My top 2 out of 10 things to do before my oversea trip1. Find The Place I Want To Stay ( Hotel, Hostel, Inn, Backpacker lodge)Checking out the place is important. It helps to determine what needs to be packed and what to expect from a particular place. The best sites I always go few months before I travel are http://www.virtualtourist.com and http://tripadvisor.com. I like the design and forum in VT better, so I normally post my questions in the forum. So far, I have not been disappointed with the VT members’ help. It is one of the reason that I have also shared my travel tips there. Once in a while I will try my best to answer questions posted in the forum especially questions about Sabah. I am glad I found Dr.Izad’s blog. I can recommend tourist to go to his blog and webpage to read more about tips on Mount Kinabalu climbing. I mainly used Trip advisor to find places to stay and to check traveler’s reviews on any particular hotel. They too have their own forum. In the forum you can ask as many questions before you go or even while you are on the go. I’ve selected and stayed at Masters Inn Kissimme Orlando based on view in the forum. Other popular sites you can check are; lonelyplanet and fodors. Try to check for cheap accommodation at here. I have used this site to find accommodation in California and Las Vegas three years back. That was my first experience booking a hotel online. Well, I managed to find a nice hotel and was satisfied with the search and recommendation. Those who are traveling on a budget can check here.IMPORTANT TIP:-Stay in a place where you can get access to transportation easily especially to and from the airport, close to eating places and also close to the main attractions if possible.IMPORTANT TIP: – Unless you can’t stay in a place less than a 5 star hotel, opt for a cheaper hotel. After all you are not going to stay there. You will need a hotel just to sleep as most of the time you will be out there, exploring. Anyway, if you are on a special vacation like honeymoon, then it’s fine to splurge on a nice hotel and other things.2. Check The Transportation SystemIf you are going oversea, then the first transport system that you have to check is the airlines than goes to your destination. There are two ways you can do this. It’s either calling your travel agent and asks for a quotation of your place or routes of interest or go and do your own search and booking online. Do call two or three travel agents as they normally give different rates.You can also check the MRTA systems, Bus and even Ferry services. (If related). MRTA are common in major cities and it’s easy to get access to it. Just get the map for the MRTA routes and you are on it. Subways are more common in big city like New York. Subways in New York are superb. It is one of the best transportation systems I have ever seen.Important TIP: Go for airlines with at least one stopover if you are not rushing to go home. For example, if you plan to go by MAS to Los Angeles, there is a stop over in Taipei. To kill two birds with one stone, do spend 2-3 days in Taipei. If you are heading to New York by the same airlines, there is a stop over at Stockholm, Sweden. In 2004, I went to Los Angeles via Taipei and stop for two nights. Last June, I didn’t manage to stay 2 nights at Stockholm as planned initially. If not because I have a meeting just after my trip I would have spend some time there too. To go to Australia, you can either check Qantas or other airlines too. I went to Sydney in 2001 and Singapore Airlines gave a cheaper rates compared to other airlines. If you plan to go to other places within Australia, you can check Virginblue.IMPORTANT TIP: Look for their cheap flights from budget airlines like offered by Air Asia. This will save you a lot of money.
Prospecting Solutions for Commercial Real Estate Brokers Today
Some commercial real estate agents and brokers struggle with prospecting on a regular basis. Over time that will have a major impact on their market share and listing conversions.Those agents and brokers are likely to say that the following are the facts of the market:The market has slowed
There are no buyers and tenants around
Enquiry is dead
It’s time for a ‘holiday’
Finance is not available
Deals are hard to put together
There are too many agents and not enough buyers and tenants to go aroundSo the list goes on, and I guess you may have a few other things that you can add to the list and have heard in the industry. Excuses are prolific and easy for most sales people to come up with in commercial real estate. If things are not good with listings and commissions they will fall back on one or more of the ‘excuses’ I have just given you.Show me a broker that is at the ‘top of their game’, and I will show you a focused and active prospecting salesperson. So prospecting is at the centre of everything. Without prospecting, nothing works. It really doesn’t matter what brokerage you work for, it is the prospecting that will give you market share and listing opportunity.To fix any problem of this type in commercial real estate, it is time to ‘look within’. Understand the personal things that are holding you back from finding more new clients and properties to work with. Deal with those ‘weaknesses’ and move ahead into the market with a fresh attitude on growth and client contact. Put your clients at the centre of your business and market share.If an agent or broker is coming up with ‘excuses’ as part of addressing low market share or commissions, it is time to turn the focus back on that salesperson to find out what they are not doing and why that is so. Training and performance planning can fix those issues.Responsibility MattersYou are responsible for the business that you generate and on that basis real action and focus is required. Market knowledge and skill may help you with some of your listings, but it is the prospecting that is more important than anything else. Find out why you are not prospecting enough and solve the problem.In an average working day, a commercial real estate broker or agent should be prospecting for 3 hours and at least half of that time should be spent with talking to fresh new people.Set some personal targets to connect with 10 or 15 new people per day. It will take you 30 or 40 cold calls to achieve that. From those connections you can create some valuable meetings and that will then be the start of a valuable client relationship for the future. That is what prospecting and networking is all about.
Trying to Market ESL Or EFL Programs to Internationals? Multilingual Marketing Gives You an Edge
Schools offering English as a Second or Foreign Language (ESL or ESL) programs benefit from marketing their programs in a variety of languages.
Put yourself in the position of a parent who wants to send their son or daughter to a faraway land to learn English. Chances are, it will be one of their child’s first experiences living away from home and away from the family. The decision to send a child – even a teenager or young adult – is one that many parents take seriously.
Imagine this: Your daughter wants to go away and study a foreign language… maybe Chinese or French or some other language that you don’t speak. She tells you that she has found two possible schools and wants you to have a look at their web sites. She sends the links to you at the office. During your coffee break, you check out the first school’s site. All the information is written in English. You find out about the school, the teachers who work there, the homestay accommodations available and the program she will be taking.
You move on to the second site. All the same information is there (you think?) but it is written only in the language your daughter wants to learn. You surf around, look at the pictures and try to get back to the home page again. But you don’t speak the language the website is in, so the best you can do is get a general idea from the photos and site design.
After you’ve looked at both sites, where do you want to send your daughter?
The fact of the matter is that both schools may have excellent programs, but if students (and their parents) can read about it in their own language, you will build an unspoken relationship of trust with them. It’s both perception and perspective. You trust what you know.
For English as a Second or Foreign Language programs that recruit international students, translating your web site (or at least major points of it) into the languages of your major markets gives you an advantage over your monolingual counterparts.
This article is adapted from a chapter in the author’s book, 101 Ways to Market Your Language Program: A Practical Guide for Language Schools.
Want to cite this article in your own research? Here’s the citation information:
Eaton, Sarah Elaine. (2010). “Trying to Market ESL Or EFL Programs to Internationals? Multilingual Marketing Gives You an Edge”. Retrieved from EzineArticles.com.