Vision Quest Virtual Tours is excited to have been chosen by two teams from the University of Illinois for a small business marketing project.  The teams were given several small businesses to choose from and will work on a group project this semester analyzing our business and coming up with suggestions for our business.  We shared our marketing challenges and goals and they will spend the next few months creating a project with suggestions on how we can improve our marketing.  

We will be working with each group of students to give them suggestions and help them learn more about our business and then they will create a 17-25 page project that we will receive in April.  We have been invited to attend the student presentation the end of April and definitely hope that we can be there.  As an added bonus after the end of the semester, we will receive an information and recommendation sheet for social media from the instructor, Dr. Mark Wolters.

I have a degree in Public Relations and have been in marketing for a very long time but I am so excited to hear the recommendations of these groups.  I just don’t have the time to spend doing this sort of project on my own between all of our other responsibilities.  There is no way we could afford to pay for a marketing analysis of this magnitude.  We cannot wait to see what the groups find!

If you own a small business, your local university can offer some great opportunities for you.  My niece is currently the Director of Marketing for the Memorial Hospital of Adel in Adel, GA and she got this job after serving her internship for the hospital while getting her Master’s in Public Administration at Valdosta State University (my alma mater!!).  Her internships gave her a chance to try out several different fields and gave the hospital a chance to see the quality of her work and work ethics prior to hiring her.  

Vision Quest Virtual Tours provides 360º virtual tours for healthcare, hospitality and education.  To learn more, visit us at www.VisionQuestVirtualTours.com or call us at 404-863-9769.

Before we started Vision Quest Virtual Tours, I worked for a therapeutic boarding school that had been embroiled in a multi-million dollar lawsuit.  The bulk of the lawsuit was thrown out by the judge and a small portion was settled but the mother who initiated the suit had a vendetta that lasted until the school eventually closed.  The school survived the lawsuit but did not survive the onslaught of internet attacks that this mother led.  A Google search for the school’s name yielded the school’s website first and second and our virtual tour as the third  listing but the fourth through seventh items that are returned were negative attacks.

These vicious and somewhat baseless attacks were led by this woman but appeared to come from several disparate sources.  Because they seemed to come from a variety of sources, they appeared to have merit in the eyes of the prospective parents I talked to.  Since the third item that came up in the Google search was the virtual tour, I was able to separate the truth about the school from much of misinformation that was out there.

We get about 1,500 hits per month to our website but even more importantly than that, we drive those hits from dozens of different sources. My experience at the school made me realize the importance of variety in Search Engine Optimization.  We blog regularly and submit our tours and blogs to over 40 different websites and we get lots of web exposure as a result.  If you search “Vision Quest Virtual Tours” on Google, there are two full pages about us before anyone else even shows up.  This is a big deal because our name Vision Quest  and the term Virtual Tours are pretty generic terms that are used by many other companies. 

The Google search for our name returns references from 16 different websites in the first three pages alone!  Google juice comes from having lots of different backlinks to your website.  The fact that someone searching for our name yields returns from not only our website but from 15 other sources on just the first three pages helps to boost our credibility.  Many people who do a search for our company aren’t really looking for more information as much as they are for validation that we are who we say we are.

The very first Google result that refers to anything other than our company is on the third page and is titled “Co-Ed Naked Networking on Vision Quest Retreats”.  While our web content is scintillating, I am pretty sure that Co-Ed Naked Networking would catch the eye of anyone who is searching the web in the same way that the negative posts caught the eye of people who searched for the school.  When someone searches for our company, I want them to be thinking about virtual tours - not co-ed naked networking!

Vision Quest Virtual Tours photographs high definition 360º panoramic virtual tours all over the country.  We specialize in the areas of healthcare, hospitality and education.  We have photographed tours in 31 states but when we aren’t on the road, we split our time between Charleston, SC and Quincy, IL.  Vision Quest Virtual Tours is owned by husband and wife team Greg and Paige Mitts and the only co-ed naked networking we do is with each other!  To learn more or to schedule a tour, visit us online at www.VisionQuestVirtualTours.com or call us at 404-863-9769.

There’s an old saying that being an artist is a great way to earn a living as long as you don’t starve to death first. Owning your own virtual tour business is a 100% commission deal.  You only get paid if you get someone to buy your services.  This can be frustrating for someone who has great technical skills and is a great photographer. It was the same when I was in the financial services world - the most technically proficient and skilled planners were often the worst salespeople and were shocked that no one wanted to use their services.

At Vision Quest Virtual Tours, we have a clearly defined business model that works well for us.  Our primary focus is healthcare, hospitality and education.  This business model fits well for our unique situation because we have no kids or pets and therefore have the ability to travel on a full time basis.  We enjoy shooting real estate virtual tours but until recently we did not pursue that business because of our travel schedule.  We now have a photographer in our home town whom we trust and who can shoot those tours for us when we are on the road.  The great thing about real estate virtual tours is that once the relationship is built, there is the potential for a consistent stream of income.

While what we do works for us, we never want to imply that our business model is ideal for everyone or is the only way.  The great thing about owning your own virtual tour business is that you can set up your business however YOU choose.  By choosing a great partner like we have in RTV, Inc., we can focus as much or as little time as we want to our business and still offer a fantastic product.

Our only source of income is virtual tours however there is absolutely nothing wrong with having your virtual tour business be a part time venture and having something else be your core business or main source of income.  I believe that there are a few keys to making a part time virtual tour business work.

• Differentiate between part time and spare time.  If you are working a full time job and/or have a family, then there is really no such thing as spare time.  You must be diligent about making time for your business on a consistent basis.  If you do nothing other than make one new contact a day, you will eventually see results.  Set a finite minimum goal for every week.  I prefer to not make that a time goal but instead an objective goal.  My goal is to make 100 new contacts a week.  Perhaps a part time goal would be to make one new contact every day and a total of 10 for the week.  The key is consistency.

• Create your unique value proposition.  At Vision Quest Virtual Tours, we photograph high quality virtual tours at a reasonable price in the areas of healthcare, hospitality and education.  That does not mean that we don’t do other types of tours but by knowing what our value proposition is, I can then target my marketing approach.  Your value proposition is based on your specific skills - you can choose to compete based on superior photography skills, being the most efficient and better value, based on knowledge of a specific business, etc. 

• Count the cost.  I talk about this a great deal because I have seen so many people enthusiastically throw their hat into the self employment ring and end up failing miserably because they did not count the cost ahead of time.  There is a ramping up period that is inevitable in any new business.  Owning a virtual tour business requires a relatively low initial investment compared to other types of businesses but it is also not type of business where the business flows in as soon as you announce you are in business.  

• Analyze your market.  Is there enough demand for what you want to offer in your local area or are you going to have to expand into neighboring communities?  We live in a small town with 40,000 people and ours is the largest town in the region. If we were tied only to the local area, there would not be enough business for us to operate long term on a full time basis.  We chose where we live because it is centrally located and allows us to easily travel from coast to coast.

• Consider the rewards.  What if your virtual tour business only generates an extra $500 a month of income?  For most people, that amount of money makes a huge difference in their lives.  An extra $500 a month would make a huge difference in what type of car you can drive, how quickly you pay off your debt, what kind of vacation you can take, what kind of house you can afford.  What would an extra $500 a month do for you?

Having a good business plan is vital to running a successful business in the long run.  Again, whether that business is for extra income or your full time job, having a plan lets you measure your success.  No one should ever misunderstand us to say that ours is the only viable or worthwhile business model.

Have you found a way to do what you love and get paid for it?  Do you have a clear understanding of your natural gifts and abilities?  

Plato said, “All things will be produced in superior quantity and quality, and with greater ease, when each man works at a single occupation, in accordance with his natural gifts, and at  the right moment, without meddling with anything else.”  One of the greatest experiences of my life has been the chance to do work that fits with my natural gifts and even better than that is finding work that combines my natural gifts with my husband’s natural gifts and allows us to work together.

We feel lucky that our ONLY business is Vision Quest Virtual Tours.  We found a market that allows us to do nothing other than photograph virtual tours without having to do other types of photography.  Because of our crystal clear focus and understanding of what we do well, we are able to produce superior quality work with relative ease.

I watch Greg creating tours and know that if I were to try to do what he does, it would take me four times longer if I didn’t give up in frustration long before then.  He is the technical one in our partnership.  He knows the shortcuts in Photoshop, he has developed systems to allow him to build multiple tours at the same time, he knows what he is looking for when color correcting an image. By the time Greg is finished creating a virtual tour, he has taken the images through five or six different software programs but he makes it look easy because he is working within his area of expertise.

Greg listens to me on the phones and is amazed at how easy it is for me to talk to people about our virtual tour business.  I LOVE calls like the one I got today where the client told me that his web guy said he didn’t need the virtual tour and I got to overcome a laundry list of objections.  I have spent hours on the phone over several months and today he finally got it! I was able to answer all of his questions and we are doing 8 virtual tours for him next week.  That sort of thing fires me up but I understand that wouldn’t be the case for someone who doesn’t share my natural gifts and skills.  Talking to someone 20 or more times before they say yes gives me a huge sense of accomplishment! 

