Enough of the research - let's build this thing!
I started this blog with the intention of covering all the aspects of YTB and then make a decision. Well, I couldn't wait any longer, today July 29th, 2008 I've thrown my hat into the ring with YTB!
I wanted to cover everything before I joined, but I knew what I wanted to do so I'll just have to cover the many key elements of YTB "post decision day". I hope this is still a great resource for you if you are looking at what we are doing with YTB.
I'll close this post by saying unequivocally that "YTB is simply the best business opportunity I've ever seen, network marketing or otherwise, for people to achieve extraordinary results in both the short term and long term.
Let's go!
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Leadership
This is a big one! I can't count on 2 hands the number of times I've been told "we have a great leader", blah blah blah and then with about 2 clicks of my mouse I find that he/she has never built anything but a "bio". With the internet it doesn't take long to verify the credentials of someone claiming to be this or that.
J. Lloyd Tomer (aka Coach) - Founder and leader of YTB. Coach understand the word team and how to build one. He is a former 82nd Airborne paratrooper (he used to jump out of perfectly good planes for our country!) and grew a small church of 40 to over 2000 in just a few years.
He joined what was then A.L. Williams in 1981 and 21 years later with over $10 million in earnings, and an organization of over 250,000 customers, his group did over $2 Billion in annual life insurance sales when the business was sold to one of his sons. Coach soon realized that he missed the role of coach and mentor and he along with his son Scott and close friend Kim Sorenson developed the concept of what would become YTB.
The bottom line is the leadership has "done it" themselves. They don't just talk a good game, they know what it takes to build a team. Coach, Scott and Kim all were National Sales Directors and up in AL Williams. I got my start in AL Williams (now Primerica Financial Services) and I know how difficult to achieve that rank and the #'s Coach's team cranked out are off the charts.
All you have to do is listen to him one time and you can see it in his eyes - the fire, the will to win and the caring. He has instituted some things in YTB that we'll go over later that people said could never be done, but he did it because it was for the good of the team and they are still in place today.
The leadership is A++.
J. Lloyd Tomer (aka Coach) - Founder and leader of YTB. Coach understand the word team and how to build one. He is a former 82nd Airborne paratrooper (he used to jump out of perfectly good planes for our country!) and grew a small church of 40 to over 2000 in just a few years.
He joined what was then A.L. Williams in 1981 and 21 years later with over $10 million in earnings, and an organization of over 250,000 customers, his group did over $2 Billion in annual life insurance sales when the business was sold to one of his sons. Coach soon realized that he missed the role of coach and mentor and he along with his son Scott and close friend Kim Sorenson developed the concept of what would become YTB.
The bottom line is the leadership has "done it" themselves. They don't just talk a good game, they know what it takes to build a team. Coach, Scott and Kim all were National Sales Directors and up in AL Williams. I got my start in AL Williams (now Primerica Financial Services) and I know how difficult to achieve that rank and the #'s Coach's team cranked out are off the charts.
All you have to do is listen to him one time and you can see it in his eyes - the fire, the will to win and the caring. He has instituted some things in YTB that we'll go over later that people said could never be done, but he did it because it was for the good of the team and they are still in place today.
The leadership is A++.
Monday, July 21, 2008
Back to work... Timing.
We made it back safe and sound - had a great time, the weather was fantastic, the kids had a blast, almost bought a condo (still might) and the golf was... HOT!
While away, I couldn't take my mind too far from YTB - so I'm looking forward to getting back to work looking at the company in more detail.
I think I actually covered timing in the last post when I spoke about the "travel" aspect. I mentioned the baby boomers retiring and traveling and who do you know doesn't travel at least once a year? The travel industry is $7 Trillion now and is predicted to double to $14 Trillion in the next 10 years - that's a bunch of zeroes!! As the world shrinks in size due to the internet and our communication systems, travel will follow. The opportunity for someone to capitalize on this upward trend is mind boggling.
There is also timing in relation to the company. YTB is seven years old, plenty of time to work the kinks out as generally it is thought that 5 years is the magic mark that a company becomes "solid" and stable for the long term.
As I see it, the timing is perfect - the water's great, jump on in!
While away, I couldn't take my mind too far from YTB - so I'm looking forward to getting back to work looking at the company in more detail.
I think I actually covered timing in the last post when I spoke about the "travel" aspect. I mentioned the baby boomers retiring and traveling and who do you know doesn't travel at least once a year? The travel industry is $7 Trillion now and is predicted to double to $14 Trillion in the next 10 years - that's a bunch of zeroes!! As the world shrinks in size due to the internet and our communication systems, travel will follow. The opportunity for someone to capitalize on this upward trend is mind boggling.
There is also timing in relation to the company. YTB is seven years old, plenty of time to work the kinks out as generally it is thought that 5 years is the magic mark that a company becomes "solid" and stable for the long term.
As I see it, the timing is perfect - the water's great, jump on in!
Friday, July 11, 2008
The Big 4
After the kicking was over :-) I got down to business looking at what I've found to be important in a solid company... They are - the Leadership, the Timing, the Product and the Compensation Plan (in no particular order).
You can do ok with 3 of them, you can get by with 2, but you can make a FORTUNE with all 4.
Let's start with the obvious one, the product - Travel. Why travel?
Well just ask yourself this question - If you had all the money and all the time and freedom in the world, what would you do more of? If you are like over 90% of the people in America you just answered - travel. That in itself is enough, but add that the baby boomers are starting to retire and what are they gonna do - travel. Add that people love to talk about their vacations and generally just love to travel and that's more than enough!
