Destination University is the first online training library and social network site designed exclusively to help business owners thrive. It was created by Jon Schallert and The Schallert Group, Inc. in their continual effort to help business owners learn how to increase sales and profits in today's ever-changing and challenging economy.
Jon Schallert, President of The Schallert Group, Inc., is an internationally-recognized speaker and small business expert who teaches businesses and communities how to turn themselves into Consumer Destinations. Schallert speaks to thousands annually on his proprietary 14-step “Destination Business” processes, which he developed over 24 years of working with business owners. Schallert’s teachings have been used cities, towns, downtowns, shopping centers, retail chains, franchises, and independent small business owners.
When business owners employ Schallert’s training methods, businesses can draw consumers from outside their immediate marketplaces, keep more local consumers shopping locally, and compete with larger, better-capitalized competitors. When small business owners in the same marketplace utilize Schallert’s Destination techniques, they can change an entire marketplace, attracting more consumers, using less marketing dollars, and improving an entire area.
Schallert’s Destination Business education began with greeting card giant Hallmark Cards, where he was employed for ten years. While at Hallmark, his unique marketing strategies were publicized throughout the company as “the Schallert Method”. Hallmark used his expertise on a nationwide multi-million dollar new product rollout, and awarded him its top sales award. Later, Hallmark tapped Schallert’s experience for their national reinvention of their card shop channel into "destination" stores.
In 1996, Schallert left Hallmark to start his consulting firm, The Schallert Group, Inc. He began speaking to small business owners in cities, downtowns, and communities around the country. In his company’s first year, he spoke in 83 different cities, and in each city, Schallert would consult with 10-15 small business owners in their physical locations. After years of maintaining this schedule, annually conducting hundreds of on-site consultations, and studying the most successful small business owners in the country, Schallert developed his proprietary 14-step Destination Business process that he now teaches today.
In 2002, while maintaining his extensive travel and speaking schedule, Schallert launched his Destination Business BootCamp®, where clients spend two and one-half days learning how to reinvent their businesses and marketplaces using his proprietary Destination strategy. His BootCamps are conducted three times a year in Colorado.
In order to provide more assistance to business owners, The Schallert Group, Inc. created Destination University, a two-tiered system where independent business owners and the organizations that support them can be part of a business social network, along with the ability to network with world-class authors and business experts, watching both live and recorded webinars.
Read more about Destination University by reading the "What is DU?" section.
Schallert’s insight is frequently seen in national publications such as The Wall Street Journal and Entrepreneur Magazine. He is the only consultant in the world to receive the “Top Motivator” Marketing Award from Potentials Magazine. He is a member of the National Speakers Association, the International Downtown Association, and the National Main Street Network, and frequently presents his proprietary work at these organizations’ conferences.