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Posts Tagged ‘Money’

Money.

You don’t learn about money in formal school, not the important stuff. And you really need to know this stuff!

I learned about money the hard way, trial and error. It’s the way most of us learn isn’t it? Some of those lessons landed in my head with near concussion impacts.

Society teaches us, through our observations of the role models in our formative years, to go for the instant gratification. I picked the concept up as a kid, and my parents were my first teachers. I learned those lessons well, and suffered big time.

Instant gratification, “I want it now…don’t make me wait until next year, next month, — not even next week! I want it now!!!

We go out and get it with a credit card, rarely thinking about the eventual cost.

And it costs us a lot.

Why? Because most of us only pay minimum payments on the credit card.

That means we pay the interest on a loan and very little more. Most of the actual price of the item we bought, we still owe to the credit card company.

The actual balance of the credit account decreases only after many years of payments, and during those years you pay for the item many times.

That item that you just had to have right now ends up costing you four or five times more than it’s original price.

How do you escape this prison of debt? Understand your predisposition toward instant gratification thinking. Learn now to save your money, wait until you have enough to buy the item you want, and pay cash.

Credit cards are an important part of life because you need one when you travel. Most car rental agencies won’t let you rent a car without a credit card, or require a huge deposit of cash.

In 1997, I experienced another reason to carry a credit card…

I paid cash for airline tickets to fly from Indianapolis to Las Vegas. You can pay cash for airfare — no problem, but I did run into some hassles, and today the hassle factor has increased because of terrorist activity.

My trip went fine until I went to the Las Vegas airport for the return trip to Indianapolis. Because I paid cash for my ticket the airport security looked through everything I had. The guy even checked my computer bag with a drug detector wand. First time that happened to me, and to this day the only time.

He even told me the search was only because I paid cash, and didn’t use a credit card.

So be ready for hassles if you pay cash to travel. Security is tighter everywhere, it’s our new reality.

Credit cards are handy when you have a sudden emergency.

You’ll face plenty of emergencies in your life. Expect and prepare for them, and most emergencies won’t cause you excessive stress, but sometimes we just can’t be ready for everything that happens.

The best plan: Save your money so you’ll be ready for emergencies, and only use that credit card when you have no other option.

During International Travel, whenever we travel to any new country for the first time, then commuting expenses can be a big drain on our personal finances. Here we discuss some of the ways to save money while travelling abroad for the first time.

During international Travel, If you have to travel throughout the country / through different countries, then one of the ways to save money is to try to get a rail pass, for example- a Euro Rail pass – if you are travelling in Europe. This allows you discounted travels in Europe Railway network. (In fact, the Euro Rail Pass is a very convenient way of travelling by rail through Europe ). Also, Euro Rail pass can be used in different rail networks. It is not confined to any one network. This helps you to save money by not having to buy separate tickets each and every time you board a different train, and thus it is easy on your personal finances.

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Once you come out of the airport, then try to take the metro / shuttle bus / ordinary bus / shared taxis, while going to your hotel. Believe me, they can help you save a lot of money

Also, to cut down on your travel expenses and to save money, try to book a hotel which is in the city center / close to the city center and is in your reach. The benefit is that when you are located close to the city centre, you have easy access to shopping malls, food courts / shops / hospitals, travel agencies. So this basically saves money and time while avoiding to commute unnecessarily.

Among the easiest ways to save money during International Travel is – Try to avoid Taxis, for taxi fares can be enormous. Take a Bus / Tram instead. For example, in European cities, there is a good network of Trams which run throughout the city. They cost less and thus will help you save money while enjoying the beautiful city.

Also, if possible and wherever available, take the underground metro. This is also one of the ways to save money and time. If you go by a taxi, then you might be stuck up in a traffic jam, which means that you will have to pay extra fare to the taxi driver and also lose valuable time. It would be an unnecessary strain on your personal finances.

Furthermore, during international travel, If you know someone in that city, (where you are travelling for the first time), just request them to pick you up from your hotel. This will again save money for you in travelling expenses.

