A few weeks ago Brittany had her annual doctor check-up. During the exam, I was reading an analysis of what to expect from your typical 7 year old. I remember a specific quote in this document that stated that Brittany would show an increased desire for acceptance from both her peers and her parents. The only reason why that stood out for me was because I had already noticed this behavior and felt comforted that this was deemed to be “normal”.

I’ve come to the realization that some people don’t grow out of this need of acceptance or desire to qualify themselves as “normal”. Last Saturday I posted about our Quarterly Report that arrived with a $288K profit, much to the chagrin of our critics.

In that post I commented how the excuses would start to emerge and our critics would look at this Quarterly Report in a much darker light. I’ve spent the last week debating back and forth with a few of the better known critics, and one mystery woman, who desperately needed for me to see things their way.

I’m an optimist, and I typically find ways to look for the positive in anything I look at. I’ll give everyone and everything I come across a chance to show their good side of things. (Even our critics if you recall.) Some are not as not as open minded and frankly unwilling to see other points of view. So yesterday, the head critic decides to Even our critics if you recall.) Some are not as not as open minded and frankly unwilling to see other points of view. So yesterday, the head critic decides to post a blurb about how others outside the industry agree with his position. As if to say, “See, all these experts agree with me.”

I’m not going to belabor the fact that people are certainly entitled to view our financials however they choose. I’ve left it up to individuals to look at our company and collect a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ for years. But I do have to wonder why it’s so important for some individuals to proven right all the time like this.

I also have to wonder why this use of headlines from non financial analysts means a bloomin’ thing.

It’s not that some of these articles weren’t written by some very intelligent people, one might have actually been a lawyer. But this supposed lawyer didn’t even know that there needs to be brackets at that bottom of a financial statement to show (losses). No joke, the headline read “Online travel company targeted by AGs posts 3Q loss”.

I also noticed that the first article out in the press provided the following statement:

“The filings said Friday that it plans to raise cash by selling an office building in Edwardsville, Ill., as well as its Learjet aircraft.”

The Q3 didn’t mention the sale of the One Country Club Drive location. To be fair they were possibly referring to the 8-K filed earlier in the week, and the filing did state that a decision was made to sell the LearJet, and that they were “evaluating” the sale of certain non-core assets and raising new capital for future operations. I would assume that everyone knows in this day and age that when an asset is sold, cash in hand is a nice benefit of the transaction. Somehow, the transaction for cash for an asset like a building or jet is determined to be abnormal for the likes of YTB. I found it very odd concerning what the “filing said” being regurgitated word for word in every single news article out there. It leads me to believe that very few authors who posted their findings actually read the financial report, but instead read what others said and assumed what someone else found to be correct. (Another example of that below.)

I realize that critics want to make this out to be a “fire sale” to raise much needed cash. I suspect that our new Independent Directors have suggested that it’s time to tighten belts as other companies have. (Well, responsible companies have anyway.) With YTB moving everyone under one roof at the 1901 Wood River location, a 130,000 sq foot, state of the art, facility that has 59 acres to expand on, why keep the One Country Club location to boot?

Because the commercial market is currently as soft as it is, it was thought that the Edwardsville property would be on the market up to two years. In just a few months a contract had been received on the Edwardsville building One, with a closing set for December. With plans to relocate the staff to Wood River under one roof in January 2009 YTB accepted the offer. I honestly don’t know how anyone would turn down any offer on commercial real estate, especially right now, but apparently along with all the other hats and feathers of expertise, we can now add “Real Estate Agents” to the many, MANY, credentials of our critics who obviously know better than anyone else.

I’m also wondering why some are upset about decision to sell the LearJet? It was an overly flamboyant decision to begin with according to critics, and now that the company is leaning towards fiscal responsibility, a non core asset, the decision is again ridiculed. A couple of possibilities come to mind over just why some critics would be this bent out of shape.

One, this LearJet was Coach, Scott, and Kim’s ticket to paradise when they made off with all the millions they made off RTA’s backs, leaving all of us high and dry. Unfortunately for critics, it now looks like the YTB founders will either be flying commercial for a quick exit, or there is the slight possibly that a choice was made to stick around.