If you haven’t already found a way to get paid to do something you love, consider taking the time to write down a description of your ideal lifestyle.  What would your work hours be?  What would your role be in the company?  Who would you work with?  What special skills and talents do you bring to the table?  Then look at your current life and ask yourself “What is keeping me from living my dream?” 

By knowing ahead of time what your vision is, you can recognize it when the right moment comes along.

Vision Quest Virtual Tours provides high quality virtual tours for heathcare, hospitality and education.  We have photographed tours in 31 states but when we are not on the road, we split our time between Charleston, SC and Quincy, IL.  To learn more or to schedule a tour, visit us online at www.VisionQuestVirtualTours.com.

Many years ago, I was involved with starting a financial services business.  We had hundreds of independent agents who sold products through us.  These were not our employees but rather a volunteer army who chose to align themselves under our company and use our products and systems.  My business partner had much more patience dealing with these people and was an inspiring leader however there was always that one person who could never be satisfied.  After dealing with one such problem agent, I said disgustedly, “I don’t know why you let him treat you that way.”  I will never forget his response as it has changed the way I view the world.  He laughed at my statement and said, “Paige, I don’t have any control over what people do to me.  The only thing I can control is how I react.”  He passed away almost 7 years ago but those words ring in my ears almost every day and they are perhaps the greatest gift he ever gave me.

I feel like I am writing a book report as I finish my blogs about the Traveler’s Gift, by Andy Andrews, I cannot help but share the valuable insights from this book.  The final three Decisions shared in the book are all about choosing how we react to the circumstances of life:

• Today I choose to be happy.  I am the possessor of a grateful spirit.
• I will greet this day with a forgiving spirit.  I will forgive myself.
• I will persist without exception.  I am a person of great faith.

It’s hard sometimes to remember that we choose our attitude.  During an extremely difficult time in my life, I made the decision to conquer grief and depression and instead focus only on positive things.  I got rid of my cable subscription and made cd’s of only positive and uplifting music to listen to instead.  I read books that were positive and every night before I went to bed, I would list the things that I had to be thankful for.  The list got longer every day as I began to change my choices and LOOK for things to be thankful for.  I began to let go of past hurts and grievances and instead choose to forgive others and myself for mistakes of the past.

Choosing to have a good attitude does NOT mean ignoring the reality and circumstances of your life but rather choosing to focus on what you can change instead of dwelling on what you can’t.  There are a million excuses why something can’t be done but there are always at least a handful of reasons why it CAN at least be attempted.  If I fail, I want it to be because I tried everything possible to succeed.  Only then can I rest knowing that I did my best.

This is not to say that you don't need to carefully consider an endeavor before starting it, it just means that one should weigh the costs and decide whether or not to go for it.  We started our virtual tour business at the peak of the recession.  We were broke and unemployed and in the middle of a terrible economy but we took advantage of an opportunity and have turned it into the business of our dreams.  If we stop to look at the obstacles we face and the odds against us, then we might never have started on this journey and oh what a mistake that would have been!

The book The Traveler’s Gift by Andy Andrew is about Seven Decisions That Determine Personal Success and I am reflecting on how these decisions apply to our virtual tour business. I wrote earlier about the first Decision - “The buck stops here. I am responsible for my past and my future.”  The next three decisions are somewhat interrelated as they are all about our actions.

The second Decision of the book came from King Solomon and was “I will seek wisdom. I will be a servant to others”.  It seems strange that the man who is considered the wisest man ever would advise the traveler to seek wisdom.  But there is truth in the idea that the more you learn, the more you realize how little you know.  Our virtual tour technology provider, RTV, Inc. has a national conference that we will be attending in May.  I will be teaching other virtual tour providers about how to market their virtual tour business but the real reason we are attending is to learn from other virtual tour dealers about their best practices.  Even after almost 15 years as a professional photographer, Greg is always open to learn better ways of improving his skills and systems as a photographer. 

The third Decision of the book is “I am a person of action. I seize this moment. I choose now.”  This decision was shared by a Civil War colonel at a critical time in the war.  Given the choice to surrender or charge, the colonel gave the order to charge and in doing so changed the outcome of the war. 

Quitting is often a temptation but as the colonel in the book said, “When I am faced with the choice of doing nothing or doing something, I will always choose to act.”  Most of us will never face a physical battlefield but we must make this same decision on a daily basis in the battlefields of our minds.  Armed with this simple philosophy, we can usually win our battle at least for the day.

I have found a way to work my way through a quagmire is often not to focus on the big picture but instead to break my actions down into manageable pieces.  I have a goal of making at least 100 contacts every week and that number can be overwhelming so when faced with the temptation to take a break or quit before the end of the day, I force myself to make 5 more calls.  Usually, the 5 turns into 10 and the 10 turns into 20 but by deciding to do SOMETHING, I am often able to get over the hump.

The fourth Decision, “I have a decided heart. My destiny is assured” was shared with the traveler by Christopher Columbus during his journey to find the New World.  Armed with little other than a dream, Columbus was passionate about his vision of an undiscovered land.  This passion allowed him to push on despite months of travel with no land in sight...and despite the fact that almost everyone thought he was crazy to try. 

Having your own business requires just this sort of determination - especially the sales part.  Like I said earlier, I know that when I am calling for a new area, I need to make about 100 calls in order to book two or three tours.  What that means is that I am going to get no one on the phone or get told NO about 97 times a week.   I got an email last week from a business that said they were interested in doing a tour but needed to pass for now.  I exclaimed my disappointment and Greg said, “I think sometimes you think everybody that shows any interest is a Yes”. 

I realized at that minute that there’s a reason that he’s the photographer and technical guy and I’m the salesman.  He’s right...I absolutely believe that everybody that I talk to would benefit from what I am selling because before I call, I have researched their websites to see if a virtual tour would be a good addition to their marketing efforts.  I know the value and quality of our tours so I am absolutely flabbergasted every time someone tells me “No”.  If I did not think that way, I would become overwhelmed by the 97 No’s I get and I would want to quit making the calls.

But like Columbus, even though I may not see dry land, I have a clear vision of where I am going and I know without a doubt that if I put in the hours on the phones, the results and my destiny are guaranteed.  There are many things you can’t control when you own your own business but you ARE in control of your actions and your attitude.  

To learn more about us or to schedule a tour, visit www.VisionQuestVirtualTours.com.

“One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree. Which road do I take? she asked. Where do you want to go? was his response. I don't know, Alice answered. Then, said the cat, it doesn't matter.” - Alice in Wonderland

Lewis Carroll’s classic “Alice in Wonderland” tells us that if we don’t know where we are going, then it really doesn’t matter what road we are on.  Unfortunately, many people run their small businesses with the same philosophy as Alice. 

It is easier to get back from somewhere you’ve been than it is to go somewhere you’ve never been before.  One of the easiest ways to set your goals at the beginning of the year is to examine what you accomplished the previous year. 

At Vision Quest Virtual Tours, we specialize in Healthcare, Hospitality and Education.  Our goal is to focus our marketing efforts and business in these specific areas.  Our year end numbers prove that these marketing efforts paid off as 90.5% of our business came from those areas.  For 2011, 52% of our income came from healthcare virtual tours and boarding school virtual tours.  For that same time period, 38.5% of our income came from hospitality - vacation rentals, bed and breakfasts, inns and hotels. 

It’s not that we don’t do virtual tours in other areas but because we know what our market is, that is where we focus our efforts.  We did about 5.5% of our business last year for residential real estate and the remaining 3% were a variety of different businesses.

Unlike Alice, because where we want to go, we have a much better idea of which road to take...which is a very good thing because in 2011 we photographed 350 virtual tours in 31 states!

It’s been said that the IRS Tax code is about ten times bigger than the Bible but the difference is that the Tax Code doesn’t contain any good news.  In the Bible, Jesus said, “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.”  Many people dream of owning their own business but do not really have a plan for determining if that business is going to be viable.  In looking at a starting a business, it’s important to look at long range profitability as well as short term viability.   

If you are considering starting a business, look not only at the long term profitability but also the short term expenses involved in start up.  One of the big downfalls for small businesses is not being prepared for taxes at the end of the year.  Because we are self employed, we knew what our end of year income was on 12/31 and because Greg does such a great job as the CFO of our virtual tour business, I also knew exactly what our expenses were for the year.  Last week, I gathered all the information for our taxes and did a preliminary estimate of what our tax situation will be. 

2011 was our first full year in business so we had no idea what we would owe in taxes therefore we did not send in quarterly estimated payments.  With much anticipation and a little apprehension, I calculated our taxes and realized that we are going to end up writing a pretty good check to Uncle Sam.  At first I was unhappy that we didn’t have enough write offs to offset more of the taxes but in retrospect, I am pretty excited.

