I used to work two PT jobs in addition to my day job. One was a newspaper route and one was a cashier for a store at the mall.
Obviously, they didn't pay well for the time. The cashier job paid almost a third of my hourly rate at my job, and it was the better-paying of the two.
I talked with a friend who also has side jobs, but were on his schedule and much more lucrative: massage (unlicensed, mostly friends and family) and jewelry appraisal (licensed). I told him I wished I had more useful skills to earn more $. Since I've had the opportunity to travel a bit he suggested I become a travel agent. I told him I thought that it was a dead career. He told me he and his family use a travel agent regularly for trips. The agent was fairly wealthy and over the years had got to the point where he only worked six months out of the year and traveled the rest.
I did some research on it and decided to go ahead and give it a try. However, I've run into some hiccups:
1) Initially I did a lot of work to do trainings and research. The problem is that there are thousands upon thousands of products to sell. Different vendors require different training. It's been pretty overwhelming to sift through. I feel just as useless now as far as helping someone book a trip as I did before I started the "training." I feel stuck between needing to get clients so I can actually get some experience navigating everything and feeling that if I HAD clients I would bumble my way through it all and lose them in the process.
2) I don't feel like I have much in common with my potential clients. First, because they will most likely be much wealthier than me if they can afford to pay for these kinds of trips. I know I shouldn't, but the reality is that I can sometimes be intimidated by high-earners like businessmen and doctors, engineers etc. Second, while I've had the opportunity to travel a lot, it's been with college programs or friends with connections in places, or done on my own planning. I've never paid for a "vacation" trip or any kind of "luxury" anything. I feel this makes me less useful as an agent. With time, I would likely be able to go on some as a business perk, but that will be a while. Third, because some of these things are decidedly un-Mustachian. I know people do it all the time, but I will have a hard time selling something to someone that I know I wouldn't pay for myself!
3) I need to narrow down my focus. I could choose a niche more appealing to me. There are some experience-based vendors instead of luxury-everything that I would enjoy selling but at the same time, the real money is in cruises and all-inclusives. My "hair is on fire" and I want to be FIRE so the expensive packages would make more sense.
4) I have a website that is costing me around $33 a month. (
www.hunttravelagency.com if you're interested or would like to offer suggestions.) I don't use it much, and I can't add custom content without a more expensive package. It's not bringing in clients or referrals, so it's just a money-suck. However, I feel like having a website is imperative. With my current host, it's got a lot of good content, and I don't have to do anything to keep it updated. I'm thinking about moving to a free host, but then will have to design the site myself and I don't know that I have the time/ability to make it look professional.
5) I've made nothing so far. I haven't really put myself out there to "pitch" to anybody. My reasons are mostly stated in #1 above. If I want to keep this, I need to put myself out there.
But there are several reasons why I'd like to keep it:
1) I enjoy travel, and while I can't afford to do any more for some time, I'd love to help other people go on trips. I would especially love it if they had meaningful experiences with other cultures.
2) If I lose hours or even my job (oil company) having an already-established business would give me a little bit of a buffer. If I already have some clients and bookings under my belt, I could potentially ramp it up full-time and cover the bills, and possibly turn it into a career.
3) I know this shouldn't matter, but if I give it up now, I'll feel like a failure. There's also the "sunk" costs. It just bothers me.
4) It would put me in a place to be able to travel in the future (when I put my hair out) for awesome deals.
5) Income. If I pick this back up and work harder to get clients, then obviously, there is a financial benefit. If I only sold a couple of packages a month I could still bring in around $400 on commissions for not much work. $400 is approximately what I brought in on my paper route. Only with this it would be 90% less time consuming, no need to get up at 3:30 am, no stop-and-go wear on my car, no extra gas, and no bitter cold mornings folding papers with ink-covered fingertips! It would help me plow through debts much faster!
Advice? Should I ramp it up more? Or cut my losses now?