Meet Gina, one of our newest franchisees who has been a teacher for 20 years but is “pretty fed up” with everything about her job except the children.
“I only teach part time at the moment and after a rather horrible year, decided to look into becoming a travel agent, an idea which has been in the back of my mind for a long time.”
Gina, in her mid 40s, is well travelled and loves booking holidays for her family and friends and when a few of them suggested she should do it as a job she thought, ‘why not?’.
Over the last year she’s explored Florida, skied in Bulgaria and sailed on three cruise ships!
“As a teacher, I have been pretty spoilt with long holidays so I wanted a job which is very flexible and allows me to take time off whenever I want to.”
Gina knew of one person who works in travel – Gemma Poppy Outram, who recently joined us as our cruise business development manager, and she learnt how anyone can become a travel consultant, even without any travel experience.
“It seemed a good option and I began to get really excited. I watched the Discovery videos (available to watch here) and became even more excited.”
Gina decided to research other franchise companies and compared us with a competitor.
“But I realised I could train with The Travel Franchise really quickly whilst still teaching, whereas with the other franchise company I cannot. I also reached out to three people who are currently doing the job.”
Gina said that two of the three warned it’s hard work in the first year, the third person said that she was doing really well and loved it: do a good job in your first 12 months and you get more repeat clients and referrals every year thereafter.
Gina has decided to start part time on our Lite package while she works her notice at her school and she’s enrolled in our 5-day virtual training during the school holidays in August. If her business is a success and she goes full time, she can always upgrade to our most popular Elite package.
NB a lot of training dates are now full but you can see the spaces available here.
“I am apprehensive but I’m so keen for the lifestyle. I think by focusing on cruise (which tends to have high commissions) and working hard, I’ll hopefully have success so I am giving it a go.”
And does Gemma believe Gina has what it takes?
“Gina has the passion, enthusiasm and drive to take ownership of her life. She is already very well-travelled and in particular loves to cruise, so when she contacted me for advice I knew she would be making the best decision of her life.
“Gina is starting out part time but has already set herself a goal to go full time in the near future, and I have no doubt that with her determination and the support she will get from The Travel Franchise she will achieve everything she sets her mind to.”