Two, I find such poetic irony, especially this week, that there was such animosity over the big three Auto Execs beat our Founders to the punch as they flew into town in luxury Jets looking for a multibillion-dollar bailout. Possibly the speculation was that it would have been YTB who would be first to pull a stunt like this, but now that the Auto Execs have taken away their thunder, there is no way to pin this type of blunder for the likes of YTB.

I’m happy for John and the others that they have found these well respected financial analysts that agree with them so they can feel normal. It’s obviously important to them, and their desire to ride with the status quo has been not only noted but accepted by this YTB’er.

Me, I’ll call it what I choose, and that’s financial responsibility to ensure the viability of the company I’ve grown to know and love. No more, no less.

I’d like to close with this comical find. I was back for a short visit yesterday morning to comment on John’s blog. I was reminded when I returned last evening how far the threads there can be derailed and while amused at not only the direction of the comments, I honestly stopped to ask why people actually spend time posting there.

It’s not unusual for threads there to wonder off in totally different directions and tangents. There was yet another “outing” of an RTA to show how stupid YTB’ers are, which escalated to a couple of RTA’s who are planning a group trip to the Inauguration of Barak Obama in Washington, DC on January 20th.

Honestly, travel happens to be this small groups first love and obvious level of expertise. This group of Professionals began to discuss how much better they would have been able to organize and schedule a trip like this.

Both questions and details of the trip were discussed among the group and many pointed to the scheduling, location, and supplier. Obviously finding all sorts of problems with how the group was formed, and the potential pitfalls of a group like this at that time of year. Links of the promotion were provided to both a WHAM forum and from there Regina Osei’s post highlighting the details of the trip they were attempting to discredit and derail.

Not all that odd or uncommon for our Traditionalists to offer their knowledge or expertise on how much better they can plan trips for clients. Just take a closer look and compare the comments with the actual promotion found in Regina Osei’s post. John in his usual excitement over finding a possible trip for his vultures to rip apart he incorrectly told the group that the trip to the Inauguration departed from Frostburg, Maryland.

Typical of the group, and much like authors of all those articles John eluded to earlier, the group blindly followed John’s statement of departure from Frostburg. They spent an exorbitant amount of time discussing this and began pull up MapQuest directions of the 150 mile, 3 hour trip, and also discussed just who the trip was scheduled with. One did in fact ask if American Destinations was involved, but nobody bothered to check, and nary a soul figured out that the trip left from Fredrick, Maryland (not Frostburg) through American Destinations who schedules HUNDREDS of tours throughout the Washington DC area on a yearly basis.

I was laughing so hard, I couldn’t bring myself to ruining their fun. So I just let it be and we’ll just let it be our little secret.

How odd that these are the same people who are telling everyone that WE don’t know a thing about travel and that WE are the embarrassment to the travel industry.

Go figure.

Doug & Ronda Bauknight
AKA: TravelPro
Travel Agent / Networker
Phone: 678.458.5812

Learn How To Become A Travel Agent

Book Your Travel & Vacations With

I’ve enjoyed the last couple of days watching the critics swarm around the virtual water coolers on the internet just licking their chops for the third quarter numbers to come out. I checked one of my favorite places and laughed at how anxious they were. It reminded me of a bunch of addicts waiting for some dealer to show up so they could get their fix. It’s been more than 19 years since my last drink or drug, but I still remember waiting with anxious anticipation for THAT car being the guy with my next score.

Imagine their surprise when the dealer ends up being an undercover Cop to bust them.

On what charge you say? Being F.O.S. (Think about it.)

The speculation of course was that YTB has been bleeding money, and Management doesn’t know how to manage the money they have. When news broke earlier in the week over the pending sale of the old Home Office building it was because YTB was in a cash crunch. It had nothing to do with the fact we have a gorgeous new 130,000 square-foot complex to move into. No, we needed the money because our critics were absolutely sure that there would be yet another huge loss for YTB.

Why? Because recruiting is down, and the focus of course (actually “phobia” is a much better choice of words) has always been about the recruiting. Their theory is that if you can cut the recruiting off at the knees you cut the life blood of the pariah that consumes and controls your life.

How I would have loved to see the looks on the faces when critics opened the YTB 10-Q and saw a profit for Q3 of $287,999.

Surprise!

