Scott and Lynne – Their first 12 months in the business and the journey to a free franchise!

Recently we have seen a large influx of winners of our Money Back Challenge, and our most recent winners are Scott and Lynne!

Over the last 12 months, we have implemented some amazing new training initiatives. This has brought new business to all of our franchisees and has helped grow Not Just Travel to record highs! The culmination of these initiatives is the opportunity for more franchisees than ever to hit their Money Back Challenge and receive their franchise fee back in full!

We reached out to Scott and Lynne to find out more about their first year with us and how things went:

1. What made you choose The Travel Franchise?

Lynne – “I decided to start looking for a Travel Franchise after losing my brother a few years ago and realised that life was too short, so wanted to be doing something that I was passionate about – and that was most certainly travel and everyone had always said to me that should have been my vocation in life!  As like probably most people joining, I did my due diligence and looked at a number of the travel franchises around and felt that The Travel Franchise was the best option for me as I had no previous travel experience other than going on holiday myself and helping to organise friends and family.  I felt that the Travel Franchise offered the best overall package with the training, support and retreats that we would be able to go on to further develop and grow ourselves and the business.  Plus no one else offered the option to make your franchise fee back which I thought that was an amazing opportunity if you did well with your business – which has thankfully worked out for us :-).  Originally it was just going to be me in the business but when we had the opportunity for both of us to be trained as part of our Elite franchise package, I talked Scott into coming with me so that he could lend a hand and support if needed – which was invaluable during our first peaks in January!”

2. How did your training week go?

Lynne – “We really enjoyed our training week in Bournemouth.  It’s a lot to take in and so much to learn but it was a great week, meeting all the Trainers and staff at HQ, and building our relationships with them.  Even building relationships with those training alongside you and you build that shared experience.”

Scott – “within the first half of day one I went from not being interested to wanting to be involved as much as I could be around my full time job. Hearing Sophie talking so passionately about it all and hearing how easy it could be to help arrange the ideal holiday for people meant I couldn’t wait to get started. I thought training was well planned and gave us a great introduction to suppliers and systems.”

3. How did you get on for the first few weeks after training? Did you feel supported by NJT?

Lynne – “We have definitely felt supported by NJT since joining, especially in the early days.  We were assigned Ben and Toni as our PTCs (Personal Travel Coaches) who have always been a fantastic support and made regular weekly video calls with us to understand what we were doing, our next steps and what to be focusing on. They were always on hand when we had any questions or issues with any bookings, plus keeping us right with the booking system!  They still are and drive us to continue to succeed and support us along the way.  We also completed our first 10 bookings and hit our bronze pin* after our first 2 weeks or so (I think it was 15 days!) which boosted our confidence and reassuring us that we were doing okay for ’newbies’.”

Scott – “We were so lucky with our PTCs, Ben and Toni who were available to us immediately to help with any system and supplier issues, along with ongoing support from our trainer. Fantastic to have this when we needed it.  Everyone at head office was really understanding and patient if/ when having the odd systems ‘blip’ during our first few weeks.”

*Our Not Just Travel success ladder awards pins to each consultant after hitting milestones in their business

4. How was the Millionaires Retreat? Do you feel it helped you to grow your business?

Lynne – “The Millionaires Retreat most definitely helps you grow your business and focus on what is important and how to improve what you are already doing.  It was a big changing point for us as we were both working full time jobs up until then and travel was getting done in our spare time at evenings and weekends which left us very little time for anything else.  We recognised that to progress the business further, we needed to commit more time but also try and achieve some kind of work life balance so I requested to reduce hours at work and when that couldn’t be supported, we discussed our Finances and I submitted my resignation – about a year earlier than I had anticipated! Which is amazing and wouldn’t change it, best decision ever!  I finished my ‘day job’ in early June and had a week or so of full time travel before the Elite experience.”

Scott – “I walked away from millionaires retreat with a complete shift in mind set. I went from being under the impression that I was like an employee to seeing myself as the business owner I am! This totally changed my approach as to my input to the business for the better.”

 5. How was the Elite Experience? Did it improve your business further?

Lynne – “The Elite experience was amazing for us.  We learned so much more about how to take our business to the next level, how to manage our time better, how to be more effective with our sales and prospecting, etc. Even the team building with other TC’s (Travel Consultants) is fantastic and it’s like a big family and learning from one another about what can work well to generate leads and closing the sale.  We had been doing pretty well up to the Elite Experience. January Peaks had been good for us and then things had quietened down a bit until after Millionaires Retreat – then May and June were busier but during Elite and afterwards, we were doing at least a booking a day (which had been our goal, sometimes more which led to us hitting our money back challenge after only 8 1/2 months in the business which is absolutely amazing! We had set ourselves a goal of 10 months so we’re absolutely delighted to have achieved it earlier than we could ever have anticipated.”

Scott – “where the Millionaires Retreat helped changed how I thought about the business, the Elite Experience gave me the tools to grow the business. Training we had, specifically around sales and prospecting from Steve, Paul, Dave and Norma really resonated with me, this was reflected in the fact that we completed 28 bookings in 3 weeks which was like another Peaks for us and led to us achieving our money back challenge in under 9 months. Not only that but meeting other TCs at same levels and sharing best practice (and making good friends). It was invaluable to attend the retreat for this reason.”

6. What other NJT events have you been to in the last year?

Lynne – “Other than the Millionaires Retreat and Elite Experience, I managed to attend the NJT Annual Conference in November 2018 which was a great experience and interesting to hear all the plans for the business in the coming 12 months.  It’s really exciting to be involved with the buzz and hear what’s happening next (plus receive our pin and meeting Daley Thompson!)!  I also attended the new year Leeds event in January and Sandals training. Specifically arranged for NJT Travel Consultants.  I’ve also managed to log into and listen to some of the new webinars being arranged which are really helpful to understand supplier options.”

Scott – “I’ve only attended the Millionaires Retreat and Elite Experience this year but can’t wait for the annual conference as I unfortunately missed it last year.”

Congratulations to Scott and Lynne for all the hard work they have put in since they began their journey with us!

Book a call with Paul now to beat the price increase and improve your chances of joining for free