Starting any business from scratch comes with its challenges, but in a new fast paced industry, just makes it a bit more daunting.
We have helped set up over 90 own branded independent travel agencies, so when I’m asked the question “Can it be done?” the answer is yes, BUT, only with a positivemindset and the right skill set.
Let me share my journey of taking an idea and turning it into a £17m + business. This isn’t a story about overnight success, it’s a journey of riding highs and lows, that took a lot of hard work, drive and resilience to get to this point.
Back in 2016 I saw the advert for the Head of Franchise role at Holidaysplease, they were looking to grow their smaller company The Family Holiday Company, through franchising. At this point I’d worked in travel for eighteen years, but I knew nothing about the travel franchise industry, did I let that stop me? Absolutely not! I secured an interview and spent days researching this side of travel. What was involved in franchising? Who else was doing this? What were they offering?
From this, I pulled together a business proposal of how I would set up the business up. I’m passionate about travel so this wasn’t a chore, I’d enjoyed pulling it together. I wanted to showcase my knowledge and be memorable. It worked, I was offered the job at my second interview.
From here I put my thoughts in to a full project plan to set up The Family Holiday Franchise with meaningful actions and held my self accountable for ensuring they were completed. My motto continues to be, do it once, do it right, give it 110%. I say this to every new franchisee as part of their onboarding call, don’t do something for the sake of saying you have done it. If it’s not well thought out, you will get no return on your investment.
At the heart of our project plan, was our potential franchisees. Everything we were trying to build was to benefit them. Ensure the decisions you make for your business are for the greater good of your customers. You’ll will never get everything perfect, but if people know you care and they are not a number, they will work with you, not against you.
Consistency in your actions is key! You can’t do something once and say it doesn’t work. You need to give each area time to mature and work. One example of this is I spent months posting on social media, with no audience. I did this as I knew when I did have an audience, I needed to look credible and have a past that could be reviewed. You can’t start marketing a business once you have an audience sat waiting for it. My biggest supporter, still to this day is my mom, who likes all our marketing, even though it’s not me doing it anymore! If you have friends, family and colleagues who can offer support like this, you are already ahead of the game, support doesn’t mean them all having to book with you. But if they are willing to like your marketing and talk about you, that’s is priceless.
I built the company for one year completely by myself, no one to tell me what to do, no one to motivate me, it had to come from me. I had to wear every hat going to move each part of the business forward, marketing, recruitment, training, operations & support. Did I have experience in all these areas? No, but it was part of the journey, so I learnt and adapted.
After starting I found out I was expecting a baby, that had not been on my project plan! I felt sick, I had back ache, I was huge, but I worked until my due date. I left work on the Friday and gave birth on the Monday. To get your business of the ground, you will need a strongwork ethic, whilst we will train you, you have to take responsibility for implementing our guidance. Only you can make it happen.
We took on four franchisees, that felt massive and daunting at the time. These franchisees had put their trust and investment in our brand, when we were so new to the market. Whilst we couldn’t talk about massive sales figures, like our competitors could, we could talk about our vision & values and our offering, which was your own branded business, tailored to the destinations and types of holidays our franchisees are passionate about, supported by 1:1 accredited training, delivered by Travel Professionals. We focussed on what we could do,not what we couldn’t. It’s good to know your competitors, but don’t let them distract you.
On my return I took on my side kick, my partner in crime, Luke to take over recruitment. I finally had someone to bounce off. As there still was only two of us, we continued to play multiple roles.
We had to fight to stand out against existing and established brands so we built credibility in our offering, securing accreditation from The British Franchise Association, The Approved Franchise Association and the Institute of Travel & Tourism. We showcased what we offered by entering awards, we were the first travel franchise to feature in the HSBC Elite Top 100 Uk franchisees and remain the only travel franchise to feature six years in a row, an achievement we are extremely proud of.
Did and do we lose franchisees to competitors? Of course we do, this is sales, no business will ever have a 100% conversion. We aren’t the cheapest model on the market, nor do we ever intend to be. We value our services, so its priced accordingly. If people are looking for a cheap package, we aren’t the right model for them. You won’t see us offering discounts to enable us to compete, we search for franchisees who do see the value in what we offer. You will have this in your own business, when customers are presenting you with quotes from all sorts of holiday providers, some you can secure, some you can’t you. You won’t be right for every customer and not every customer will be right for you. You have to be able to accept lost sales.
Roll on another year, we recognised that the brand we had set up, no longer reflected what we were offering. We had pigeon holed ourselves into franchisees trading under our brand to grow our business, when in fact all our franchisees were trading under their own brand with businesses tailored to their own specialisms. We started talking about re-branding to The Holiday Franchise Company. This was one of the most challenging times, everything we’d built, we needed to start again. My first feeling was that of dread, but the more we talked, we knew it was the right decision for the business, so we went again, this time we had all our learning backing us, so we knew exactly what we had to do.
It was now at a point where we needed more support so we started to build our incredibleteam. To have people around you who share the same vision, values and passion, is uplifting. On those days where I was feeling low, that progress wasn’t quick enough, they had my back. On the days they needed support, I had there’s. Our business wouldn’t be what it is today without every single member of the team, they have all contributed so much. The one thing our team have never said is “That’s not my job” If something needs doing, we come together to get it done.
You may not want to build a team, but ensure you surround yourself with positive peoplewho will inspire and uplift you, in those times of need. If you are there for them, but they don’t show up for you, they shouldn’t be part of your journey.
We have created a culture of evolution. We embrace feedback and continually assess how we can offer our franchisees a better service and how they can work more efficiently to spend more time on sales. We don’t sit on ideas, if we think of an idea to improve any area of the business, we quickly implement it.
In 2020 business was going great, we’d built the team up to fourteen franchisees and then COVID hit and the world was closed. There were franchise leaders saying, no one will sign a franchise contract during these times, challenge accepted!
Our approach was the same as any other day, we kept going. Travel might have been illegal,but it wouldn’t be forever. COVID brought additional challenges of home schooling andfurloughing, but despite this we grew the business to forty franchisees, it was our biggest time of growth. How? We didn’t use it as an excuse, we remained focus on our goal to grow and recognised positives in times where it felt like there weren’t any. Other franchise models stopped marketing, we didn’t’
Savy entrepreneurs saw the opportunity, they now had time, some had extra money andrecognised the demand for travel would be huge. Not only did we have to come back from furlough earlier than planned, we had to recruit. It was a really strange time, where redundancies were rife, our growth was helping get people back into jobs.
Nine years in, the passion remains the same, if not more. No day is the same and we deal with what is thrown at us.
So, what advice would I give to someone setting up from scratch, if you can do what is bolded in this blog, go for it and we’d love to be part of your journey
But if you can’t do what is bolded, don’t do it, your business won’t work and you will be in a financial loss
From the franchisees I’ve seen fail, they are the ones who have come on board saying they can do these things, but in reality, they didn’t.
Hope this blog helps you make the right call for you
