Wednesday, April 25, 2012

I'm not ignoring you; earning extra money; single digit days to Everest

It may seem like I'm ignoring you but I'm not. I have two blogs now, this one (well duh) and The Disney World Files (you can access it from one of the tabs above). I started the Disney one as a way to write about my favorite place so I could share information and maybe some tips and tricks, etc. And so I've been spending some time working on my information pages which are taking longer than I expected (and those pages are just overview pages...there's just so much to tell about Disney, even in an overview!).

I've also been researching becoming a Disney travel planner/agent, checking out different host agencies and trying to make contact with several of them. I figure with as much as I know about Disney and love the place, I could help others plan and book their trips (I've certainly planned enough of my own and some other people's as well)...not necessarily full-time since I already have a full-time Monday thru Friday job, but at least part-time evenings and weekends (which is when I'd think lots of people would be looking into booking vacations anyway since so many people are Monday-Friday workers like me).

Since my fun-money account has been dwindling down and there's not much available in the mystery shopping/auditing world that's worth doing (have I said on here that I do that in my spare time? If not, yes I do...or at least I've done it in the past, not much out there that pays decent anymore), I've been thinking of ways to earn some extra cash so I can do more races and more Disney trips (of course!). There's really no part-time positions available close by-I'm not spending a ton of gas just for a PT job-so I've turned to home-based ideas.

I could probably gather enough "stuff" from the house and garage for another garage sale, but even if a friend was having one that I could join (my complex doesn't allow it unless it is a complex-wide event) that would just be a one time thing and while that would be nice short-term, I'm really looking for something sustainable.

So again, since I'm a Disney fanatic and have been there over fifty times (at least, it's probably more but you lose count after a while), the Disney travel agent idea seems like a no-brainer for me. I love planning trips, especially to Disney World. So I'm waiting for responses. I've heard back from two agencies so far...one is only looking for full-timers, the other sent me information and a contract if I decide to sign with them. My only money outlay to get started with them would be to get added on a rider to their E&O insurance. But I'm going to wait a bit longer to see what other responses come in to compare commission charts and such (though theirs seemed pretty good).

I know several of my Disney running friends/ROTErs are Disney planners, do any of you have any information to share on getting started that I might have missed? Or advice of any kind? I've already been doing independent contractor work so I'm familiar with that aspect of it. I know this is something I'd really like doing (again, not full-time)...I know volume could be next to nothing or really huge...I'm not looking to get rich doing this, just make some extra and maybe get some travel perks if my volume is high enough to qualify. We'll see what happens!

Only 9 days left until we leave for Expedition Everest Weekend! Looking forward to doing EEC again, had such a good time last year (recap here). Plus this year's medal is pretty nice with the 5th anniversary...I'll leave you with some pics of it:





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