Owing taxes means that Vision Quest Virtual Tours made a significant profit in our first full year in business.  We shot 350 tours in 31 states last year so we have almost 39,000 BUSINESS miles that we can write off for the year.  At 51 or 55 cents a mile, that is a significant write off.  We are able to write off our phones, internet, meals, uniforms, advertising, supplies...if you own your own business, you know that the list goes on.  Even after all of the deductions, we still owed a good bit.  As hard as it is to write a big check to the IRS, our hope is that we owe twice that much next year because as small business owners, we only pay taxes on our PROFIT!

Starting our virtual tour business was something we did after lots of research and planning.  We operated the business on a part time basis the previous year and made enough to cover all of our start up costs.  On December 30, 2010, I quit my full time job and we dove headfirst into the self employed world.  We went full time only when we knew we had enough consistent and projected income to make the business viable for the first year.  Because we had done a great deal of preparation in the year before we pulled the full time plug, we were ready when the opportunity presented itself.

We credit much of our success to having a great partner who allows us to focus on what we do best.  Originally established in 1999 as RealtorVision and now RTV, Inc. proudly supports Vision Quest Virtual Tours as well as over 100 thousand real estate agents in 27 countries.  They are the largest full service virtual tour and property marketing network in the World and yet allow us the autonomy to run our own business and make our own decisions.  With them acting as our back office, we can focus on photographing and building virtual tours and let them focus on things like research and development of new technology and hosting our tours.

If you are considering starting your own business, count the costs and weigh the risks.  Statistics will tell you that between 50 - 90% of small business fail within the first year and yet the dream of many people is still to own their own business and defy those odds.  We are living proof that the rewards far outweigh the risks!!

Vision Quest Virtual Tours is owned by Greg and Paige Mitts.  We specialize in virtual tours for healthcare, hospitality and education.  To schedule a tour or learn more, visit us at www.VisionQuestVirtualTours.com or give us a call at 843-410-4701.

I just finished reading the book “The Traveler’s Gift” by Andy Andrews and it had a profound impact on me.  This simple little book describes the journey of a man who travels back through history to learn important lessons from historical figures such as Christopher Columbus and Abraham Lincoln.  As I read the book, I couldn’t help but think about how these same lessons apply in my life and business.  The subtitle of the book - Seven Decisions that Determine Personal Success - refers to these seven lessons.

The first decision was explained by Harry Truman and the lesson is that “The Buck Stops Here” or in other words, we all must take personal responsibility for where we are.  Andrews writes, “I am where I am today -- mentally, physically, spiritually, emotionally, and financially -- because of how I think”.  In order to change where I am, I must change how I think. 

How I think determines how I act and the decisions I make.  The decisions I make today, directly control the outcome of where I am tomorrow.  Every day we face the cumulative effect of all the other decisions we have made.  I have a terrible habit of staying up way too late which means I wake up late which means I lose valuable business hours. I have the same amount of hours that everyone else does in a day but it’s how I utilize them that determines my success. 

Not only must I focus on working hard, I must also work smart.  Not all of those hours are equal.  Sure it would be a great idea for me to go for a run but right now may not be the ideal time for that.  A run would take me away from my desk during business hours and right now I need to be talking to people about virtual tours.

We feel blessed to have a successful virtual tour business, Vision Quest Virtual Tours.  We frequently hear people tell us that we are so lucky or that they are jealous of the life we live but many decisions go into our success.  Here are 7 of the decisions that were critical in getting us where we are today:

1. We chose to downsize our stuff so we could supersize our lifestyle.  We live in a tiny house with a tiny payment and very little overhead.  We have just one car.  Because we have chosen to travel, we don’t need a bunch of stuff or a big house.  Because we don’t have a bunch of stuff, we are free to travel. 

2. We live entirely on cash and have chosen not to utilize credit cards.  This sometimes affects where we are able to travel or the timing of certain purchases but it gives us a sense of certainty in knowing that we haven’t gone into debt to start or run our business.  It also means we have to carefully watch our balance sheet to make sure we are keeping the pipeline of future business full.

3. We decided that one shared income was enough since it meant that we get to work together every single day.  There are times we would love to have at least one steady paycheck but this is the risk we chose in being self employed.  The rewards greatly outweigh the risks.

4. We decided that we would focus our time on what we do best.  For us that is two main lines of business - healthcare and education and Vacation rentals and hospitality.  By having a crystal clear focus, we can streamline our efforts and create an impressive portfolio in those distinct lines.

5. We dedicated our business to serving others and we give back a portion of every dollar we make.  We think “luck” has very little to do with our success so we honor the giver of the gifts through donated tours and charitable contributions.

6. We decided that we would price our virtual tours in a manner that made the accessible to almost any business.  We believe so highly in the value of the virtual tour and have seen what it can do for a business.  We would rather have many smaller jobs than try to gouge a few people.  We believe that by offering a high quality product at a fair value, everyone wins.

7. We decided that having the right partner changes everything and we are so grateful that we chose RTV, Inc. for our virtual tour technology.  They are constantly evolving and refining their systems so we don’t have to spend any of our time, money or efforts on researching and development.  We have a back office that makes us look even better than we are and we are eternally grateful for the support of the RTV team. 

These are Seven Decisions that have helped determine our personal success.  What are the decisions you have made that have gotten you to where you are today?  What decisions could you make that could change where you are tomorrow?  I’ll be blogging about the other decisions over this week but for now, it’s business time and I need to get back on the phones. 

Vision Quest Virtual Tours is a full service virtual tour provider specializing in virtual tours for Healthcare, Hospitality and Education.  We split our time between Charleston, SC and Quincy, IL however have photographed over 350 tours in 31 states.

At Vision Quest Virtual Tours, we photograph all of our tours using High Dynamic Range imaging or HDR.  HDR provides an incredible level of clarity and detail that is not available in traditional photography.  For each individual image, we photograph 9 different exposures and then blend these together to provide an image that shows both the dark and bright areas equally well.  To see the difference that HDR makes, take a look at this tour...http://rtvpix.com/BU-0966-L16DVB-01?h=500&w=700

We photographed 350 tours in 31 states last year and drove 39,000 miles to shoot tours.  We photograph a wide range of virtual tours and our prices range anywhere from $100 to $2,500 depending on the size and scope of the job.  I read a Facebook comment earlier today from a photographer that said that he would not consider shooting using HDR unless it was on a higher price tour because he felt like it was extra work and the extra time made it cost prohibitive. 

That confounds me!  We pride ourselves on providing an excellent product no matter if we are shooting a one bedroom condo or a huge hospital.  Like I said earlier, we charge according to the scope of the job but every single image we shoot is photographed using the 9 exposure technique because it gives us the best results every time...and we think that's why our customers choose to work with us!

By the time we publish a virtual tour, we will have used no less than 6 different software programs to create the end result.  Because of the volume we do, we have streamlined our processes and invested in our systems so that in actuality it takes us almost the same amount of time to shoot a tour using HDR as it does to shoot without it. Even if it does take a little longer, we find it easier to just do our best work every time and trust that it will all even out in the end.

Vision Quest Virtual Tours specializes in virtual tours for Healthcare, Hospitality and Education.  When we are not on the road, we split our time between Charleston, SC and Quincy, IL.  To learn more or to schedule a tour, give us a call at 404-863-9769 or visit us online at www.VisionQuestVirtualTours.com.

Many years ago, I was involved in negotiations to sell a privately owned company to a publicly traded company for $6 million.  The negotiations had gone on for over a year and the final vote of the board of directors was scheduled.  The night before his final presentation at that meeting, the owner and CEO of our company got a phone call that his father had died.  The meeting went on without him and someone else made his final presentation for him.  In the confusion, the wrong materials were presented at the meeting and the deal fell apart. 

I learned from this was that when you are making a sale -- whether it be a $6 million sale or a $60 sale -- no one can tell your story better than you.  This is a lesson I have never forgotten and keep in mind when I am making sales calls.  I believe that I can tell my story with a good voice mail but it’s not unusual to find a business where the person I am trying to reach does not have voice mail and I am asked if I want to leave a message. 

My answer to the question “Can I take a message?” is to simply and politely say that it would probably be easier if I just call back.  I usually say, “Why don’t I just call her back in case I get back on the phone.  That way we don’t have to play phone tag” and then I ask when might be a good time to try back.  I tell the person taking the message who I am and who my company is but then explain that I would prefer to explain what we do and it would be much easier for me to tell that story than ask the receptionist to do it for me.

When I get the chance to talk to a decision maker, I am pretty good at sharing my passion for what we offer in a way that convinces them of the value of a virtual tour for their business.  The challenge is trying to share that passion in a little pink message slip to be interpreted and conveyed by someone else.  This is what I must do when I am asked to leave a message and my preference is not to take that risk.

There are many reasons I want to be the one telling our story.  I am passionate about our virtual tour business.  I am lucky to work with my husband who is also my best friend and I am very proud of his talent as a professional photographer.  We have an incredible portfolio and have worked with leaders in the industries we represent.  I have seen firsthand what having a virtual tour can do for a business.

Again, I find it helpful to tell the person on the phone who I am, what we do and why I am calling because the main job of a receptionist is to act as the gatekeeper and keep pesky salesmen like me from bothering decision makers.  By befriending the person answering the phone, I greatly increase my chances of getting through the next time I call.

