Travel Agent At Home

Top Agents offer their advice on how to succeed from home. 

Chris Silman went from Kandahar Airfield in Afghanistan to running a home-based niche  business selling affordable cruises to teachers. He left the Air Force in 2005 and entered a contest, becoming the winner of a $10,000 franchise. After 3 months of Cruise Planners' training, he went into business. Cruise Planners franchises are encouraged to team up with service minded groups. After marketing through House Party's, and co-op car wraps with Royal Caribbean and Cruise Planners, he developed a strong client base. The roving car billboard is very effective. 

Nancy Weinstein left her public relations job with Marriott Hotels. She and her husband traveled Alaska for six weeks, which whetted her appetite to travel. She now targets luxury travel and is building her clientele. She turned to America's Vacation Center, which feeds live leads.

Suzi Nelsen's  travel success took too much time away from her sons. She started a construction cleaning business,, which gave her flexibility. After 9/11 she went through a divorce, then in 2006 her ex-husband died. Nelsen reinvented herself again, returning to travel. She built At Your Service Travel, which is now www.countriessandcrossroads.com. She used the resources like Agent At Home, Performance Media Group's Travel Agent Academy, Virtual Travel Expos and became a regular on Home-Based Agent Travel Community. She has become so successful that both sons want to continue in her steps.

Another affordable home based travel agent program is Your Travel Business.

New Press Release - Born Free Travel

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/08/prweb4405694.htm

bornfreetravel.com

Chocolatier's Hand Painted Art

William Dean Brown was an executive with Ceridan in Tampa several years ago, when he was inspired by hand-rolled truffles on the Food Network. He was a novice, never making candy before. At first it was a hobby, then turned into his full-time business in Largo. He went to Kansas City to spend some time in a mentoring program with Chris Elbow and studied other chocolatiers. He learned the chemistry of chocolate, the texture and flavors, molding, dipping as well as decorating. He then tested the market. With his mother, they visited Dean and DeLuca, where chocolates were priced at $60 a pound. She said, no one would pay that. Today, dean and Deluca is his primary customer, selling at $60 a pound. He charges $1.50 each. He recently was invited to make chocolates for Pope Benedict XVI in Washington, D.C. This is a local Tampa Bay success story. He started with an investment of $100,000, and the doors opened in October, 2008. The chocolates have exotic names like Bananas Foster, Macadamia Nut, Port with Fig and Plum, Lavender, Coffee Caramel, Rosemary Caramel, Tropical Caramel, PB&J, and Biscotti. Each piece is hand-painted or air brushed, making them a true work of art.. Often, he will get calls from celebrities wanting his products. The company is named after his father and grandfather and is located in Indian Rocks Beach, Florida. 
For more stories go to : www.bornfreetravel.com

Wine Of The Week

If you are looking for an inexpensive Shiraz, then Mallee Point from Austrailia is the one for you.  Casella Wines are ones you can serve everyday and not go broke. I know, I too was a wine snob, not wanting any wine that came from Australia. The wine salesman dared me to try it. This wine is full bodied and has fresh berry fruit with vanilla-oak aromas. This will go well with any of your favorite dishes. The wine offers spicy undertones and ripe raspberry flavours with soft tannins, leaving no bitter taste.. The founders of Casella Wines immigrated to Australia from Italy. Filippo and Maria Casella, brought their knowledge of three generations of wine growing with them. Casella Wines is Austrailia's largest family owned winery and 15% of the wine leaving Austrialia, comes from their winery. Casella's has a new bottling line that can process 36,000 bottles per hour, which is the fastest bottling line in the world. The Casella's started the Yellow Tail wine brands in 1969 and in May of 2010 they triumphed again. Yellow Tail raked number 4 in the global wine industry and 34 in the top 100 wines globally. Casella has won more than 2,000 awards over the past two years. You might want to try Mallee Point.