I Hope you have enjoyed reading this article. As always, comments are Welcome and Encouraged. Cheers…

Imagine earning a six figure income by marketing a travel business opportunity. If you love travelling then you probably love your free time as well. Making commissions from marketing travel packages through a business opportunity means that you do not have all the responsibilities of running a travel agency, with all the associated costs.

Marketing products and business opportunities as a small business has become extremely lucrative for an increasing number of people. Many are sick and tired of grafting away for a company, feeding someone else’s profits. They have made the decision to work for themselves, on their own terms by starting their own home business.

This is completely different to selling something. Think of recommending a product to a friend or associate, rather than trying to sell them travel packages. The interest in world travel continues to grow at an incredible rate. It only seems logical to be able to make a profit from this. Being able to take advantage of huge discounts, that are even better than a travel company discount, would give a return on your investment after a single trip.

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Similar to a franchise business, a travel business opportunity has everything set up for you. You do not need to even consider getting all the travel information, the deals and accommodation details together. This is already in place for you to take advantage of yourself, and market to others for a profit.

More and more people are starting their own home business to be able to spend their time and money on the things they want out of life. Being able to visit luxury destinations while having the ability to profit from that, by selling access to the private travel club is a winning combination.

There are many business opportunities out there. Do plenty of research when looking for a travel business opportunity. Investigate what destinations are available, how much the travel packages cost and more importantly, how much you will save. Of course, you will also want to compare different business opportunities and how much they cost to join.

The most important thing to consider is the type of business you decide to invest in. There are many network marketing companies that offer world travel as a home business. The problem here though is getting paid. A network marketing company will collect payment from new investors and pay you a commission, probably at the end of the following month.

Marketing a travel business opportunity as a direct sales business on the other hand is completely different. You take payment directly from new members. That’s right, with direct sales, you get paid first and then pass on a low percentage to the travel company. You effectively own all the travel packages and gained the rights to sell it on to others when you joined your self.

What sticks?

What makes a lasting memory? Think back over past vacation experiences.  What kinds of things stand out? Most likely it is the emotional highs, the relationships, the personalities encountered, the laughter and unexpected events, no?

Ok, before you start congratulating me on my tremendous grasp of the obvious…let me point out the most perplexing disconnect from my 25 years as a travel agency owner and cruise specialist. What leaves me scratching my head is this – things that are so important to the client prior to choosing a vacation package are almost entirely forgotten once the experience is complete!

Can’t get enough of what really doesn’t matter?

During the planning stage clients will spend hours, days, weeks, months tediously pouring over brochures, visiting cruise line websites, comparing prices, measuring the square footage of cabins, scouring online reviews totaling up the number of superlatives used to describe the food on this ship versus the food on that one – doing so as if the very success or failure of their cruise vacation was riding on these ultra-fine, hair splitting distinctions.

Then post vacation – in describing their experience – a whole new set of standards are called into play. As irrational as it may seem, there is value in understanding and adjusting for this bit of odd behavior.  Whether a leisure travel professional or simply planning a vacation for your self – keep in mind from the very beginning that success depends on the ratio of fun memories to the monotonous or prosaic. Too often we lose sight of the fact that our most precious commodity is time.  So, do you really want to invest time (and money) in any experience where opportunities for magical moments are not maximized?

A closer look: the cruise industry -

The chatter overheard in most post-cruise gatherings tends to be about the colorful characters met at dinner…the waiter who was also an accomplished close-up magician…the friendliness and caring attitude of staff who seemed to truly enjoy their work, the accessible entertainers who mingled with the hoi polloi.  But, by comparison, comments about food, service or cabin size often seem to be little more than brief asides – almost mundane.

Savvy cruise marketers understand this peculiarity and have had great success leveraging this dynamic into their advertising and marketing – as well as the on board experience itself. Within the industry there is one standout in this respect.

But first, a little background –

As you would expect, the “mass market’ segment of the cruise industry is by far the largest in terms of dollars spent, capitalization, passengers carried, etc. Within this segment, traditional standards of measurement for choosing one cruise over another have always been highly subjective, but lately with the advent of the new, state-of-art mega-ships distinctions are blurred even more. For instance the Big Three players – Carnival, Norwegian & Royal Caribbean – all tend to have similar itineraries, about the same prices, the same level of service and food – plus a constantly growing list of mind boggling activities and pimped up cabins, suites, penthouses, spas, showrooms and other “I-never-knew-they-had-that-on-a-ship” offerings.