So what went wrong? How could the critics have been so far off base? (Again)

Simple. They don’t have the first clue how a Network Marketing business actually operates and stays solvent. (I’ll even go as far as stating ANY business for that matter.) This quarterly provides proof that it’s not about “recruiting” and the Kool-aid they’ve been drinking is spiked with nothing but rumors, lies and myths.

None of these characters have any actually experience in Network Marketing, and the knowledge they acquire to form their beliefs and opinions isn’t even “book learning” for the most part. Many of the beliefs are formed from the very massage boards and blogs they participate in. The blind leading the blind so to speak, so it’s not at all surprising that everyone ended up looking like dolts.

I don’t know, nor do I care if they’ll ever grasp that the money made in selling travel agencies goes directly out to the field. Every penny of the $449.95 from the sale of a travel agency is tied to the representatives who sold it. If you like that idea, you can join the ranks of YourTravelBiz.com for free by the way. And “free” negates the California complaint according to the letter of the law. But that’s yet another surprise we have for our critics.

The number critics were looking for certainly showed up with a mere 114,614 active RTA’s at the end of the quarter, a decrease of 13% from the previous quarter. Sales of travel agencies were cut more than half, down from 38k in Q3 of 2007 to 15k the current quarter.

So how in the world could YTB show anything other than massive bleeding and negative numbers?

Here’s a quick breakdown of the numbers.

• Online travel store sales increased $1,205,560 or 10.8%
• Monthly renewal fees increased $576,579 or 3.3%
• Travel commissions and services increased $2,478,103 or 44.8%
• Training programs and marketing materials revenue decreased ($1,843,333) or 40.8%
• Other income increased in the third quarter by $590,203 or 52.7%

Net revenues totaled $42,876,354 and $39,869,242 in the third quarter of 2008 and 2007, respectively, a slight increase of 7.5%.

Expenses also increased considerably year over year with the following breakdown.

• Depreciation and amortization increased of 123.0% or $374,274.
• Marketing and selling expenses increased by $825,865 or 152.0%
• General and administrative expenses increased 50.7% or $6,242,058.

So let’s me see if we have this right? We had a decrease in RTA’s, increased expenditures, but increased revenue for a quarterly profit of $288K?

Yep. The numbers don’t lie, that’s exactly what happened and our critics are busy scratching their heads wondering what happened.

What’s so much fun to watch is that after Q2 reports came out, and predictions of up to $6 million in losses bit them in the gluteus maximus, we were told to wait until Q3. Excuses started to emerge just like they are now. The spin and claims now are that none of the additional slander and junk they’ve been spinning has had time to take full effect. The California suit had just been announced, and ambulance chasers decided to get into the action as well to spread fear about the end of YTB mid quarter. Now that those allegations have come up lame these very same people who simply ignored the egg on their face last quarter are looking once again into the unknown. Believe it or not, we’re all supposed to wait until the Annual Report for them to show us they’re right and we’re wrong. How fun it is watching them weasel their way out of yet another speculative blunder.

For the record, I don’t know why they do it. It’s almost as if they like looking like clowns. I think a more accurate description would be that their entire existence revolves around proving their superior knowledge and understanding about any subject of conversation. It could be taxes, travel, ethics, stocks, laws, compliance, you name it. If it’s being discussed around the virtual water coolers on the internet, they always appear to be the guy or gal who’s “in the know”.

And a simple word of caution when it comes to correcting any of them. Don’t. You’ll be called every name in the book, as they attempt to shame you into submission among the other participants. Looking at this intelligently or rationally will have you scorned until you either give up or conform to their way of thinking. My best advice is to just smile and nod in a positive manor and when you turn your back you can then roll your eyes, or smirk and chuckle to yourself how insecure and desperate they are.

So we’ll just have to wait, AGAIN, for the promise of our critics showing us that this model just doesn’t work. It’s flawed because all the money is made recruiting people. When the recruiting dries up like it has, we’re promised that the house of cards we’ve built will come crashing down.

Do you really want to worry about such nonsense and spin? Or would you rather look at the fact that YTB turned a profit under the combined adversity of mud slinging and economic conditions?

The choice is yours.

Doug & Ronda Bauknight
AKA: TravelPro
Travel Agent / Networker
Phone: 678.458.5812

Learn How To Become A Travel Agent

Book Your Travel & Vacations With