“The job has ended up being better than I ever imagined”

Amy Howerd joined The Travel Fracnchise and experienced great success from the get-go

Amy Howerd, mother of two, didn’t feel fulfilled working part-time for a software company. She longed for an interesting side hustle that she could run alongside her admin job, and although she had never worked in the travel industry before, she loved organising holidays and wondered whether becoming a travel consultant would be rewarding and profitable.

After researching her options she decided to join The Travel Franchise in November 2019, and after completing her training she made her first booking as a Not Just Travel consultant the very next day. Pretty soon, Amy’s business grew so rapidly she couldn’t believe its success.

“I thought it would be a nice thing on the side, almost like a hobby,” says Amy. “But the job has ended up being better than I ever imagined. It’s completely changed my life.”

Off to a great start

Since Amy joined the company’s elite package, she was eligible for its unique money-back challenge, meaning the franchise fee of £14,995 is refunded if you achieve a certain amount of commission in one year.

“After two to three months I could see I was doing really well,” she explains. Amy considered the franchise fee as money well spent on a good investment and hadn’t wanted to put pressure on herself, but it became an incentive once she saw the success of her company.

Amy still couldn’t believe it when the franchise fee was refunded. She realised that she could use the money as a support mechanism to quit her part-time admin job and focus on her franchise.

Ongoing success

Amy is now a full-time travel agent, working around 40 hours a week. She juggles school runs and the kids’ activities around her work, and she loves it. She says: “As I’m working for myself at home I don’t have to ask for time off, I can work it around my life.”

Being a full-time consultant has also enabled Amy to expand her customer base, and she’s now on course to hit £2m worth of holiday sales by early 2023. “In 2023, I’d like to sell £1m in holiday sales in a year – and it’s not unrealistic,” she adds.

Since more bookings mean more commission, Amy can also afford to take her family on more holidays, including a ski break every year.

“Previously we would have taken one holiday a year, but now we take several. I can simply pick up work while we are away,” says Amy.

As an elite franchise owner, Amy also gets invited on free mentoring trips abroad organised by The Travel Franchise’s customer-facing brand, Not Just Travel.

She travelled to Mexico in October 2022 with other Not Just Travel agents on the elite experience. There she had the opportunity to explore several high-end resorts and attend a series of classroom-style workshops with training on how to sell more holidays, find more customers and scale up an agency quickly.

“We learned how to boost enquiries, build our confidence, focus on repeat bookings and explore Mexico while staying in some incredible resorts,” says Amy. “I also found spending time with other agents really helpful.”