Travel Homeworking Conference 2017

Posted on November 14, 2017 | Comments Off on Travel Homeworking Conference 2017

The annual Holidaysplease Travel Homeworking Conference is always a great mixture of work and fun.

After a year that has been nothing short of phenomenal we decided that our Travel Homeworking Conference for 2017 would be more about the fun than the work. So we all headed over to Club Med Da Balaia on the Algarve for what turned out to be a cracking weekend.

The team have earned a celebration!

Holidaysplease remains one of the most highly rated travel agencies on review website Trustpilot with 95% 5 star ratings from over 2,000 reviews.

Sales in the last 12 months have grown by 33% with net commission increasing by an impressive 37%. All this adds up to a fantastic 44% increase in homeworkers earnings in 2017.

And perhaps the highlight of the year was Holidaysplease being named TTG’s Online Agent of the Year beating off some seriously tough competition to take the crown.

Like I said….the team have earned a celebration, and celebrate we sure did!

Judging by just some of the posts team members put up on our intranet once back home they all had a great time….

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Travel Homeworking What’s Possible

Posted on November 2, 2017 | Comments Off on Travel Homeworking What’s Possible

There is a great football video doing the rounds on YouTube which caught my eye and got me thinking about Travel Homeworking What’s Possible.

The video is a clip from a penalty shootout. The penalty taker fiercely strikes the ball which in turn strikes the cross bar. Whilst the goalkeeper celebrates by running away from the goal, the penalty taker has his head in his hands. Until that is the ball comes back down to earth, bounces, and the spin on the ball takes it back towards the goal. The ball bounces again, and then again….into the goal!

The penalty taker is jubilant. The goalkeeper gutted!!

 

The change of emotions is something that a Travel Homeworker will face and have to deal with regularly. I’m going to get this sale! Aaaahhhh, the client has changed their mind. Wait…I might still be able to bag the business…..Sale made!

The key thing here is what is possible. A good friend of ours at Holidaysplease is Jamie Edwards. Jamie is a Peak Performance coach who works with international sports people and top business execs to help them perform at their best.

Jamie uses the analogy of a penalty to highlight the power of thinking about what is possible.

The penalty taker has practised his penalties ahead of the big game. Practice has been good and he feels confident that he will score. So, will he definitely score? Of course not. Could he miss? May be.

The key here is that it is possible that he will score, and it is possible that he may miss. When we think about what is possible, we are more able to deal with the consequences.  And that ability is what sets apart those who perform consistently well, and those that get carried away with short term success and lose focus or others who find themselves dragged down by failure.

Every Travel Homeworker will have days, weeks, months that don’t go well, even the very best! The important thing is to have the grit and belief to stay upbeat so that the sales start to flow again. It is just as important to avoid thinking you have it made after a good week or two. Do so and you may well find your effort levels drop and that results start to dry up.

In Travel Homeworking What’s Possible is the mindset for long term success. And always expect the unexpected, you never know which way the bookings ball may spin!

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Travel Homeworking Flexibility

Posted on September 22, 2017 | Comments Off on Travel Homeworking Flexibility

For most of the year the Travel Homeworking flexibility that attracts many parents to becoming a travel homeworker is quite easily achieved.

And then there are school holidays!

School holidays are challenging as a homeworker. Travel homeworking flexibility is hard to achieve because the kids are at home and demanding of your time, rather than in school for 6-7 hours a day.

Every parent knows that demanding and distracting kids do not help working in the consistent focused fashion that is required for anyone wanting to successfully sell holidays from home.

Should prospective travel homeworkers therefore expect to be not selling holidays during school holiday periods?

Absolutely not!

In July and August this year 5 of the Holidaysplease top 6 performing homeworkers are busy parents, with 3 of those team members each having four kids! That’s a lot of demand and distraction to deal with.

So how do such busy parents still manage to produce incredibly high levels of business during school holidays?

Well, they simply make the opportunity to be able to do so. They plan ahead, create a support structure, have laser like focus during the hours they have to work, and where all else fails, frantically juggle their family and work balls. This takes energy, determination and imagination.

The easy option that some travel homeworkers may choose is to take a step back from work and find excuses for not being able to sell holidays and make money during school holidays.

Just don’t be fooled that the easy option is the only option.

Achieve a good balance of travel homeworking flexibility through school holidays and you can still give plenty of your time to your kids, whilst at the same time maintaining the momentum in your travel homeworking business that leads to sales and success.

Do so and like the top producing parents in the Holidaysplease Homeworking Team have done during this years summer school holidays, you can earn over £9,000 in commission.

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Travel Homeworking Systems

Posted on August 10, 2017 | Comments Off on Travel Homeworking Systems

The travel homeworking systems that the Holidaysplease tech team build are integral to the success of our travel homeworkers, and just yesterday the Holidaysplease Homeworkers Intranet was being enthusiastically viewed by a prospective team member.

