Home-Based Travel Agent - February 2008 - (Page 12)

Lifeline Office Organization Tips for Home-Based Travel Agents Improve comfort, order and efficiency in your workspace Amid the barrage of post-holiday e-mails that flooded my inbox, one remained long after others had been deleted. “When the holidays are over…organize it!” it exclaimed. It was an advertisement for The Container Store, which is to a Type A personality what Starbucks is to a caffeine addict. From shelving to storage, for a box, bin or bottle to hold anything, the store offers organizational nirvana. Seeing as my home office also serves as a playroom, computer room, CD storage library, music studio and my husband’s home office, I couldn’t quite bring myself to discard the advertisement. It offered a glimmer of hope in the midst of the turmoil that has become my workspace. Perhaps you’re facing a similar dilemma and asking yourself the same questions I have: Where did all of this stuff come from? And what do I do with it? “Office organization” is really a subjective term. I appreciate the old adage “A place for everything and everything in its place.” (Not that I can actually adhere to it for any length of time, but I do appreciate it.) On the contrary, my husband’s piles 12 YOUR are organized in some arcane way that only he understands. To you, organization may fall somewhere in between. It’s still early enough in 2008 to join me in making the following organization resolutions. This year, I resolve to… Create Firmer Boundaries Working from home is a special challenge. Is it even possible to keep work and home separate when you’re trying to figure out how to keep the kids from screeching while you’re on the phone with a client? While it may be difficult to figure out how to keep things separate, Gary Fee, president of Outside Sales Support Network (OSSN), says it is essential for good business. “Have an established location in the house that is off-limits to the rest of the family,” he advises. “No one likes to spend $4,000 on a cr uise and compete with a barking dog or a cr ying baby in the backg round.” He also recommends setting up guidelines with your family members to further delineate the work/ home boundaries. As a homebased agent, “I live, eat and breathe work,” says Michelle Duncan of Odyssey Travel in Centreville,VA. Like many homebased agents, she responds to clients who need her at times other than her scheduled office hours, and she takes advantage of the quiet hours when her three children are in school.“Things get interesting around 4 p.m. The noise level with the kids is a challenge,” she admits. With the flexibility that working from home affords her, Duncan is able to take a break at that time of the day to be with her kids, then get back to work—and she says her children implicitly understand that when she’s in her office, she’s working. “Home-based agents must be responsive,” adds Andrew Wainer, director of sales, Network of Entrepreneurs Selling Travel (NEST). “Seeing as they transact almost all of their business by phone or e-mail,” he says, it’s vital for such agents to give themselves a work environment that supports their goal of providing excellent service. Technology can mitigate some of the organizational challenges, according to Fee. “Tools such as phone muting, forwarding and voicemail are crucial,” he maintains. Sometimes, though, family isn’t the problem. “Our friends are the biggest challenge,” says Jerry Funkhouser, a home-based agent in Woodbridge,VA, who works with his wife Myra at Cruise Travel Services. “We can’t get our friends to understand that we can’t go out to lunch every day or have them come over to visit, even though we’re at home.” Home-BasedTravelAgent F EB RUARY 2008 ALL PHOTOS BY iSTOCKPHOTO

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Home-Based Travel Agent - February 2008

Home-Based Travel Agent - January/February 2008 Editor's Note Publisher's Note Your Lifeline Agent Spotlight: Tracy Dennis News Hot Deals Reader Survey All-Inclusive Resorts Home-Based Travel Agent Expo Portugal New York Bermuda Cover Story: Singapore Cruise: What's New Tours: Adventure New Products

Home-Based Travel Agent - February 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.