Before I started in my own travel business, I would make as many phone calls to travel agents to get rates, dates, etc. I hated to do it, because I knew my husband wouldn’t like any of the rates or dates and etc’s that I found. I felt like I was wasting the agents valuable time. I realized today why I felt that way.

Every-time I look up a vacation, a car rental, a flight, a dog catcher on my travel site, it costs me money to use my internet, my phone lines, my valuable time.  The client never becomes a client and my time has been wasted.  This has happened twice in 5 days.

I have discovered, that, if you can’t tell a prospective client that their flight and their millionaires vacation to Las Vegas is basically FREE, they don’t want to deal with you.  Yet, in the end they pay the same  price with someone else.  I always thought time will tell about all things in life and this bit of time did tell for me.

That is why I am sharing with you, YOU SHOULD HAVE A RATE FOR EVERYTHING, or let them web search on their own! With the latter, it is easier to not know you COULD have helped than to know you tried your hardest and the client wasn’t satisfied.

Having a rate for all of your services is the best for you. You can help everyone until you are blue in the face, but even the bible says you can talk yourself into the poor house (not those exact words, but it is in Proverbs).

Charging a upfront consultant fee, at the least, covers your internet costs and time. Especially if you are a home business travel agent; you can’t afford to waste time on someone or something that will not profit you later.

See you next time for “What it’s worth.” , a conversation about what to charge for FEES!