more time.It is difficult to become rich and build a company reselling other companies travel products. You can become rich over time by building a business that sells your own uniquely branded travel products. You can get rich and build a business if you “own the travel product.”Owning the travel product means that you are contracting directly with travel suppliers under your company’s own contracts, you are not just reselling a travel product owned by another travel business, tour operator, travel agency or travel consolidator. Your business creates the travel product by doing deals directly with travel suppliers. Your contracts with the travel suppliers become your businesses own unique inventory for the travel products you will be selling. The new travel product becomes your own brand. Your online travel business sells the travel product directly to consumers online or wholesales it too other travel agencies, travel agents, tour operators and resellers.The Home based Travel Agent Dilemma.I know I am opening up a can of worms here by disclosing this information but it’s really the truth. My intent is not to knock anyone down but to provide insight into how the online travel business really works and to show you WHO is really making the money and how you can make real money by deciding from the get go to actually build a business.Yes, if you want to make $20,000-$50,000 working from home then reselling cruises or popular travel products will be the best option for you but if you want to make real money, six or seven figures and you want to build a business that has real tangible value and can be sold later then you need to develop and sell your own travel products.The Internet is NOT causing Travel Agencies too shut down.I believe that the main reason that brick and mortar travel agencies are closing is not because of the Internet but because all they are really doing is reselling other companies travel products. The Internet contributed to the destruction of the traditional brick and mortar travel agency but the biggest factor in the down fall of travel agencies and travel agents in the travel industry is due to the fact that they are not selling anything unique or different from anyone else. It’s really a business model established to fail in the long run.How do you own your own travel product? You can own your own travel product in two different ways.1. Your business acts as a travel supplier providing tours, guiding, travel and tourism related activities or you own a lodging property.2. Your business partners with two or more travel suppliers to resell their individual travel products under a unique package that you own.What type of Online Travel Business do I need to start where I can own my own travel product, sell packages and build a real business?-Online Travel Agency-Online Tour Operator-Online Tour Guide-Online Travel Broker-Receptive Tour Operator-the HybridLet’s discuss a little about each type. There are many directions you can go.OTAs or Online Travel Agencies traditionally sell everything underneath the sun; including lodging, air, cars, vacation packages, and much more. On a hierarchy level of all online travel businesses, this would be the most expensive and most challenging type of online business to start. It’s doable don’t get me wrong it would just take much longer and be more expensive to startup.If you second tier niche and focus on contracting your own lodging deals and contracting with activity suppliers you could easily build a smaller more focused OTA. Another option would be for you to utilize the Global Distribution System (GDS) for air, car and for lodging that you could not contract yourself. I don’t recommend this last option as you’ll be just reselling product you don’t own but as long as you can combine the non-owned GDS products with your own contracted travel products you could create a nice win-win for the bottom line.Online Tour Operator’s sell dynamically packaged trips and pre-packaged trips to vacationers. I believe building an online tour operator business is your best option at building a successful online travel business.Now let me first state that the name is a little miss conceiving because of the word “Tour.” There is a big difference from a tour and a trip. On a tour there usually is a tour guide or person leading the tour with the travel participants. On a trip the traveler is traveling by themselves or with other people but there is no tour guide involved. In the travel business they call this a FIT trip, Drive vacation or Fly-Drive package.I favor selling trips, where the traveler buys a tour or trip product then attends the trip by themselves on their own time. The reason being for this is two parts.1. You don’t have to be the tour guide and you don’t have to hire one either.2. You have 100% more freedom by not actually participating in the tour itself. Just think of the time involved of actually going on a tour with a group or individual people.We operated tours when my wife and I owned the Yellow Breeches House Fly Fishing Lodge and B&B. We ran fly fishing excursions with lodging and guiding. Guess who was one of the guides? Yes, you got it. Yours truly. I would not change the past for anything. I learned so much from being a fly fishing guide and owning a lodging property. I just wouldn’t want to run that type of business again. There are much better travel business models out there. That’s part of the beauty about this report is that I am able to share some true life, realities for you.Sell Trips not Tours. This is the most important thing I can tell you regarding wanting to live the Internet life style and working from home enjoying the freedom that comes from owning your own online travel company. You won’t be living any Internet lifestyle if every week you are giving tours.Online Tour Guide’s provide tours to individuals and or groups. If I didn’t scare you off from above that’s ok, the tour guide business is a great business and it’s easy to get started with limited investment. This is a great business to enter the travel business and starting learning about how to build a business.If you love dealing with people and spending much of your time outside then this is probably the best travel business for you. This is serious work, day-in-and-day-out, as you are always outside in the elements. This travel business could be a stepping-stone for you to then go ahead and build an online tour operator business. I have a really good friend that owns a kayaking guide service. He runs eco-adventures that include island hoping for three to five nights. He just loves it.Let me share a little strategy with you that will totally change the way you build or grow your existing tour guide business. Hopefully by now you’ll already see it and be way ahead of me but if not here it is.Create packages for your tour guide business that includes lodging, meals and your guide or tour service. You probably sell trips, guiding and or tours as an hourly or day product. Take the next step and package in lodging and meals and maybe a third activity. Sell packages to your clients and you will super-charge your revenue in a very big way.Example:Take an existing kayak guide that sells day trips for $250 for 2 people. Now create overnight packages. Create a new product line for your business.1. Contract with a lodging supplier to buy lodging for your kayak packages.2. Contract with two local restaurants to buy dinners for your kayak packages.3. Sell a 2 night, 1-day kayak excursion, with 2-dinners. Make money off the lodging, dinners and a 3rd activity and you can seriously start adding more profits to your business.Online Travel Broker – this is a new business category I stumbled upon. I believe this is a type of business you could start with literally no money. It’s just a matter of understanding the travel business. Here is how an online travel broker operates.Every travel supplier needs sales representatives. Your travel broker business contracts with travel suppliers to represent their business and help them sell more of their travel products. Many smaller travel businesses don’t have sales representatives. This may be your entry into the online travel business industry.Let’s say you live in a resort town or area and there are 4 golf courses nearby or 3 ski resorts. You represent the travel supplier’s products, finding larger partners and or resellers that would resell or distribute your client’s products. This business is just a matter of finding other travel suppliers that need sales representatives and finding larger companies looking for new travel products to sell and distribute. You make money by earning a percentage of all future sales booked or earn a flat fee per contract you sign. This would be a great way to enter the travel business as a part-time business. You could start with not much investment and build out slowly.Receptive Tour Operators receive inbound travelers from foreign countries. This is a B2B business (business-to-business). You build an Online Tour Operator business but you don’t sell your travel products directly to consumers or vacationers online, you sell your owned travel products to wholesalers or other tour operators in foreign countries that then resell them directly to travel agencies and the consumers in their country. If you live in a world- renowned destination area or region where foreigners come visit you can build a successful receptive tour operator business. The receptive tour operator business takes longer to develop as the buyers of your travel products will be other travel companies, tour operators and seasoned travel business won’t necessarily want to do business with a company that is new or just in startup mode. Adversity can be overcome though, through focus, determination and having an owned travel product that a wholesaler or foreign tour operator believes he can sell and make money.The Hybrid – build an Online Tour Operator business that caters to individual vacation travelers. After the business starts selling trips and or tours, start building a Receptive Tour Operator business component.I hope you have enjoyed a little insight into the world and possibilities of the online travel business and what it will take to start a home travel business.