Vision Quest Virtual Tours is located in Quincy, IL.  We provide virtual tours in Illinois, Missouri, and Iowa as well as all over the country.  We specialize in healthcare, hospitality and education as well as residential and commercial real estate.  To learn more or to schedule a tour, visit our website at www.VisionQuestVirtualTours.com or give us a call at 404-863-9769.

Vision Quest Virtual Tours has just finished our first virtual tour for Sullivan Auctioneers, LLC .  Sullivan Auctioneers does anywhere from three to 10 estate sales every week.  The items for auction include homes and farmland but also tools, collectibles, antiques and furniture, cars, farm equipment and much more.
The auctioneers list the information about the auction in the local newspaper, create a flyer, and post pictures and information on their website.  Prior to the sale, they catalog the items and hold a preview day prior to the sale where people can come by and take a look.  As with many real estate open houses, the people who come to the open house are often curious neighbors and not seriously interested prospects. 

A virtual tour is a perfect way to provide a preview of the items for sale as well as show the property that is included in the auction.   We did our first virtual tour for them yesterday and were thrilled with the results.  The house is being remodeled so we will go back once it is done and take the interior pictures of the home but this tour allows someone to get a great idea of what is being offered without having to go to the preview day.(click here to view the tour)

We have priced the auction tours a little higher than a plain real estate tour since we will be doing more stills of particular items.  We are looking forward to creating a great partnership with Sullivan Auctioneers and the best news is I get a sneak peek at what is going to be in the auction! 

Vision Quest Virtual Tours provides high quality 360º real estate virtual tours in Quincy, IL and the surrounding areas.  We focus nationally on healthcare virtual tours, school virtual tours, bed and breakfast virtual tours.  To learn more, visit our website at www.VisionQuestVirtualTours.com or give us a call at 404-863-9769.

How many times have you gone in a store and had a salesperson approach you with the same question, “May I help you?”  The standard answer is usually, “No thank you, I’m just looking” even if you are there for a specific reason.  Until we have decided that we want to do business with someone, we don’t want to be engaged or hounded by them.

As the internet has evolved, so have our expectations for websites.  Remember when people used to ask you if you HAD a website?    Now having a website is a given -- if you have a phone number and a business card, you probably should have a website.  The internet has provided us a virtual mall where we can browse around and get a real understanding of our options before actually actually engaging the services of a particular business.

The problem is that many websites today are nothing more than a glorified business card.  The days of just putting pictures and text on your website and asking people to decipher your message are over.  We are so inundated with data that we no longer want to sift through pages of information to find out who you are and what you charge.  As I research prospective customers for our virtual tour business, I am amazed at how often I have to search multiple pages just to find the phone number for the facility much less the name of someone to talk to.  Now granted, I am on the website trying to get this information so that I can sell our virtual tour services to them but MOST people are on a company’s website as potential customers for THEIR services.

Whether we are talking about healthcare facilities and treatment programs, vacation rentals or residential real estate, there is no shortage of competition for business in today’s market.  Most people use internet searches to create a “short list” of options to call later.  I know that’s what I do.  Once I have created a short list, I go back and review all the detailed information to help me further narrow down my choices.  Most of the time, I want a quick overview from the home page that answers my basic questions -- who is this business, what do they do, what makes them special and who do I need to talk to if I am interested.

A virtual tour is a one click way to answer many of those questions.   If the information on the home page interests me, I will then go on to read the rest.  By providing an automatic overview of the program, home or business, the virtual tour allows the prospective customer a chance to walk around without a pesky salesman asking “Can I help you?” 

Vision Quest Virtual Tours provides high quality 360º virtual tours for healthcare, hospitality and education.  We specialize in virtual tours for therapeutic residential treatment programs but we work with any business that wants to give their customers a chance to “look around”.  We are located in Quincy, IL but work with businesses all over the country.  Visit us online at www.VisionQuestVirtualTours.com to see why businesses in over 30 states have chosen us as their marketing partner.

Several of my very wealthy friends were walking through a parking lot together many years ago.  These men had annual incomes ranging from $500,000 to millions.  Near the back was Hubert, the richest of the group.  He was the founder of their company and their mentor.  In the 80’s, Hubert was the first man in his company to make over $3,000,000 in a year and later went on to start his own company. 

As they neared their very expensive cars, Hubert bent down and picked up a quarter.  As he held it up, he asked the other men in the group if they had not seen the quarter on the ground.  Their answers were either that they hadn’t noticed it or hadn’t deemed it worth stopping to pick up because after all, as one man said, it was only a quarter.  Hubert looked at them all with disbelief and said “The day I step over money is the day they put me in the ground.”  Perhaps there’s a reason he was the most successful of the group.

It was Benjamin Franklin who is credited with the quote “Time is Money” but I have most often heard that quote repeated by people who have much more time on their hands than they do money.  I think Hubert would agree with me when I say that Time is Time and Money is Money.  I have been in sales for a long time and if there’s one thing I’ve learned it is how to tell the difference between Time and Money. 

At Vision Quest Virtual Tours, we determine our prices based on the amount of time and effort that a particular job will entail.   We publish guidelines on our website but those prices are often negotiable based on many factors such as our current work load, our travel schedule, the volume of tours a particular client is ordering at a time.

We are working with a ministry that has an extremely limited budget.  I explained to them that if we could do a tour for him on a Saturday before we leave town for a large out of state job, we would do the tour for 1/4 of our normal price.  It is a win/win situation for us -- he gets a high quality virtual tour and we get paid on a day when we would otherwise be sitting home watching television.  Now keep in mind, we are going to sleep late that morning and be home in time to watch the University of Georgia football game that evening.

It’s true that we will invest our time to do the job at a greatly reduced price.  We will have to pay for gas to drive to the job.  It’s true that we will then come home and have to process the job and create the tour.  And yes, we will have to pay for the hosting of the tour.  But at the end of that day, we will have more money in our pockets than we did when we started the day and frankly, Greg will be processing and building the tour as he sits beside me on the sofa watching the University of Georgia football game -- which is where he was going to be anyway!

I have blogged before that a business with no income is a hobby.  It’s true that we are in business to make money and as your business grows, you have to weigh the value of your time.  But I have to laugh when I hear people say that it’s not “worth their time” to leave their house for less than a certain amount of money.  Until there is someone willing to come to our house and pay us for sitting home, we will consider ANY job no matter what the price.

The key is to weigh the cost.  We don’t turn down full price jobs to do discounted tours and when we do a discounted tour, it is with the understanding that we will schedule them around our other customers.  I also spend my time talking to and encouraging new virtual tour providers who call me for advice on how to grow their business...but I schedule them for times when I am in the car between jobs or on the weekends when we are home relaxing - not during peak phone calling hours.

We rarely want to lose money on a job although we look at the big picture. If the job is one that could open other doors for us, is for a ministry that we want to support financially or a new business we want to encourage, we have no problem making less than our normal price or even doing the job for free sometimes. 

We have been blessed in our virtual tour business and we love to give back...whether it is of our time or money.  To end with another quote by Benjamin Franklin,

“For my own part, when I am employed in serving others, I do not look upon myself as conferring favours, but as paying debts. In my travels, and since my settlement, I have received much kindness from men, to whom I shall never have any opportunity of making the least direct return. And numberless mercies from God, who is infinitely above being benefited by our services. Those kindnesses from men, I can therefore only return on their fellow men; and I can only shew my gratitude for these mercies from God, by a readiness to help his other children and my brethren. For I do not think that thanks and compliments, tho’ repeated weekly, can discharge our real obligations to each other, and much less those to our Creator.”

I blogged recently about the impact that blogging has had on the Google rankings for our website, www.Vision Quest Virtual Tours.com.  Over a 60 day period, we watched our daily website hits grow from an average of 10 per day to an average of 30 - 50 per day.  The only thing that we did differently during that time was to blog consistently about our business.

We went from the place where a great month was 350 hits to the point where we were consistently at 1,250 hits for the month.  About that time, life got in the way and I stopped blogging for a few weeks.  We were out of town visiting family, we were packing to move, we were really busy photographing tours...there are plenty of “good excuses”.  But the fact is that Google is a fickle friend!

I don’t pretend to understand the mechanics of Google rankings and analytics but I do know that Google loves blogs or should I say, Google loves fresh blogs.  We blog on our own website as well as over 40 other blog sites and once I write a blog, I get an instant jump in visits to our website.  I get some residual readers over time but it's a trickle compared to what I get when I put in a new blog.  But during the time when I was too busy to blog, I saw a very profound drop in our website hits.  Our hits still maintained some of our momentum but we very quickly dropped from a consistent montly number above 1,250 down to 1,000.  Having worked so hard to get up to 1,000, I got busy with my blogging to make sure it didn't drop again.

