Clive spent most of his working life running a pub and pouring pints. But when lockdown hit, he began to reflect on the next chapter.
“After lockdown I thought once the pub tenancy finishes I should look for something else to do because I didn’t want to retire. I enjoy meeting people too much and working too much really, so I thought I’ll have a look and I found The Travel Franchise.”
Flicking through a couple of franchise magazines, he stumbled across The Travel Franchise and after researching other travel franchises and talking to co-founder Paul, made a bold decision.
“I thought right, I’ve got a bit of money, I’ll invest whilst the going’s good before I lose it all. I’m glad I did. I’d recommend The Travel Franchise over any of the others.”
Starting a travel business at 70 wasn’t easy, but Clive threw himself into training.
“I’m not the youngest of people and it was no easy feat to start off with but the training is very, very good. And if you want something extra then you’ve only got to ask one of the Business Development Managers and they will sort something out for you.”
Every franchisee gets a BDM plus access to our operations team who process tickets, amendments and are there to advise on anything from scheduled changes to cancelled flights.
“The people that work at head office are 99.9% very, very helpful and put you in the right direction if you don’t know where you’re going.”
Clive launched in late 2022, though ill health slowed things at first. Then he discovered networking groups, and everything changed.
“I’ve joined seven networking groups and had about half a dozen bookings with one, but I’ve got at least another half dozen pending. Once one of them has done a bit of business with you, it tends to start gathering momentum.”
Now, Clive has made new friends on trips, fam trips, and with fellow consultants.
“I like the money but the people that I meet are great.”
Clive even has a vision for the future: passing his business on to his daughter, a surveyor who’s rediscovering her passion for travel.
“I want to make enough money out of it, make it a successful business, and then hopefully my daughter can walk into it and work alongside me.”
Clive loves tailoring holidays, from group ski trips to once-in-a-lifetime adventures.
“I’ve just done a ski group for 16 people and that’s standing at about £17,500. Another big one I had was for two people to go to Canada – 16 days, and the itinerary was 103 pages long! When they got to Jasper the hotel had burnt down, but the suppliers got them booked into another hotel of a higher quality. The people didn’t complain whatsoever — they were happy, especially as we also got them upgraded on the Rocky Mountaineer train.”
And he’s making the most of company trips too, jetting off the destinations including the Caribbean.
“I just can’t wait to get on another one!”