I'll talk more about how YTB Travel works...
That's all for now.
P.S. We are heading to Destin tomorrow for a week for some beach time and great golf, I may not post anymore till we return...
You can do ok with 3 of them, you can get by with 2, but you can make a FORTUNE with all 4.
Let's start with the obvious one, the product - Travel. Why travel?
Well just ask yourself this question - If you had all the money and all the time and freedom in the world, what would you do more of? If you are like over 90% of the people in America you just answered - travel. That in itself is enough, but add that the baby boomers are starting to retire and what are they gonna do - travel. Add that people love to talk about their vacations and generally just love to travel and that's more than enough!
I'll talk more about how YTB Travel works...
That's all for now.
P.S. We are heading to Destin tomorrow for a week for some beach time and great golf, I may not post anymore till we return...
Thursday, July 10, 2008
The Company...
I guess the first thing to do is let you know the company I am talking about huh??
It's called YourTravelBiz.com - also known as YTB.
Note: Now all you "networkers" that may be reading this - please don't think that you know all about it or blow it off because you've "heard about it" before. See, I've heard about this company for several years and never took a close look because 1) no one ever asked me to and 2) I thought I knew everything about every company I had "heard of". Don't make the same mistake I did because after what I've seen so far, I've been kicking myself - so hang with me.
I used to think that the 'duds' I mentioned earlier were failures and I guess in a way they are, but now I don't punish myself for them, I embrace them. I feel that they, along with the successes got me to this point and put this company in front of me at this point in time - the difference is this time I have the knowledge to make a decision based on the facts and I hope you will too.
More to come...
It's called YourTravelBiz.com - also known as YTB.
Note: Now all you "networkers" that may be reading this - please don't think that you know all about it or blow it off because you've "heard about it" before. See, I've heard about this company for several years and never took a close look because 1) no one ever asked me to and 2) I thought I knew everything about every company I had "heard of". Don't make the same mistake I did because after what I've seen so far, I've been kicking myself - so hang with me.
I used to think that the 'duds' I mentioned earlier were failures and I guess in a way they are, but now I don't punish myself for them, I embrace them. I feel that they, along with the successes got me to this point and put this company in front of me at this point in time - the difference is this time I have the knowledge to make a decision based on the facts and I hope you will too.
More to come...
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
What's so important?
I started this blog to chronicle my research into a network marketing company that my new neighbors are top leaders in.
See, I've had a home business for over 10 years now and have had some really big successes and a few duds too. I won't call myself an expert, but let's just say that I know what to look for and what not to look for in an opportunity. I've had two non-traditional businesses along with the home business to provide some real world perspective.
One of my organizations grew to over 8,000 distributors in 5 countries around the world and another grew to over 4,000 distributors and customers in a little over 6 months. Each had their strengths and each had their flaws - that's why I use the word "had" when referring to them.
I hope to cover all the different things I'm looking at and hopefully my experience with these two companies (and the duds I mentioned) and the literally hundreds of companies I've looked at will help you out if you are looking at getting involved in a home business too.
I've not decided to get back involved, but I have 95% decided that if I do, it will be with this company. So if I do choose to jump back in, this will be a great resource for others looking at it as well.
Let's get started...
See, I've had a home business for over 10 years now and have had some really big successes and a few duds too. I won't call myself an expert, but let's just say that I know what to look for and what not to look for in an opportunity. I've had two non-traditional businesses along with the home business to provide some real world perspective.
One of my organizations grew to over 8,000 distributors in 5 countries around the world and another grew to over 4,000 distributors and customers in a little over 6 months. Each had their strengths and each had their flaws - that's why I use the word "had" when referring to them.
I hope to cover all the different things I'm looking at and hopefully my experience with these two companies (and the duds I mentioned) and the literally hundreds of companies I've looked at will help you out if you are looking at getting involved in a home business too.
I've not decided to get back involved, but I have 95% decided that if I do, it will be with this company. So if I do choose to jump back in, this will be a great resource for others looking at it as well.
Let's get started...
Friday, July 4, 2008
First Blog
Hello and welcome to my FIRST blog!
It's hard (for me) to believe that this is my first blog as I've been working on the internet for almost 10 years now. I remember when I first heard the word "weblog" that morphed into "blog" and have watched it go from a noun to a verb. I remember thinking that it would never catch on. Boy was I wrong!
So far, I've resisted the requests to start a blog about what I do and what I've done, but I never thought I really had "something to say". I hate the blogs that are just daily journals with endless posts like "going to lunch now", "We went to the park today and walked the dogs" — fine, but really, not blog material (that's what Twitter is for)
So why now...? Well, I finally feel like I have something important to say.
I endeavor to provide something of value every time I post something here. So please subscribe to the blog so you can keep up with what's going on here - it will be worth it!
It's hard (for me) to believe that this is my first blog as I've been working on the internet for almost 10 years now. I remember when I first heard the word "weblog" that morphed into "blog" and have watched it go from a noun to a verb. I remember thinking that it would never catch on. Boy was I wrong!
So far, I've resisted the requests to start a blog about what I do and what I've done, but I never thought I really had "something to say". I hate the blogs that are just daily journals with endless posts like "going to lunch now", "We went to the park today and walked the dogs" — fine, but really, not blog material (that's what Twitter is for)
So why now...? Well, I finally feel like I have something important to say.
I endeavor to provide something of value every time I post something here. So please subscribe to the blog so you can keep up with what's going on here - it will be worth it!
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