Feeling a little unfulfilled after both of her children left home for university, mum of two, Helen, decided to join The Travel Franchise in February 2022 to earn some extra money to help towards family holidays.
“I thought it would be a lifestyle job to bolster our family holiday funds, but it’s gone mad,” she says, adding that she’s sold over 100 holidays in less than a year.
Helen’s travel business may have turned into a full-time job but she is determined to maintain a healthy work/life balance and has plenty of personal and work-related trips abroad planned for 2023.
In fact, she has eight scheduled in already… to St Lucia, Australia, Canada, New York, Euro Disney, to name a few.
“I love going on holiday and being a personal travel consultant is something that can be done from anywhere and I can still fit it around my family,” says Helen.
“Now I’ve sold around £475k-worth of holidays and hope to sell a million by the end of my second year.”
But it’s not all about money and travel.
Helen says that the most enjoyable part of her job is making people’s dreams come true.
“I love the research and finding people the right holiday – I get so excited for them.”
Helen has found customers through what she calls ‘the ripple referral effect’ through her local gym, posting on social media and attending networking groups and fairs.
“I posted a picture of where I was on holiday in the Dominican Republic and someone who saw it immediately got in touch,” says Helen.
“They couldn’t see that I was in my bikini but I gave her a video tour of the resort, Secrets Cap Cana, and she booked it!”
Helen has found our new Peaks Portal, packed full of free ready-made marketing promotional tools invaluable.
Like many of our franchisees, she has used our bespoke videos to attract more clients.
“I used it to do a ShoutOut video in December in Berlin in front of the Brandenburg Gate to advertise the benefits of using a personal travel consultant…it has over 8k views to date!,” she says.
Helen also joined a Women in Business networking group in Chelmsford to find more customers.
“I sat next to a lady who was a mortgage advisor and next day she booked a holiday with me to Turkey,” says Helen.
Her neighbour also recommended her to a local rugby club which has now become a Partner in Travel (PIT). PITs enable consultants to partner with a business which also gets a share of the profits when members book holidays.
Helen is already booking trips for club members and will have a stand at the next rugby festival where she hopes to attract business from visiting clubs.
The result has been a hectic January!
“I took five bookings yesterday and 20 in January. Peaks has been really busy but I love it.”
“When people see you’re passionate they want to book with you.”
