Alaska Agent Gets

Home Office Makeover

By Marilyn Green

Corky Champagne-Einarsen of Anchor’s Away in Warsilia, AK said she was shocked to be chosen as a winner for Royal Caribbean’s home office makeover. (See HBT Oct. 2005.) “In Alaska we’re never a part of things — we’re off the map,” she said.
Champagne-Einarsen is not only on Royal Caribbean’s map, she gave the team reason to remember her forever. Since she also operates Alaska tours, she invited them to arrive a couple of days early and took them on an adventure-laden tour.
She herself was looking not only for organization but also for technological organization and a closer relationship with her DSM. Her home office is in a log cabin in the middle of a woods, and the team painted the walls and brought in new furnishings. But, one of the most revolutionary aspects of the visit was the discovery that cruise sales don’t have be all about paperwork.
“It’s all online,” she said. “I still keep a few brochures for clients, but mostly I have links set up on my computer. Everything is in my laptop.”
This is particularly important for Champagne-Einarsen because during the summer she drives tours and handles her cruise business from Denali.
She started working in Denali for a hotelier for one season, then was recommended to an Anchorage company 11 years ago to sell cruises, since she could handle a computer and was capable. “I got the ball rolling, and then the owner decided to divest his investment.” Tired of commuting an hour each way to Anchorage, she decided to sell cruises from home.
“It started as a part-time thing,” she said. “My husband was the breadwinner and I was working on the Internet, since there were plenty of brick-and-mortar agents 10 years ago. I was online before operations like Travelocity were there, and I generated a huge database.”
Shortly after she began as a Home Based agent, she found that she had breast cancer. “It is especially good to have a Home Based business when you are not feeling well part of the time and you need to make your own hours,” she added.
Five years ago she started focusing on the Alaska product, since she was already expert in the area, and she began setting up custom tour packages for her clients. Three years ago she decided to set up the tours herself. Now she operates insider custom tours in a 15-passenger van that was gutted and transformed into an executive coach with eight leather captain’s chairs and computer ports for each station. She has a high powered spotting scope to see wildlife, and guests can check their digital photos on the screen in the coach. Her clients are from all over the U.S., with Australians, British, Italian and Swedish clients also consulting her for the Alaska experience.
“We’re small enough to offer truly custom experiences,” she says. “We can go places trains and buses can’t go — it’s active soft adventure. It gets me out of the office.” Her husband, who works on the Alaska oil pipeline, is home during the summer season and adds a whole new aspect to tours when he joins her.
Champagne-Einarsen has also moved into the Host agency business with individual contractors, mostly former clients. “I have two in Texas and one in Alaska and I’d like to grow that,” she added.