admin / April 13, 2023

Helping a Family Member or Friend With Drug Abuse and Addiction Problems

Everyone around an addict knows that he or she needs help with addiction, but often the addict cannot see it. Many die just like that. Our goal is to try to provide the family with as much information as possible regarding the intervention process.An addict often knows in the back of his heart that he or she needs help to break the cycle for enough time to receive the necessary help. An example that is very common is when an addict encounters a major problem (for example they arrest him, throw him out of his house, lose his job) and at that moment he is perfectly willing to discuss his addiction with his loved ones. Unfortunately, if this opportunity is not quickly taken advantage of, the desire to consume the drug and the overwhelming environment will force the individual to use it again and it will be some time before he or she finds the strength to embrace rehabilitation.What are the reasons for the addict?The addict has things in their past or in their present that seem like devastating events that have something to do with substance addiction. An example is an addict who has lost his best friends because of his addiction. Another example is a person who loses his wife and child for drug abuse. A family member can look at the life of the addict and see hundreds of reasons why the addict should give up drugs, but unfortunately these reasons are not REAL for the addict. There are, however, problems that the addict finds to be real or significant in the life of the addict, which the addict sees as reasons for giving up the use of drugs. It is important to identify these because they can be used during the intervention to remind the addict why they should seek help.What pressure does the addict feel now?The addict does not necessarily have the same reality about his addiction as the non-addicts may have. For example, he or she may have half serious health problems, no friend or work or income, but feel like things are “more or less okay.” Many addicts have actually overdosed and been close to death, and are using drugs the very next day. This may seem crazy, but it is actually only part of the addict’s pain.With this in mind, the addict occasionally encounters additional pressure, which forces him to make a real decision on whether he gets help or continues to use. Pending legal fees that can easily lead to jail, threats to lose your husband or wife, loss of pending work, are all possible situations that can put enough pressure on the addict to fight drug abuse and addiction, and seek help.Although a particular one may not work in your situation, there are pressures that may have weight and that will help stimulate the addict to a decision to seek help. It is easy to assume that the addict is simply “trying to avoid going to jail” or some other evaluation that is in many cases true. The fact is that an addict will only seek help when someone or something pulls him out of his “comfort zone of addiction” and forces him to make a decision. Addicts with access to money, a place to live, and people who agree with their use and no legal problem rarely seek help. They “have no problems”. It is very important to understand this and will be crucial in any attempt to intervene.Who should be there to help?One of the biggest considerations in the intervention is choosing who will be there. We must think this matter out in advance. The number of people present is less important than who is there. If possible, the person the addict respects the most must be present. This person is an opinion leader for the addict and has to be there to give full support to the fact that the person receives help and should be well-informed about the actual agenda.As many family members as possible should be there as long as each and every one of them fully agrees about the fact that the person needs help and supports the overall agenda. If there is someone antagonistic in the family against the addict and is not able to control themselves from presenting arguments and accusations, then you may consider leaving that person off.Generally, the addict has many enemies and has done wrong to the majority of the family but the arguments and the indisposition do not benefit the cause of making the addict seek treatment. In fact, it usually results in preventing this from happening because the focus of attention is placed on the discussion and not on the issue that concerns us.There are also ways to introduce the addict through some 24/7 Helpline support. This kind of support passively drives the addict to realize their problems have solutions, motivating him or her to take the first step.