Sunday, June 17, 2012

It's a Bird, It's a Plane, it's a TRAVEL AGENT!

Since my life wasn't crazy enough...Bart and I embarked on a journey to find the perfect franchise to buy. I had (have) been looking for a job that didn't interfere with the family too much for about a year. Everything I found either a) had crappy hours; b) was 30+ miles away; c) paid only a smidge above minimum wage; or d) all of the above. In the meantime, Bart was interested in buying a "bidness" that we could own, and maybe get some tax benefits from. After a brief look into a toy store franchise (VERY brief), I stumbled into the travel concept. I already love to travel, and I usually talk people into going with me. So why not do it for a living? Bart and I researched and reviewed and researched and attended webinars and conference calls and more webinars, and eventually decided to take the BIG LEAP into a Travel franchise. As of May 4th, 2012, we are the co-owners of Cruise Planners - American Express, with me at the Primary operator. Now this is exciting and terrifying for a lot of reasons. The main one is we had to put some money into it, with no real hopes of seeing any return for at least 6-12 months. The other is...well - that's mostly it. One big chunk-o-cash rolled out on the craps table, hoping I can make it work. I'm pretty sure I can do it. I have a long road in front of me, and I've already taken one brief dip with the sharks, but I came out of it at least knowing who and where the sharks are. There are 2 things I have learned already: 1) Travel Agents actually CAN get things cheaper. Really. And 2)The amount of travel stuff out there is flat out crazy overwhelming. So we're giving it a go. Wish us luck. Oh - and as a quick update - we decided to spend our daughter to Private School this Fall. If you need me, leave a message - I'll be giving Bart oxygen.

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