The problem with being a small business owner is that you can’t rest on your laurels or past achievements for very long.  My part of the business is sales and marketing and that entails a long to-do list that must be maintained every day or else we will lose momentum in our virtual tour business.  I have now realized that near the top of that to-do list is to keep my blog current and fresh.  The value of Google Analytics is that I can track the results of my efforts.  I can see whether the cold calls I am making and blogs I am writing are driving traffic to the sight.  I've always said that you can't expect what you don't inspect and Google Analytics allows me to inspect my results.

Since Google’s constant question seems to be “What have you done for me lately?” and I’m going to be pretty busy for the next two weeks, I am writing several blogs over the next few days so I have them ready to post over the next few weeks.  After all, Google doesn't make exceptions for you when you're too busy!

After spending most of today out on the lake, I went out to dinner with a baseball cap and no make up on.  Now, I am not one of those women who can pull off the all natural look so I spend a great deal of time most mornings putting on makeup in an effort to look natural.  The goal of everyday makeup is to put on enough that you look pretty but not so much that all people notice is the make up.  Have you ever seen a woman with too bright lipstick or way too much eyeliner?  If you were to try to describe her later you’d likely not be able to say what color her eyes were but you could sure describe that eyeliner.

Preparing for a virtual tour is much like putting on make-up.  The goal is to achieve a natural look without catching the eye of the viewer on a detail that isn’t what you want to show.  I believe the key to preparing for a 360 degree virtual tour is to stand in the middle of the room, turn in a circle and see what catches your eye.  Obviously you want to remove out and out clutter but there are other things that can cause a distraction when viewing a picture of a room.

Here are some things that are we find eye catching - and not in a good way.

1. Trash Cans -- One thing that we always try to move are trash cans.  Unless a trash can in a room is part of the decor, we move them out of the picture.
2. Mini blinds -- The metal ones are are notorious for hanging crooked or getting bent and this grabs my attention.  With a little adjusting, we can usually either pull the blinds up or straighten out the slats so that it doesn’t show.
3. Dust Ruffles/Bed Skirts -- These things somehow get pulled out of place when the bed is made so I try to make sure that the bedspread is even and the bed skirt is straight.
4. Light Bulbs -- The first thing I do when I go into a place to photograph is turn on all the lights and nine times out of ten, there’s at least one light bulb burned out somewhere in the house.  We don’t always have access to extra light bulbs so I am frequently moving hot light bulbs from one room to the next as we shoot.
5. Lamp Shades -- Speaking of turning on lights, lamp shades are another nemesis of mine.  Crooked lamp shades jump right out of the picture.  In addition to leveling them, I also try to remember to turn lamp shades so the seam is in the back.
6. Pictures and Mirrors -- Art, like makeup, can really enhance a room but a crooked picture is like smeared lipstick in my mind.  Sometimes pictures are hung crooked but most of the time you can nudge it a little and get it straight.
7. Papers and sticky notes -- I have a terrible memory so I understand the need to tack reminders all over the house but when it comes to taking the pictures, this little reminders just look like clutter.  Take them down for the picture and then stick them right back up.
8. Refrigerator Displays -- We all like to tack things on our refrigerator door but when taking a picture in a kitchen, we clear off the front of the fridge.

These are just a few of the things that we try to look for before starting to photograph but when I stand in the middle of the room and turn in a circle, there are often others that I see.  If you don’t pay attention to the little things, you may look back and realize they were the big things.

(Final line of this blog was a paraphrase of a great quote by Richard Brault -- “Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.” )

Vision Quest Virtual Tours specializes in 360º tours for healthcare, hospitality and education.  For more information, please visit our website at www.VisionQuestVirtualTours.com.

Barbara Streisand is universally known as one of the most talented singers of all time but what many people don’t know is that she struggles with intense stage fright after forgetting the words to a song she was singing at a concert in 1967.  Said Streisand in an interview with ABC news, "I didn't sing and charge people for 27 years because of that night ... I was like, 'God, I don't know. What if I forget the words again?'" Streisand returned to the stage in the early 1990s.

I have been in sales for years and making cold calls is an integral part of sales.  But I will be the first to admit that I still get butterflies in my stomach every time I sit down to make calls.   Given the chance, I could probably find enough excuses to put off cold calling for 27 years.  The problem is that if I don't sell, we don't eat so I have to find a way to overcome my cold call stage fright every time I pick up the phones.

I love CLOSING sales because I am a very competitive person and closed sales is how you keep score in my world.  Part of closing sales though is getting through all of the No’s and overcoming objections and making it through the gatekeeper to talk to the person you need.  I believe that some of the butterflies that I get when I sit down to call are just adrenaline and excitement of getting to do what I love.  Some of the butterflies are from knowing that Greg can't photograph what I don't sell so no matter how good he is on the back end, the front end is up to me and I don't want to disappoint him.  Some of the jitters are from plain out fear of the unknown because face it, there are a lot of unknowns when you make cold calls.

Keep in mind, I have great confidence in our company Vision Quest Virtual Tours.  I believe that virtual tours make a huge difference in the marketing efforts of the businesses I am calling and in the lives of people who own the homes and businesses we photograph.  I know that I am good on the phones and can build rapport with my clients.  When stage fright comes -- and it always does -- I have to remind myself that our customers are excited when we come to do their virtual tours.

My very first call this morning started with my standard question, “Have you considered adding a virtual tour to your website?”   The answer was, “Yes, we were just talking about it yesterday but I wasn’t sure who to call.”  I’ll admit that not all of my phone calls go that well or else I probably wouldn’t have the jitters when I sit down to make calls...BUT enough of them do that I keep calling and can estimate a predictable stream of income when I overcome my fears and put in the effort.

What we do has the potential to change people’s lives -- the home owner who sells their house because of the tour, the business who sees their business increase because their customers have a vision of what they do, the client who decides to get treatment they need because their fears are allayed by seeing where they will be going.  It’s worth fighting through the nerves because what we do matters.  At the end of the day, even if I haven’t closed a sale, I have shared information about a valuable service that we provide and I know that the Yes is always worth it no matter how many No’s I hear.

Vision Quest Virtual Tours specializes in virtual tours for healthcare, hospitality and education.  We believe that when making big decisions, the big picture makes a big difference.  To learn more, please visit us online at www.VisionQuestVirtualTours.com or give us a call at 404-863-9769.

We are moving.  But not just moving, we are downsizing - a lot!  Both of us lived in big houses before we met but shortly after we got married, we downsized into a small two bedroom duplex.  Now we are downsizing even more -- from 884 square feet, two bedrooms, big closets and a storage area to a one bedroom that is probably less than 650 square feet, has one bedroom, one tiny closet and very little storage.

We travel most of the year with our virtual tour business, Vision Quest Virtual Tours, so the original plan had been to  give up our little apartment and put everything in storage but the thought of being homeless was abandoned when we found this amazing little house right on the Mississippi River.  It is in Quincy, IL where my husband Greg grew up and where most of his family lives.

We fell in love when we saw the first sunset off the dock and knew that we had found our home.  Greg snapped some quick pictures and did some panoramas and created a virtual tour so we could show family and friends our new place.  We only had about three weeks from the first time we saw the place until we load the U-Haul.  Furthermore, we have a two month trip to California and Oregon so we won’t be moving in until the end of October.  Everything we own will be in storage for two months while we are on that trip and I had two weeks to pack it all up.

I got a great understanding of the value of a real estate virtual tour from this experience.    We only looked at one house and we knew we had found our home.  I can’t imagine working with a realtor and looking at multiple homes and trying to keep them straight from notes or snapshots.  We only saw the house a few times and I am relying on the virtual tour to decide what comes with us and what we are giving away or selling.  Sure, I measured walls but it’s hard to envision how things will work without seeing the actual layout and that’s something I would not have had without our virtual tour.

People often ask us why we charge by the job instead of by the image and the answer is because we think that a virtual tour should really give you a chance to look around and get the big picture and we take as many pictures as necessary to tell the story.  We shoot a combination of 360º spins, partial panoramas and still images so that the viewer can really see the space.  Because I have that tour, I have been able to see how our furniture will fit, where the pictures will hang, what size curtain rods I need to take, where my dishes and kitchen stuff will go.  I have donated stuff that just doesn’t work in the new space.

I can close my eyes and see the sun setting over the Mississippi River from our deck but I am not as good at remembering how many cabinets are in the kitchen.  I would never have understood how valuable real estate virtual tours are without this experience.

Vision Quest Virtual Tours will be moving to Quincy, IL as of October 30th.  We specialize in 360º virtual tours for healthcare, hospitality and education but after seeing how helpful the virtual tour is to a home buyer, we will be offering our services to real estate agents as well!  For more information, visit us at www.VisionQuestVirtualTours.com or give us a call at 404-863-9769.

It would seem logical that when you are starting a new business, your best prospective clients will be your friends and family.  But think about it, Jesus was the son of God and even his family didn’t think he knew what he was doing.  Matthew 6:4 says, Then Jesus told them, “A prophet is honored everywhere except in his own hometown and among his relatives and his own family.”  It may seem counterintuitive but I’m going to have to go with Jesus on this one.