And the winner is…

Of those three, Carnival Cruise Lines is the one that has gotten it right from the very beginning. It is no coincidence that CCL is the most financially successful cruise company to date.  Via aggressive acquisition Carnival now is the parent company of a growing number of brands, eleven to date – including Princess, Holland America, Cunard, Aida, P&O, Costa and Seabourn.  Of these, the Carnival brand itself remains the most successful – still the Cash Cow of Cruising.

The Chairman and CEO of Carnival Cruise Lines is Mickey Arison – son of founder Ted Arison. His particular genius is relentlessly focusing on the real differentiator in the biggest market segment – fun.   The perennial ‘Fun Ships’ branding strategy has been wildly successful – planting seeds for effective post vacation word of mouth marketing for decades. The “fun” theme starts with their advertising and marketing and continues with the on board experience – one that rarely fails to deliver to its target audience. To paraphrase bank robber Willie Sutton, Carnival knows that fun “is where the money is”.

The Fun Ships –

Out of necessity Carnival Cruise Lines is highly competitive in food, service and on board activities but returning Carnival guests – more than any other brand – will inevitably regale their friends with tall tales about all the fun that was had…along with painfully unflattering photos of low brow events such as the Hairy Chest or Beer Drinking contests.  Thirty seven years ago, when he founded the company, the senior Mr. Arison knew instinctively that post cruise chatter about fun was money in the bank.

‘Back to the Future’ Marketing -

Could we as vacation planners, whether selling via traditional retail outlets, a virtual online presence – or some hybrid thereof – exert more influence over these critical post trip conversations? I’m not suggesting that we all become stage hypnotists or Hollywood script writers, but William Turner was on to something when he said “You may have heard that the world is made up of atoms and molecules, but it is really made up of stories.”

Never under estimate the power of a great story -

The modern day nomenclature for this little bit of marketing strategy is called “branding” – something the senior Mr. Arison understood long ago.  As a vacation planner, the question to ask yourself is – do you habitually look for ways to make customer contact more stimulating, interesting, or entertaining? Or, do you view yourself as primarily an order taker? Is the client left with a feeling of affinity – looking forward to future communication – in other words was the interaction memorable?

The power of FUN -

What can you do proactively to make client communications more interesting? Do you ask questions designed to focus on what truly counts – the memory – versus temporary obsessions? (See paragraph 3)

A little creative guidance can go a long way to motivate – to make interesting and fun what is normally be perceived to be a tedious bother. Here is a wonderful, real life illustration of my point. Pause for a moment to take a look at the http://TheFunTheory.com videos.

Branding yourself -

No one can write the script but you – you must be authentic. Take a look at subtle but creative ways for making client interactions more fun.  Maybe only a slight shift in attitude is required and the script writes itself. The game changing strategy could be as simple as reminding yourself as you pick up the phone, “Hey, the fun starts now!”  Like the people in The Fun Theory videos, whether motivating to take the stairs verses the escalator, to pick up trash and throw it into the proper receptacle – or reveal what really matters most in a vacation experience – training yourself to plant seeds for fun at first contact could mean a new level of success – even launch you on your way to becoming the next billionaire cruise line owner. – LEC

For some, running a small business can put a knot in your stomach, turn your legs to jelly and have you diving under the duvet when you think about how to effectively market your Face Painting or Children’s Entertainment business.

So how do you initially get yourself going with this ‘marketing thingy’ and propel yourself into the same league like the big guys?

Well first and foremost for the moment, put down your face paints, your balloon twisters or your magic wand and take out a pen and pad instead. You now need to focus all of your creative energy into setting yourself a sound marketing plan.

Where to start – well here’s a little helping hand of some fundamental marketing tactics that you should be using in your Face Painting or Children’s Entertainment business:

Your advertising. Scrutinise it. Are you doing influential direct response adverts with grabbing headlines and compelling call to actions?

