Launching my own homeworking travel franchise means I work half the time for the same amount of money and far less stress, says former corporate travel agent and mum, Nikki Peachey who sold so many holidays she got her franchise for free.

After spending 20 years in corporate travel, Nikki Peachey (39), has never looked back since investing in a travel franchise six years ago.

“I am earning the same money as I did working as a corporate travel consultant for some major travel firms but working 50% of the time.

“Life in the corporate travel world was pretty full on with long days and stress. Now I can fit my work around my life, not the other way round,” adds Nikki explaining that she had a baby last year.

“The flexibility the franchise offers is fantastic making it easy to juggle work and domestic life. Buying the franchise has changed my quality of life. I no longer lose 2-3 hours of my day commuting and I am here for the children. I never need to miss another sports day or nativity play again!”

Nikki researched the franchise market for travel sector franchises before choosing The Travel Franchise and launching her business under the company’s customer-facing ‘Not Just Travel’ brand.

“I just got the feeling that the support would be there whenever I needed it and this has absolutely been the case in reality.”

Every consultant benefits from having a personal business development manager (BDM) who will help them day-to-day or with a longer-term business plan.

“Natalie, my BDM has been absolutely fantastic. After the stress of the pandemic my confidence dipped a bit, but with her help I put a new business plan together and was quickly back on track again.”

Although The Travel Franchise has a reputation for helping people new to travel, Nikki has found her previous experience very useful.

“Knowing in detail how fares are structured has certainly been an advantage when putting travel packages together.”

With her travel background could she have gone it alone and set up her own travel agency?

“In theory I could have, but it would have been a huge gamble with big overheads. With The Travel Franchise I have the backing of an established brand, covered by ABTA and head office takes care of all the bookings, payments and admin.”

She now has regular clients across the UK and still gets a thrill from helping organise dream holidays for families. And some big bookings bring good commission too. “My plans for every year are to increase my sales by 40-50% on the previous year. I have already achieved this goal for January so off to a good start!”

“I recently put together a South Africa package for family totalling £40,000. It only took a couple of hours to research the itinerary, but the client was delighted with the outcome. Personally, I love travelling and have been on several fact-finding trips with The Travel Franchise including all the Sandals and Beaches resorts in Jamaica as well Lara Beach in Turkey! Since then, I have been invited on several familiarisation trips including cruises. However, with having the baby last year I was unable to go but I will be partaking in any and all going forward. We have lots of opportunities to go on these super trips.”

Nikki paid her franchise fee from savings but she wasn’t out of pocket for long…

“The Travel Franchise has a unique Money-Back Challenge scheme whereby your franchise fee is refunded if you hit certain sales milestones within a year. I reached it in record time. This really was the cherry on the cake. I now have a fantastic profitable business and it has not cost me a penny to start up!”