Small homeworking companies target steady growth – 28 Dec 2006

Small homeworking companies plan to invest in the web and are targeting steady growth throughout 2007.

Bosses have predicted homeworking will continue to boom in 2007 but stressed recruiting is all about “quality not quantity.”

Holiday Elite was launched in October 2006 and will have 25 staff for the January 2007 busy spell.

Business development manager Karen Gooding said: “We are under no illusions that next year will be another difficult year. Our aim is to have 50 homeworkers. If we grow any bigger we will lose that personal touch.

“We also plan to give them their own websites to generate sales.”

Holidays Please owner Richard Dixon said: “As a whole I think homeworking will prosper. We are going to continue to look for good people.”

Holiday Experts currently has 50 homeworkers. Commercial manager John Sullivan said: “Our aim is to push our website and to give our homeworkers leads from it. The web will be something we will invest in, it is one of our key routes to market next year.

“We think January sales will start a lot later, with the rush in the second week of January if not later.”

Kwik Travel managing director Arnold Walsh said the company has 18 new homeworkers starting this month and next month as well as three in Europe.

He said: “The New Year can be quite rewarding for our personal travel advisors. We are doing our biggest direct mail out to customers – we want to push the existing relationships we have going forward.”