We live in a town whose main industry is tourism and there are dozens of businesses locally who would benefit from the work that we do.  We have family members who owns a hotel and cabin rental company just a short drive from where we live.  My best friend’s husband is a realtor.  If one were applying “logic” then we would seem to have had built in markets to start our business.  However, when dealing with friends and family, logic does not always apply.

As small business owners, we don’t always have the budget to do all the things we love.  We made the decision early in our relationship that we would live within our means.  For us that means we run our life and our business, Vision Quest Virtual Tours, on a cash only basis - no credit cards or loans.  We reinvest most of our profit back into our business so how is it that we have stayed in villas and luxurious bed and breakfasts and mountain top cabins and flown in acrobatic bi-planes and eaten in fine restaurants and gotten massages?

It’s called bartering and IT ROCKS!!!

I remember when I got my first big screen high definition television.  It was right before the Master's golf tournament and I understood the hype about that particular golf course for the first time.  I watched the Master's every year with a golfer who had played Augusta National many times and had told me about how difficult the course was.  Watching the tournament on a normal TV, I couldn't understand what the big deal was but when I watched it in high definition, I could suddenly see all the undulations and variations in the greens and even though I don't golf, I got it!  Earlier that year, I had watched the Super Bowl in high definition and was amazed that you could see the swear dripping from the faces of the players.  

A similar change has recently come about with our virtual tour business.  We began shooting our images using High Dynamic Range photography and the difference is unbelievable!

In 1983, researchers James Prochaska and Carlo DiClemente presented the Stages of Change Model (or Transtheoretical Model of Change) which examined the decision making process that individuals go through when they quit smoking.  Their Stages of Change Model, SCM, has become widely accepted as a tool for understanding how people move through the decision making process associated with weight loss, addiction, or other physical and mental health issues.  Virtual Tours can be invaluable tools as someone moves through the Stages of Change towards choosing a behavioral health program.

There’s a saying that you can have the biggest house on the block by building yours higher or by tearing everyone else’s down.  The same can be said for businesses.  Very few companies have the luxury of a monopoly on their field so at some point you have to figure out how to deal with your competition. 

When we started our North Georgia virtual tour business, I did extensive research on our market and found that there was one major competitor who we would be sharing our  regional market with.  They had great market saturation with the Realtors and offered a quality product at a good value.  Our product and photography can go head to head with anyone anywhere but I saw no reason to go head to head.  We chose a different niche and focused our efforts more on marketing to businesses than Realtors and have enjoyed great success.

Last night I gave a presentation on sales to over 100 RTV virtual tour providers.  After telling our success story, I was so pumped up that I couldn’t sleep.  HOWEVER, this morning, sleeping was all I wanted to do.  I really, really, really didn’t want to get up and make calls but today was a phone day for me so I got up anyway.  I was reminded of a quote by Robert Ringer...”Success is a matter of understanding and religiously practicing specific, simple habits that always lead to success.”

I shared last night about how we are living our dream life.  Vision Quest Virtual Tours allows us to travel all over the country  photographing healthcare virtual tours.  We love what we do and are successful in our business because we understand those specific, simple habits that always lead to success.  But today, I didn’t feeeeeeeeel like getting on the phones.

Tomorrow night I am giving a presentation to other virtual tour providers entitled “The Elegant Art of Sales”. I have logged hundreds of hours training literally thousands of salespeople all over the country. I am well qualified to speak on the art of sales but I did not choose the title of the presentation. Had I chosen the title, the presentation would have been called, “The harder I work, the luckier I get.”

I learned sales from someone who was a Master in the art. In fact, he was so good at selling that I never could tell when it was that he actually made the sale. I learned more from him about life and business than I have from anyone in my life but he made it look so easy that I really thought that I could never do what he did.   It wasn’t until I went on several training appointments with the WORST salesperson in the world that I was able to understand the components of the sale. By seeing WHAT NOT TO DO, I was better able to understand the process of making sales in any business.

The key question I have to ask myself every day is simple...Is what I am doing the best use of my time right now? Notice the question was not, is this important but is this the best use of this particular moment in time. In sales, not every moment in time has the same value.

Our virtual tour business is aimed at providing high quality 360º virtual tours for businesses. Business owners have a strange tendency to be available during business hours so that means that my sweet spot for catching a decision maker is somewhere between 10:00 and 3:00. I may get a few people earlier but chances they are doing their morning running around just like me. I may get some people after 3:00 but I have found that late afternoons generally find people running around to finish before the end of the day. With a finite set of prime hours, I have to make sure that I am doing the activities during those hours that will yield the greatest results/income. 

Our website www.VisionQuestVirtualTours.com has just hit 1,000 visitors for the past 30 days! When we began our North Georgia virtual tour business and launched our website, we were excited if we got 30 hits for the entire month but currently we are averaging between 30 and 50 visitors every day.

We have an iPhone app called Quicklytics that allows us instant updates of how many people have been on our website in a given day, week, month or custom period. We watch our hit stats the way a stockbroker watches a market ticker. The reason we track this information so intently is because we have found that there is a direct correlation to the growth of our business.

In the classic book, Think and Grow Rich, Napolean Hill says , “When riches begin to come they come so quickly and with such great abundance that one wonders where they have been hiding during all those lean years.” Most successful businesses can look back and see when the business finally took off but rarely can they point to one specific event or decision that caused the spike. While we wouldn’t say our riches have arrived quite yet, our business has experienced exponential growth.

We remodeled a house last year and learned a valuable lesson.  Just because you CAN do something, doesn’t mean you SHOULD.  For example, we painted our house, inside and out and in doing so, we realized that there are some things that are better left to a professional.  Sure, we got the job done and it looked fine if you didn’t look too close but the time and effort it took to “save money” really wasn’t worth the end result.

One of the objections I sometimes hear from prospective customers is that they aren’t interested in paying Vision Quest to create their virtual tours because they can do it themselves. Just as we can paint our own homes and change our own oil and cut our own hair, it’s absolutely true that you CAN do it yourself. The question is...should you?

Many people who begin a career in sales get to the point where they dread hearing the word NO.  In fact, many new salespeople get so discouraged from being told NO that they quit trying and ultimately fail.  If you hear a hundred NO's without hearing a YES, you may be tempted to give up.  The metric used to measure success in sales is the "closing ratio".   In the most basic form, a closing ratio is how many people you have to talk to in order to make one sale.  But in actuality, a closing ratio is better measured as how many prospective customers ultimately tell you YES in comparison to how many ultimately tell you NO.  

The key to success in sales is figuring out what to do after you hear the word NO.  Even the best salesperson hears NO a great deal of the time.  But the fact is that 90% of YES's come after a prospective customer has said NO.     

Close your eyes for a moment..............now mentally make a list of everything in your house.

In the past few weeks, two of our close friends in two different cities have had their homes broken into. Imagine walking into your home and finding that someone violated your sanctuary and taken your stuff. The trauma and shock of that experience must then be followed by the stress of dealing with police reports and insurance companies to detail what is missing.

Next weekend, Greg and I are going to Ringold, GA with our church to help that community which was decimated by a recent tornado. Homes and businesses there were literally flattened by the tornadoes...families lost everything. Again, in addition to the trauma of surviving the storm, can you imagine trying to remember everything you own and providing that detail list to your insurance company?

Vision Quest Virtual Tours has recently finished shooting 30 cabin virtual tours for a North Georgia vacation cabin rental company. Within a week after shooting these tours, one of the cabins had an unfortunate incident where renters using fake identification and stolen credit cards stole many of the valuables from the cabin including electronics, linens, decorations, dishes, and much more.

Luckily for the cabin owner, there was no questioning what was stolen because they had a room by room cabin virtual tour that showed the cabin exactly as it looked prior to being wiped out. Virtual tours are not just great for marketing, they are also invaluable should there be the sort of tragedy that we have seen examples of recently. 

Vision Quest Virtual Tours has recently finished shooting 30 cabin virtual tours for a North Georgia vacation cabin rental company. Within a week after shooting these tours, one of the cabins had an unfortunate incident where renters using fake identification and stolen credit cards stole many of the valuables from the cabin including electronics, linens, decorations, dishes, and much more.

Luckily for the cabin owner, there was no questioning what was stolen because they had a room by room cabin virtual tour that showed the cabin exactly as it looked prior to being wiped out. Virtual tours are not just great for marketing, they are also invaluable should there be the sort of tragedy that we have seen examples of recently. 

Vision Quest Virtual Tours is a North Georgia virtual tour provider specializing in high definition 360 degree virtual tours for healthcare, hospitality and education.  Professional photography, cutting edge technology and a national presence are just some of the reasons that Vision Quest Virtual Tours has been chosen to provide healthcare virtual tours, school virtual tours and vacation virtual tours to businesses in 26 states this year.

For more information, visit us at www.VisionQuestVirtualTours.com or give us a call at 404-863-9769.

Finding balance between business life and home life takes on a different challenge when you work with your spouse. We began dating the month Greg started Vision Quest Virtual Tours so this business has been an integral part of our entire relationship.