Meeting with potential travel homeworkers to learn more about their ambitions and showcase all that we have to offer at Holidaysplease is always fun.

During these meetings our Recruitment Manager Gemma runs through the key aspects of our Homeworkers Intranet system. Whilst she can’t cover every nook and cranny in the time we have, the overview provided offers a good insight and prospective team members get a real feel for how we work at Holidaysplease.

People viewing our system for the first time are pretty much always impressed, and yesterday was no exception. What was different was that the person Gemma and I were meeting has a tech background as well as great experience in travel sales.

The person has used plenty of systems in their time. Helped to develop systems, and been involved in project management for one of the leading travel tech companies.

In short, this is someone who knows what a travel homeworker needs system wise to manage their enquiries efficiently, work their client base effectively, and have all the tools they need at their disposal to achieve the absolute most they can from their business.

When someone who has used and seen a myriad of travel systems in their time tells you that yours is the most intuitive and smartly designed they have ever seen, you know you have got it right.

The Holidaysplease tech team have incredible brain power 😉

The travel homeworking systems that we have at Holidaysplease are specifically designed with the user in mind by an inhouse tech team that it is in tune with what our Homeworkers need.

Of course systems don’t guarantee success, but they do sure as heck make it easier to come by.

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Travel Homeworking Awards

Posted on July 7, 2017 | Comments Off on Travel Homeworking Awards

In Travel Homeworking awards mean a lot.

As a business Holidaysplease has won countless industry awards including twice winning Online Agent of the Year at the Agent Achievement Awards and being named TTG’s Online Agent of the Year for 2017.

These company awards are great and the sense of achievement is shared throughout the team.

Of course the essence of being a Travel Homeworker is an individual thing, so in Travel Homeworking awards mean a great  deal when they come along personally.

So being a Finalist for Travel Homeworker of the Year at the TTG Awards is a pretty big thing for our team member Sonia Armitage.

Sonia joined Holidaysplease in early 2016 coming off a challenging period running a Travel Franchise business that had not worked out for her.

Sonia was determined to make a success of Homeworking with Holidaysplease and the fantastic results she achieved with us in her first year are a clear demonstration of that determination to succeed!

  • From a standing start with no client base Sonia sold £1.2million of holidays in her first 12 months.
  • In her 2nd month she set a new record for sales in a month of £148,772. She bettered that in April with £159,944, and again in May booking £167,361. This February Sonia set a new record of £179,644.
  • In Year 1 Sonia has built a customer database in excess of 3,000 and 52% of her customers have signed up to the Holidaysplease reward scheme.

So what’s Sonia’s secret? There is no secret! She just works hard and uses her time smartly. She has done really well building relationships with customers using the Live Chat facility on the Holidaysplease website and is often live chatting with customers late into the evenings.

In her own words “My service is 24/7.” On Christmas Day Sonia was helping a client in the Maldives who wanted to move as it was raining!

Of course the reward that Sonia is achieving for her hard work is substantial. What she has earned in just the first 6 months of 2017 from commission on bookings made plus profit bonus would take the average travel agent 3 years to bring home.

No wonder she has treated herself to a brand new set of rather smart wheels!

And the personal satisfaction of being a Finalist as Homeworker of the Year at the TTG Awards is immense and incredibly rewarding.

In Travel Homeworking awards are truly valued and I’m sure that whoever is named the winner of Homeworker of the Year at the ceremony in September will of course be extremely deserving.

Being just a little bit biased, I just hope that person is our Sonia A!

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Travel Homeworking Review

Posted on June 21, 2017 | Comments Off on Travel Homeworking Review

For all of us involved in Travel Homeworking review is important. Knowing where you are provides the pointers to making the right decisions about what needs to be done to get where you want to be.

As we approach the middle of 2017 at Holidaysplease we will be working through all our vital stats as we undertake our half-yearly Travel Homeworking review.

And we are going to be looking back at a highly successful 6 months for the business and many of our Travel Homeworkers.

Overall sales are running 28% up year on year. And, even better news, homeworker commission has grown by 32% on sales made in 2017 v 2016 with our top team member earning over £46k in the first half of the year.

The growing support for the Holidaysplease Homeworking team plus recent investments we have made to develop systems and product to help them work even more effectively and earn more from the hours they put in is really paying off.

What we learn from our Travel Homeworking review of 2017 so far will reaffirm what we are doing well and show us what we can improve on in the 2nd half of the year. Because there is always room for improvement!

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Travel Homeworking Growing Support

Posted on May 26, 2017 | Comments Off on Travel Homeworking Growing Support

From the moment we took on our first Holidaysplease Homeworkers we have been committed to providing our team with the very best Travel Homeworking Support in the business.

