Franchise Focus The sky’s the limit
Jet off to your dream future with Family Holidays Franchise INVESTMENT LEVEL: FROM £12,995
I
t doesn’t get much more glamorous than working in the travel sector. Dealing with idyllic sun-kissed tropical islands all day long with the occasional ‘educational free trip’
sounds more like play than work. However, as the owner of one travel company explains, the glamorous perks and fi nancial rewards are there if you work hard.
A travel business that took off by accident In 2002, internet entrepreneur Charles Duncombe was asked to help a family friend who owned a local travel agency. The high street was stagnating and the friend wanted some help getting some internet traffi c to his business.
So Charles started to do some website marketing for the business. At lunchtime he received a call from his friend saying: “Charles, whatever you are doing can you stop. Every time we put the phone down it rings again with another customer enquiry and we can’t get anything done!” With these green shoots of inspiration, the pair set up the Holidaysplease website on capital of £6,000. They spent £200 on marketing in the fi rst month and booked £20,000 in holidays in the same period; 15 years later, the business sells more than £20million of holidays each year and has over 100 people working for it. This is set to continue as the business has already
grown by over 25 per cent this year. During Holidaysplease’s expansion they
acquired The Family Holidays Company, and have now transformed it into a franchise operation where people with no travel experience can set up their own internet travel agency.
Charles says: “The average sale value on good-quality holidays is over £4,000 and so when you make just 25 bookings you end up booking over £100,000 business. Who doesn’t know 25 friends who might be going on holiday this year?” In fact, in the UK there are over 30 million family holidays taken each year with an estimated spend of £13.1billion. You only have to take a tiny part of this to be successful; the company has agents who book well over £100,000 a month. But, while the fi nancial rewards may be
there, it still requires hard work. Charles explains: “You have to work at least three to four days a week to make this a success. Customers expect that if they send an email you need to be able to reply that day or the next day. This isn’t a business where you can take long periods away from it.”
Rewards and awards As well as fi nancial rewards, the travel industry off ers a lot of personal rewards. When you speak to people in the industry they will tell you that it is a fun, exciting
and a sociable business where you interact with outward-looking, forward-thinking, positive people. The perks can be fun as well, with trips, paid for by tour operators and tourist boards, and discounted industry rates for your own personal family holidays. There are awards as well as rewards. In the last few months Holidaysplease has picked up the prestigious award of Online Travel Agency of the Year from the 2017 TTG Top 50 Travel Agencies to add to its collection of over 20 industry awards.
Travel franchises can start on a shoestring
While many franchises require signifi cant setup costs, in travel they are minimal. As long as you have a computer and a phone then you can get started, after the appropriate training.
So if you have a passion for helping people create lifelong memories while being able to travel the world yourself, a travel franchise may be the perfect option for you.
Family Holidays Franchise Travel
www.familyholidaysfranchise.com
opportunities@familyholidaysfranchise.
co.uk
0121 200 5561 July/August 2017 |
BusinessFranchise.com | 67
Investment: £10k-£20k
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