We have found a remarkable rhythm and flow that has made this work but that’s not to say that there weren’t challenges. In the book, Daze of Our Wives, Dave Meurer says “A great marriage is not when the 'perfect couple' come together. It is when an imperfect couple learns to enjoy their differences.” The biggest secret to our success was to learn how to blend our differences into a unified business plan.

In many companies, especially small businesses like our North Georgia virtual tour company, the “sales and marketing department” is one and the same person. While I do wear both the sales and the marketing hats, marketing that doesn’t lead to sales really doesn’t help much in the long run. It’s easy for me to market our virtual tours because I believe in what we do. I’ve blogged a lot lately about how we found a company that allows us to do the things we love. But the bottom line is that if we weren’t able to make money doing these things, then our business would be nothing more than an expensive hobby. Our venture would fail because we would have to find other incomes and not be able to devote ourselves to our customers.

In my last blog, I talked about having a vision for your business that was about more than just creating a stream of income and I believe that is essential to happiness in life. There is an great idea that if you find something you love, then the money will follow. If that were totally true, then I would be paid to eat watermelon and play with puppies all day. The real truth is is that a business that doesn’t make money will soon be out of business.

Setting long term goals is a vital part of achieving long term success but when starting a business, how do you know if your goals are realistic? Goals are useless unless they are clearly defined and measurable. Many businesses think they have set their goals when they write some esoteric mission statement... “We will do our best to be the very best we can be to the best of our abilities until everyone knows we are the best”. Really? And how will we measure that?

The Bible says “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” Proverbs 29:18. It is from that Scripture that we chose the name Vision Quest Virtual Tours.  Your long term goals are your VISION but your VISION must include short term objectives. Brian Tracy, the world renowned guru of goal setting, states “An average person with average talent, ambition and education, can outstrip the most brilliant genius in our society...if that person has clear, focused goals”.

Short term objectives are different than long term goals. For example, a measurable goal of hitting a certain income must start with shorter term objectives that are designed as stepping stones to that goal. The problem with focusing only on goals is that one may overlook important steps that are necessary to reach the goal.
 

At Vision Quest Virtual Tours, we believe that by following our passions and doing what we believe in, we can provide a steady stream of income with a business that is new and exciting every day. As newlyweds, we aim to make the rest of our life our honeymoon!

“For no matter what we achieve, if we don’t spend the majority of our time with people we love and respect, we cannot possibly have a great life. But if we spend the vast majority of our time with people we love and respect -- people we really enjoy being on the bus with and who will never disappoint us -- then we will almost certainly have a great life, no matter where the bus goes. The people we interviewed from the good-to-great companies clearly loved what they did, largely because they loved who they did it with.” Bill Collins, Good to Great

At Vision Quest Virtual Tours, we made the decision to focus our marketing on virtual tours that would make a difference in people's lives.  Our focus is primarily healthcare virtual tours but recently we did two funeral home virtual tours.  When most people think of virtual tours, they think of real estate and hotels.  We have done plenty of virtual tours for hotels and Realtors but nothing gave us the level of personal satisfaction that we got from doing the funeral home virtual tours. (To view a funeral home virtual tour, CLICK HERE)

No one particularly wants to think about death or talk about planning a funeral but sooner or later, it becomes a reality that we all must face.  The decisions and plans that must be made after a death are overwhelming but these decisions do not have to be left to the last minute.  Pre-planning of a funeral is perhaps one of the most thoughtful gifts a person can give to their loved ones.  Most funeral homes now provide online services so that individuals can relieve their family of having to make important emotional and financial decisions during a period of great stress and grief.

A funeral home virtual tour allows this online pre-planning to be done without having to personally visit the funeral home.  

Before embarking on a career where you are “your own boss”, it’s important to understand that you are also your own employee and will be responsible for your own success. Most people start their own business because they have a skill that they enjoy and do well. They think that since they are proficient at their skill, they will be proficient at running a business doing that skill. In the book The E-Myth Revisited, Michael Gerber discusses the mistakes that Entrepreneurs make when starting their own business.

Gerber says, “The technician suffering from an Entrepreneurial Seizure takes the work he loves to do and turns it into a job. The work that was born out of love becomes a chore, among a welter of other less familiar and less pleasant chores. Rather than maintaining its specialness, representing the unique skill the technician possesses and upon which he started the business, the work becomes trivialized, something to get through in order to make room for everything else that must be done.”

To make sure that our business had a chance to thrive, we took a year and a half of building the foundation for our business before we quit our “day jobs” and launched Vision Quest Virtual Tours as our full time career.

When we are young, well meaning adults tell us that we can be anything we want to be when we grow up.  The truth of the matter is that we are each born with a unique set of gifts and talents and while we can't be anything we want to be, we can be the absolute best at what God created us to be.  Many people spend countless hours trying to overcome their weaknesses when a better use of that time would be to figure out what it is that you can do really, really well and focusing your efforts on doing those things.  

I came to understand this concept fully after reading Max Lucado's book "Cure for the Common Life...Living in Your Sweet Spot".  For the first time, I really began to understand the uniqueness of my gifts far outweighed the list of my weaknesses when it came to the successes in my life.  This was life changing for me as it altered my analysis of career decisions.  Lucado says that you can find your "sweet spot" by looking back at your life and answering five questions:

1. When have you been really successful?
2. What topics can you talk about for days?
3. What are your optimal working conditions?
4. How are you best in relationship?
5. What makes you say YES?

Greg and I asked ourselves these questions and the answers to these questions gave us the framework for living the life of our dreams.

"Few people attain great lives, in large part because it is just so easy to settle for a good life" says Bill Collins on the first page of his book, Good to Great.  What does it take to make that move from the good life to the life of your dreams?  That was the question that Greg and I asked ourselves when we began our lives together.  

Professional photography, a national presence, the premier virtual tour technology...these are some of the many reasons that Vision Quest Virtual Tours has been chosen as the virtual tour provider for programs in over 25 states!  

There is a great book that every business person should read by Bill Collins entitled Good to Great.  Bill Collins talks about many factors  that make one company stand out in their industry above their competitors.  Bill suggests that there are three circles that intersect to let you know what your niche needs to be.  It seems that your purpose can be discovered when you look at three questions...

What are you passionate about?

What drives your economic engine?

What can you be the best in the world at?

At Vision Quest Virtual Tours, we made the decision that we would focus our business where our passions are.  Our goal is to do most what we do best and for us that translated into shooting virtual tours for healthcare, hospitality and education. For Vision Quest Virtual Tours, the answer to the first of those question came very easily.  A study of our backgrounds gave us an easy and obvious answer to the first question.  

After ten years of being a professional photographer and owning my own studio, I realized I was ready for a change. I wanted to continue using my degree in photography and my years of experience but I did not want to be tied to a brick and mortar type of business. I realized that virtual tours would be a great opportunity to do that but I also knew I didn't want to recreate the wheel. I needed a partner who would allow me to do what I do best -- take awesome photographs -- and not have to spend all my time learning a new business.

After more than a year researching virtual tour technology and about two dozen emails and phone calls with Jason LaVenture, there was no doubt that RTV, Inc. was the only choice for me. I am sure Jason had long given up on me by the time I placed my order but not once during that year did he give me anything other than his complete attention when I called with my endless questions.

We began the virtual tour business while working a full time job but our first big break came from a chance meeting in the grocery store. My wife met the owners of a cabin rental agency in the area where we lived. They had been considering adding virtual tours and we explained that we were willing to give them a super low price if they would let us use them as our guinea pigs. We ended up doing over 40 tours for this company in about six weeks while working my full time job. With that many tours, we learned how awesome RTV technology really is...and at the same time, we earned back our initial investment in the virtual tour technology. Over the next few months in business, we made an effort to do something each day to learn more and build our business and quickly realized that it was time to make the move to doing virtual tours full time.

Since the beginning of 2011, we have replaced two full time incomes and shot over 100 tours. Rather than focusing on real estate agents, we have focused on businesses. We have created a niche marketing virtual tours to healthcare, hospitality and education and have had the opportunity to photograph in 26 states in less than six months.

Our initial cabin rental company was an opportunity for us to build our portfolio and learn the system so it did not matter that we charged such a low price. That volume in such a short time meant we got to truly test the limits of the RTV technology and perfect our system of shooting and building tours. What it also did was allow us to showcase our work and gave RTV an idea of what we have to offer. When another cabin rental agency in our area called RTV and asked for a photographer to do tours for their 30 cabins, Jacque Burke of RTV called, emailed, texted and sent messages to us on Facebook because she knew we were the perfect fit! We sent samples of our work to the client and the next day began shooting for them. This time around, we shot all 30 tours in less than two weeks in between about 20 other shoots.

For anyone considering the virtual tour business, there is no question that RTV is the partner you want beside you. The technology is just the beginning. The training is fantastic. Even though I have a degree in photography and have been a professional photographer for 12 years, I learn something new every single time I watch a webinar. The technology has grown with us and is always on the cutting edge. We are confident that no one can beat the product we have to offer.