Our whole way of working revolves around helping each and every one of our Travel Homeworkers hit their targets month in month out and build fantastic Homeworking businesses for themselves.

As we continue to grow so our Travel Homeworking Support must grow. Our double-act of Director Sonia and Sales Team Manager Sue has this week become three with the addition of Michelle as Assistant Sales Team Manager.

Michelle on her first day of Travel Homeworking Support.

Together, Sonia, Sue and Michelle have worked in travel for over 90 years! They have wealth of travel experience, knowledge and resourcefulness to share with you and each has a deep understanding of exactly what it takes to succeed as a Travel Homeworker.

At Holidaysplease we recognise the value in Travel Homeworking Support and we invest in it to be sure that our support is always best in class.

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Travel Homeworking Invest in Me

Posted on April 18, 2017 | Comments Off on Travel Homeworking Invest in Me

Travel Homeworking invest in me is all about being the best version of ourselves that we can possibly be.

It is a subject we touched upon in a previous Travel Homeworking Improvement blog last October.

The correlation between self-investment and better results has been proven time and time again in the Holidaysplease Homeworking Team.

Those that adopt an Invest in Me mentality consistently work to improve their knowledge, their efficiency, their techniques. They are open-minded to change and willing to try things that at first may seem uncomfortable. And they earn more as a consequence.

As a business we support the team in the process of Travel Homeworking Invest in Me by working closely with experts in various fields.

Over the years, we have worked with some truly outstanding trainers from the world of business, sports, life and of course sales.

In my mind the best sales expert out there is Phil Jones. We worked with Phil a few years back and much of what we learned we adopted and moulded into our relationships with customers and developed systems around.

So I was delighted to receive an email last week from Phil asking me to take a read through his new book, “Exactly What to Say”, and feedback some thoughts ahead of the manuscript going to his publishers.

This I gladly did. Especially as we now have some fantastic new gems to implement and put into practice ahead of the books official publication!

Travel Homeworking Invest in Me is key to individual success and we apply the same principal to Holidaysplease as a business.

Sadly, I cannot share any of the great tips contained in Phil’s new book with you here. The good news is that you will be able to buy it in the Summer and try some Invest in Me for yourself!

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Holidaysplease the Top Online Travel Agency

Posted on March 17, 2017 | Comments Off on Holidaysplease the Top Online Travel Agency

This week Holidaysplease was named the Top Online Travel Agency in the country at the prestigious TTG Top 50 Awards.

Richard & Chairman John collecting the Holidaysplease Online Travel Agency of the year Award. Photo by Steve Dunlop

The award is the culmination of 14 years of hard work from the whole team.

From humble beginnings bouncing ideas across a kitchen table, to a multi-Million Pound business involving over 100 people, at Holidaysplease we have always looked to think differently, be innovative and deliver a fantastic service to our customers.

Richard showing off the Holidaysplease Online Travel Agency Award with Homeworkers Laura and Nichola

From a trading perspective 2017 has started superbly for the Holidaysplease Travel Homeworking Team with sales overall up 34% year on year.

And Holidaysplease being named the Top Online Travel Agency of the year at the TTG Top 50 Awards is a lovely pat on the back of recognition for the Holidaysplease Homeworkers and all the team based at HP HQ.

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Travel Homeworking Decision

Posted on February 15, 2017 | Comments Off on Travel Homeworking Decision

Don’t worry, it is only natural to um and ah when making a Travel Homeworking decision.

Everyone does, and should. It is important to think things through carefully to be as sure as you can that the travel homeworking decision you make is the right one.

Some people need and take time to decide that joining the Holidaysplease Homeworking Team is the right move for them, others are sure and wanting to move forward quickly.

We always ask prospective Holidaysplease Homeworkers to be sure that coming on board is the right thing for them because we know that having certainty about the travel homeworking decision being made is vital to long term success.

Of the many things we have discovered building our award winning homeworking team over the last 14 years is that Travel Homeworking is not for dreamers, it is for doers! 

You can talk about becoming a Travel Homeworker all you like, but actually it is all about getting stuck in and making it happen.

As the tweet from acclaimed international author Paulo Coelho so eloquently highlights, we can all say we are going to make that decision, the power that leads to success is in the action we actually take.

Around this time last year I was writing about a new team member who had smashed all records in her first six weeks with us.

That person has just completed her first 12 months as a Holidaysplease Homeworker. From no pre-existing client base she has sold over £1.1 million of holidays and earned herself in excess of £56k in sales commission and bonus’.

What an incredible example of someone who dreamed of success and had a determination to achieve it. From day one she committed to getting to where she wanted to be.

If you have a Travel Homeworking decision to make, go at your own pace, be honest with yourself about how much you are willing to commit to build a rewarding homeworking business, and then go for it hard from day one!

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