Where the heart is: meet the new homeworkers
With homeworking continuing to draw in new recruits, Abra Dunsby speaks to three travel professionals who joined companies during or just before the pandemic to hear their motivations
Fiona Wilkins, with Holidaysplease, works from her home in Kefalonia, Greece
“I joined Holidaysplease in November 2021 and it’s been such a good move. I was made redundant from my position as a destination manager for Jet2 during the pandemic. I set up as a homeworker in the midst of the pandemic, initially with Holiday Elite.
It’s been a tough year-and-a-half. I used the downtime to post travel advice, information and offers on social media and have always tried to see the positives. It’s working out, as customers that I cancelled or changed holidays for are now in a position to book. I also did lots of reading about how to tackle Facebook and Instagram and made sure I researched trends, ready for travel’s return.
Since January, business has been doing well. I like that Holidaysplease gives you leads too.
The company has been so supportive; it’s like a big family.
I’ve lived in Kefalonia for seven years and am a single mum. When I was working at Jet2 my daughter was at nursery. Now I can spend more time with her and have a better work-life balance. I work early mornings, late evenings and weekends, which is when customers need me. It’s fine to do those hours when you’re living in paradise!
I get a lot of business through word of mouth. If clients share their holiday on social media, it leads to more bookings. I’ve also joined Kefalonia Facebook groups and promote myself there. Clients like that I also donate a percentage of their booking to a local animal charity.
The biggest challenge and worry has been not having an income during the pandemic, and the uncertainty. However, it’s great that travel is picking up now. I’ve only ever worked in travel, and I wasn’t prepared to turn my back on it!”
Hannah Ramrachia joined Travel Counsellors in December 2019 after working in recruitment for 10 years
“One of the recruitment companies I worked for used to recruit for Travel Counsellors’ finance team and everyone always had such good things to say about them. I’ve always loved going on holiday and people always used to ask for advice when booking their own after seeing my holiday photos on Instagram. Becoming a homeworker made so much sense.
I called Travel Counsellors and got a great vibe from them. I did two weeks on their Travel Academy, aimed at those who are new to travel. It was intense but brilliant. The six of us who were on the course at the time became friends quickly and we still have a Whatsapp group together.
I got off to a really positive start and made £25,000 worth of bookings from Dec 2019 to March 2020, before the lockdown. Then because of the pandemic, bookings were then cancelled and money I’d made was owed to Travel Counsellors.
I had to unpick complex itineraries, including honeymoons, when I didn’t know what I was doing. It was overwhelming. Travel Counsellors set up a triage service, with experienced Travel on the phone lines who we could call for help. It was a complete baptism of fire for me but despite frustrations, the support was brilliant and I learnt a lot very quickly.
In 2020, I dedicated my time to social media and keeping in people’s minds. What kept me going was that I knew when people could travel again, they would use an agent – people are terrified of booking online now!
Last year I made £400K of bookings, which was a complete turnaround. I get a lot of business from social media. I try to post once a day on Facebook and Instagram, at around 6pm, and also on LinkedIn at around 12:30. I also tell everyone I meet I’m an agent!
I go to a networking group every Wednesday and have ended up booking holidays for members of the group.
I want to carve out the Indian Ocean and high-end luxury as my niche, so I’m focusing on that this year.
The pandemic has been horrendous but I’m glad I became a homeworker – I wouldn’t change it and couldn’t be happier. I love working for myself, setting my own hours and seeing the money add up.”
Kit Williams is co-founder of agency Silver Compass, which joined Not Just Travel in 2020 from Global
“We did a lot of research into the options and it was the levels of effort and forethought that goes into the training that impressed us. The partnership management and support you get from [Not Just Travel] made us take the leap.
I’m less experienced with marketing, so it’s also useful to receive ongoing marketing communications and hear about current and popular trends. Not Just Travel also organised a cruise day in August, which was helpful as I specialise in cruise, and have carved out a niche for small-ship cruising since the pandemic.
A few years ago we had a store within a farm shop development on the outskirts of Bath. We moved to a home-based model as we wanted to offer more flexibility to our clients. Other advantages of homeworking are the ability to fit work around my own lifestyle and to keep overheads low; being home-based has enabled us to keep going during the pandemic.
My challenges have been knowing how to make most of my networks and contacts without being pushy or taking advantage of friendships, but I’m learning. We don’t have the walk-ins that we did when we had a retail store either – it was a lot easier to find clients then – but we have a lot less wasted time now.
I’ve always been interested in climatology and think the Not Just Travel Climate Hero initiative [which adds an optional £5pp to a holiday booking to fund Mossy Earth rewilding projects] is really strong and innovative.
Clients want to support it, and there’s been no pushback. It’s a great talking point and USP.”
Making it pay
Here we highlight the joining fees and commission structures for the homeworking companies mentioned above
Travel Counsellors’ joining fee starts at £295 + VAT, for those with a minimum of four years sales experience in travel. The commission split is 60/40 in favour of the Travel Counsellor.
The Personal Holiday Advisors has no joining fee. Commission is a 65/35 split in favour of the agent, with monthly fees set at £69 + VAT.
The joining fee for Holidaysplease is £387, with the chance to earn the money back if you hit a sales target in the first eight weeks. Commission is 50%, or between 25-50% if a homeworker books a customer from the company’s lead pool.
Not Just Travel’s joining fees range from £0 to £29,995 and are tailored. The company does not profit from the joining fee and matches it. It also offers a Money Back Challenge designed to give 100% of the fee back. Commission structure is dependent on experience.
Nicola Bedford became a homeworker with the Personal Holiday Advisors, the homeworking division of Constant Travel (Hays IG), after being made redundant in 2020
Top tips from the homeworkers
Fiona: Don’t make the mistake of looking at what other people are doing – don’t let anyone else define you. Stick to what you know and are passionate about and if you’re thinking about homeworking, go for it!
Hannah: Set an alarm and get up, showered and properly dressed each day. Also sit at a desk or a dedicated workspace. It helps you have that “I’m in work” mindset.
Kit: Choose a company that will offer you the support you want and need.
Nicola: Be consistent with social media. I try to post between two to four offers a day. Also get friends and family to share your social pages and offers to boost your likes and visibility.
I have two children and the thought was always there that it would be really nice to work from home and have the flexibility to be able to pick the kids up from school.
When I was branch manager at One World Travel in Wakefield, the kids were in private childcare, which cost a lot of money. However, with the security of a full-time paid job, it was a bit of a leap to go self-employed; it felt scary.
After being made redundant I thought I had nothing to lose by trying homeworking. Now I look back and wish I’d have taken that step earlier.
I did a lot of research and spoke to other homeworking companies and homeworkers. I came across the Personal Holiday Advisors on Google, spoke to them and had a good feeling. I like that it’s a small team, and I already knew some of the girls that work at head office.
I started selling holidays in April 2021, just as travel was coming back, and started off steady by using social media, then I started getting recommendations. Now I’m getting a really good flow of bookings every month.
I’ve just passed £150K in holiday sales since I started. Hopefully going forward as things pick up, I can exceed what I was earning when I worked in stores.
The support from the Personal Holiday Advisors has been brilliant. We have a Facebook messenger group chat with members of head office plus the other advisors, which is great for answering queries.
Lots of clients now prefer to do things over message, phone or email, so homeworking is ideal. I’m now able to take the kids to after-school clubs, which I couldn’t do before. It works much better for family life.
My aim is now to grow my business and I have plans to sponsor the local football team and launch a pop-up.
I was devastated when I was made redundant but I’m a firm believer that everything happens for a reason – and homeworking has worked out brilliantly!”
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Company number 08723341.
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