Where is your target audience? Do you really know? What studies and surveys have you done to capture the complete demographical information on them?

Is your website working hard enough for you or is it in need of a workout? How good are your search engine rankings? Are all your meta tags installed effectively? Are you tracking and analysing your site visitors and do you know how many are converting?

Have you been building relationships with your customers lately? Do you keep in regular contact with them and are you continuing to source new reports, stories and articles to send out to them?

How many testimonials did you capture this month and to what advantage are you using this influential social proof. I hope they are not stuffed away in a drawer somewhere!

The big difference between a pocket-money existence to a full-time explosion is all about being the supreme marketer of your Face Painting or Entertainment business – not the doer of your service!

Maybe you’re at a stage now where you want, need and desire to take your Face Painting or Children’s Entertainment business to the next level, to have more income streams and more profit in the bank, and to ‘give up your day job’ if you have one.

The one and only answer is to become a master marketer – it really is as simple as that!

Struggling to get customers into your Face Painting or Children’s Entertainment business and in need of inspiration on how to grow your business to its next level. Sherrill Church has just launched her ‘Face Painting For Profit’ series on how you to can go from a pocket money existence into a full-time explosion – just like her. Click here to get chapter on for FREE http://www.mimicks.co.uk/chapter-one.htm

Grab a copy, by clicking the link, of her newly launched, hot off the press free report – The Seven Wonders Of Your Business World http://www.mimicks.co.uk/report-su.htm

Ever had the desire to quit your lame 9 to 5 job, tell your boss to shove it, pack up and start traveling the world?

All of us have had that desire at one point! The thing that stopped you was probably the same thing that stops most people: money.

“How will I pay for my flights, food, lodging, transportation, yada, yada, yada,” you asked yourself.

Don’t let these concerns bother you too much, because there is an underground, growing group of travelers who are utilizing some simple but hidden techniques to make significant incomes while traveling.

Here’s an overview of how we make money traveling and by landing travel jobs:

Underground Travel Income Method #1 – Traditional Travel Job - Hold a job that either a) pays for us to travel or b) is located in the place we wish to travel to. This is the lowest paying and most complicated method of all, but is the most commonplace.

Common jobs that pay for travels are for professional speakers, salespeople, package couriers, flight attendants, travel nurses/doctors, conservationists, cruise ship workers, etc.

Travel jobs located in the places we wish to go to can be any of the above, but also are specific to the location we travel to. There are some FUN jobs overseas that are looking for foreign workers!


Underground Travel Income Method #2 – Travel Writing – Travel writing jobs for magazines are more common than you may imagine. However, there are LOADS of other ways to write as you travel and make money, including blogging, picking up projects from sites like Elance and Guru, and writing travel guides, both online and offline.


Underground Travel Income Method #3 – Selling Affiliate Products – Using a simple website, you can drive online traffic to a product that will be of interest to your online followers. Don’t be intimidated by this! It can be as easy as using your very own Facebook or Myspace profile. Affiliate products typically pay 50% to 75%, so you can make a very healthy income for selling just a few objects.

Underground Travel Income Method #4 – Filming Your Adventures – If you’ve got the camera out and you’re taking pictures, why not switch it to ‘film’ mode and make money from it? You simply make a video of your destinations using iMovie or Windows Movie Maker, then use your videos to create a customer base!

Underground Travel Income Method #5 – Podcasting – If filming scares you off or intimidates you, you can make an iTunes podcast. It is easier than ever to get listed in iTunes and there’s a HUGE audience of podcast listeners. Simply talk about the places you visit two or three times a week and watch how your following grows… and how your bank account grows!

Underground Travel Income Method # 6 – Ebay – The common misconception about Ebay is that you have to sell a physical product to make money. Here’s the trick: You can set up a fulfillment house to ship your product (or hire your little sister or the neighborhood kid). All you have to do is create your Ebay post from an internet café and collect the money!

Take any one of these six ‘travel job’ methods, and there are hundreds of travelers all over the world making more money than they would at a regular ‘job…’ and they’re living it up at exotic, world-class destinations. Take your pick, and take action on the ideas here!

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