Franchisee Sarah talked to us about what it’s like to take your business from part-time to full-time when you’re new to the travel industry.
Many of our franchisees like to start their business part-time. It might be something they do around other work or family commitments while they build up their customer base.
Find out Sarah did just that in her video below.
Sarah built up her customer base over time
Sarah started her business in 2016.
She’d been working in fashion for a few years but had decided on a change of industry.
“I’d done a bit of a brainstorm on what I’m good at, what I like and what I enjoy,” she told us. “And always wanted my own business. So I was trying to find something that could give me that freedom to work wherever, whenever and for myself.”
Combining her desired freedom with her love of planning holidays meant The Travel Franchise was the perfect choice.
Initially she worked 3 days a week in her other job in fashion, with the rest of her time spent helping people take holidays.
Then she went full-time in 2019.
Sarah hasn’t looked back since
Now that Sarah’s experienced what it’s like to run a franchise, she wouldn’t go back.
She loves planning holidays and helping people make memories.
But, equally, she loves the control she has over her life.
“You’re free to plan your own day, not answering to anyone, not having to clock in at a certain time. I don’t think I could actually ever go back to working for someone else now.”
She followed a proven method for finding customers
When you join, we teach you everything you need to know about finding and keeping customers for a new travel business.
You can learn more about it in our Discovery Tour.
Sarah followed the guidance given, initially finding customers from her own network of people she knew.
Then the business started to snowball, as more people used and trusted her service.
That led to repeat customers and word-of-mouth recommendations.
“A lot of my customers now are repeats and referrals.”
Sarah also finds new customers from social media, but recommends that you make sure people can see the real you come across.
Her advice about online social media is clear:
“Make it personal and personable,” she says. “Then they realise that they’re not following any other travel page. It’s actually a personal travel consultant. It’s someone that’s going to help you.”
Here are 3 tips inspired by Sarah’s journey for starting a part-time travel business
1: Make the time to build the business
Starting any business takes time and effort.
Sarah worked evenings and weekends talking to customers about their holidays.
Check out Dale’s story, where he explains how most of his customers preferred talking to him outside office hours when he started part-time.
2: Being part-time doesn’t hold you back
Just because you may want to start part-time, it doesn’t mean you have to hold back on finding customers.
Amy saw her business as a part-time side hustle, but was so good at it she beat the Money-Back Challenge and got her business free.
And couple Natasha and James split the work between them as they grew it from a part-time to full-time endeavour. They got their business free, too.
3: You never have to go full-time if you don’t want to
This is your business. So you decide how you run it.
While lots of people see it as a vehicle to a full-time or even life-changing income, you choose what you want out of it.
Sarah started full-time, but then went part-time by choosing the right customers for her, without impacting her sales.
Franchisee Jane is using her part-time business as her semi-retirement plan after a career in the police.
And Jenifer makes wonderful bookings (including a £40k polar cruise) around her own pace of life with her part-time travel consultancy.
