Destination University® is the first online training library designed exclusively for small business owners. It was created by The Schallert Group, Inc. to highlight Jon Schallert’s proprietary Destination Business processes.
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 twenty years of working with small business owners. Schallert’s teachings have been used cities, towns, downtowns, shopping centers, retail chains, franchises, and independent small business owners.
When small 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 now conducted four times a year in Colorado.
In order to provide more assistance to small business owners, Schallert started his small business one-on-one consulting program, the “Destination Success Network”. Members of the Destination Success Network call in to receive monthly consulting assistance from Schallert, receive Schallert’s monthly, subscription-only newsletter, “Destination Business”, and participate in group Tele-Seminars. Additionally, members receive a CD every month of an interview that Schallert has conducted with authors and top small business experts that allows owners to hear these experts’ actual words.
In 2007, The Schallert Group, Inc. invested in rich media training technology and created its own sound studio to bring Schallert’s proprietary workshops, seminars, newsletter material, and expert interviews to small business owners around the world. Now, owners are able to access Schallert’s exclusive trainings from the privacy of their homes, offices, and businesses at Destination University. The Schallert Group Inc. is the only small business consulting firm in the country employing this technology to train small business owners.
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.