Two numbers, and they are not the same

A booking is worth its commission. Your income this month is whatever has actually paid out. Those are different numbers, often months apart, and confusing them is the single most common reason a new advisor thinks the work is not paying.

Commission varies more by supplier than by trip size

A cruise, a tour operator package and a hotel booked through a wholesaler pay very different rates on the same headline price. Learning which products pay properly is worth more than chasing bigger trips.

Most suppliers pay after travel, not after booking

This is the part nobody warns you about. A trip booked in March for November travel is commission you see near the end of the year. A business built only on far-future bookings has a cash flow problem built into it.

Service fees are what make the first year survivable

A planning or consultation fee is charged when the work is done, not when the trip happens. Advisors who charge one have income in the months when nothing has traveled yet.

What a realistic first year looks like

Part time, a handful of bookings a month, with income arriving unevenly and mostly late. The advisors who get past that point are the ones who priced their time from the start rather than hoping volume would fix it.