Thanks RTV for helping us live our dream!

Greg and Paige Mitts
VisionQuestVirtualTours.com

At Vision Quest Virtual Tours, a North Georgia Virtual Tour Company, we have combined our life and career experience to target on a very specific group of industries. In addition to over a decade as a professional photographer, Greg has managed a vacation rental company and has experience working with cabin, hotel and condo rentals. In addition to her work as a marketing guru, Paige has a background in behavioral health and has worked in psychiatric hospitals, drug and alcohol recovery programs, and therapeutic boarding school environments. Both have a passion for travel and together have been all over the country -- in the first half of 2011, we have photographed in 26 states!

We have the ability to photograph virtual tours of just about anything...including the inside of a World War 2 airplane! But we do most what we do best and for us that means our focus is on healthcare, hospitality and education.

In looking at a very specific segment of our target market -- cabin virtual tours -- we have noticed a particular trend. After doing a Google search for the terms "Georgia Cabin Rentals", we went through 20 pages of listings before we started to see overlap. The interesting thing was that almost all of the cabin rental companies on the first page of Google had some sort of virtual tours! Granted some were just the typical slide show put to music, a YouTube video or individual panoramic shots but when Google ranking is so important, it would seem that these particular companies know something the others haven't figured out. Virtual Tours increase visibility!

They say a picture is worth a thousand words but WE say a high definition 360 degree virtual tour is priceless. Vision Quest Virtual Tours provides cabin rental virtual tours to some of the top ranked Google searched cabin rental agencies. These virtual tours can also be made into YouTube videos further increasing your Google ranking. The text in our virtual tours is visible to Google which can further increase your Google ranking. But most importantly, the big picture makes a big difference and cabin rental virtual tours allow prospective renters the ability to take a look around each cabin with just one click. Knowing that just in North Georgia alone, a cabin rental company is competing with 20 pages of competitors would seem to make adding virtual tours of rental cabins a necessity.

Contact us to learn more or visit our website at www.VisionQuestVirtualTours.com.

Paige Mitts

404-863-9769

Vision Quest Virtual Tours is a North Georgia Virtual Tour company that is a nationwide provider for high quality virtual tours for Education, Healthcare and Hospitality.  We offer a high quality service at an affordable price.  Call or visit or website for more details.

Vision Quest Virtual Tours, a North Georgia virtual tour provider and property marketing service is pleased to announce our new mobile virtual tour for iPad, iPhone, iPod, BlackBerry, Android, and other web enabled portable devices. This new virtual tour is specially formatted for mobile devices so users of our virtual tour software can offer their customers maximum exposure.  The mobile tour remains interactive which means users with touch screens can actually scroll through the 360 panoramas and still images while enjoying an elegant fade from image to image. It has been enabled on both of our core products, the HD Full Screen Virtual Tour and HD Full Screen Slideshows, insuring that all Vision Quest Virtual Tour customers can enjoy these new developments.

There is no additional cost to our customers! The new technology is ready for you to take advantage of on all previous and new virtual tours. How do you see one of your virtual tours on your mobile device? Just simply point your phone browser to one of your virtual tours links and enjoy. It’s really that simple! If you will like to see how this product looks in your phone just type this URL http://rtvpix.com/BU-8744-4CZNYO-01 on your smart phone right now and check it out!

Since late 2009, Vision Quest Virtual Tours has continually led the way in the North Georgia area with marketing implementations such as interactive HD virtual tours, virtual staging, panoramic listing sign riders, single property websites, listing syndication, virtual tour traffic reporting, interactive floor plans, and social networking training.

For more information call 404-863-9769 or email info@visionquestvirtualtours.com or visit their website at www.VisionQuestVirtualTours.com .

About Vision Quest Virtual Tours
We’re a Georgia company that specializes in virtual tours for the Education, Healthcare and Hospitality industries. We are proud to use software developed by a Michigan company, Real Tour Vision in Traverse City. Together we use cutting edge technology to produce razor sharp images with the highest caliber customer service. More people choose www.realtourvision.com virtual tour company than any other virtual tour provider on the market. We encourage you to research the 360 virtual tour industry before making a decision. We are by far the most established virtual tour company in the industry. Our virtual tour customers, and their clients get only the best and most experienced advice and help from our staff. Thank you and enjoy our virtual tours.

Contact:
Greg and Paige Mitts
404-863-9769
info@visionquestvirtualtours.com
www.VisionQuestVirtualTours.com 

The Inn at Celebrity Dairy is a Siler City, NC bed and breakfast that is unlike anything I have ever experienced.  Now, we stay in bed and breakfasts several times  per week so for me to say that means there was something pretty unique. 

If I had to describe the Columns Bed and Breakfast in just one word it would be easy...impeccable. The service and the accommodations are beyond anything I've seen in a bed and breakfast. If you are looking for perfection, you can find it at the Columns. Michael Real is the consummate host and pampers his guests like they are honored and cherished friends.

We were lucky to be the first guests to stay at the Doctor's Inn since the passing of the original Innkeeper, Brenda Stamey.  I never met Brenda but as I toured the home, I began to get a glimpse of the pride and love she infused into the Doctor's Inn.  I could feel her smiling on us as we were graciously welcomed into this beautiful home by Margo, the Inns new keeper.  Located in the historic town of Galax, VA, the Doctor's Inn is an unexpected gem where no detail is left to chance.

It is hard to describe a place that would be perfect for a large family reunion and also a great place for a couple to go for a honeymoon night but the Stillhouse Manor is just that.   The Stillhouse Manor in Dugspur, VA was where we spent our first night on the road and it was the perfect place to relax and mentally prepare for the trip ahead.  Many places can boast that they can sleep 18 but that usually means several people on pull out sofas and a place that feels more like

They say that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step…that may be true but one particular journey of 9,000 miles began with 11 days of planning and packing and several years of wishing and dreaming.

Vision Quest Media

4169 Asheland Cove Dr. Young Harris, GA 30582
Jo Ellen Thornton 404-680-6549 www.joellenthornton.com
Century 21 Scenic Realty 706-896-8633

North Georgia's premier virtual tour provider releases a 10 week social ignition E-course!

Have you ever wondered how to use social media in the workplace? Do you want to know how to rank higher than your competitors in search engines? This course is for you! Learn how spending 1 or 2 hours a week for dramatically increase your web presence. Follow this course and you will drive traffic to your website! This will be the best $25 you have ever spent! Take advantage today and get a jump start on your competition!

4164 Ashland Cove Dr., Young Harris, GA 30582 #200598
Jo Ellen Thornton 404-680-6549 www.joellenthornton.com
Century 21 Scenic Realty- Young Harris, Georgia

7425 Cassie Lane, Hiawassee, GA 30546- MLS# 202144
Jo Ellen Thornton- 404-680-6549 www.joellenthornton.com
Century 21 Scenic Realty - Young Harris, Georgia

Atlanta Fly Inn - College Park, GA

Very private yard on dead end street with adjoining easement and surrounding acreage. 3/2 Ranch with metal roof and vaulted ceiling. Brick fireplace with wood burning stove. Two buildings with power and third with two rollup doors. Variety of plants and flowerbeds. Owner licensed in Georgia

You’ve heard it said that one should not mix business and pleasure. While that is probably good advice in most situations, as a small business owner, mixing business with pleasure sometimes is the ONLY way to fit in pleasure.

My father has many wise sayings but perhaps the one that has stuck with me most is “If you don’t ask the question, the answer is no”. This simple advice has been invaluable to me throughout my life and most importantly in my career in sales. 

There are two photographers in our house…I am the photographer who carries my digital camera everywhere I go just in case a Kodak moment might come along. Because I am an amateur, most of my Kodak moments turn out to take multiple takes and last much longer than a moment much to the chagrin of whomever else happens to be in the picture. Out of every 100 pictures I take, there may be ten worth keeping. Those ten are wonderful for scrapbooking and posting to Facebook but other than that, not so much. My degree is in Public Relations and my background is in real estate, marketing and sales. If you want ideas on how to stage your property or a critique of your website, I’m your woman.

Habersham Gardens’ Landscape Services division sets the standard in residential and commercial gardening around the city. We have strong ties with some of Georgia’s most respected contractors, landscape architects, builders, and residential & commercial developers.2067 Manchester Street Atlanta, GA 30324 404-873-2484

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words and this holds especially true with real estate photos. Photographs show the viewer a glimpse inside the home, allowing them to determine if they are interested enough to request further information or a viewing . The viewer can see specific details such as; the layout of the home, wall colors, the materials used on floor coverings and counter tops, dishes in the sink, clothes on the floor and well kept lawns. Photos and virtual tours are a driving marketing force in the sale of a home and it is important that these photos help, not hinder the sale. Below are 7 tips for great real estate photos.

Unique, outstanding, updated...this designer's home is flawless. step into a magazine lifestyle as you tour this one of a kind dream home. professional landscaping, built in closets, pro-series kitchen, screened in porch, water features in totally private oasis! cul-de-sac lot, this home has it all. Ken Hall The Hall Group 404-271-9921