Homeworker and Travel Weekly Cruise Club member Andrew Fox is a seasoned cruise passenger, notching up 15 holidays on the water in the past 10 years.
Earlier this year he set himself the challenge of turning his cruise experience into an aid for building business.
Working for the Personal Travel Advisors division of Future Travel, he began his travel career 30 years ago at Wilks Travel, an independent agency in Sheffield, before going on to open his own agency Easi Travel in 1991.
He also worked for Worldchoice as business development executive but was made redundant after two years following the September 11 terrorist attacks.
Andrew said: “I still had the agency so I sold it to my business partner, then proceeded to look into being a homeworker for the rest of my days.”
A stint working at Leeds College running the travel operation gave Andrew a different insight into travel: “I was used to mid to upmarket travel and then I began dealing with more budget as well as business travel,” he said.
He then moved into homeworking. “You are more in control of what you do and what you want to sell, without having the hassle of all the accounts,” said Andrew. “I can concentrate on my own marketing and sales and if I want to play the odd game of corporate golf I can.
“You have to put in the hours – I now work a lot harder than I ever have in my life.”
Deciding to increase his cruise business earlier this year, Andrew said he initially needed to get some local recognition in his area in York and embarked on advertising at car washes, in the local paper and joining business networks – as well as taking stands at agricultural shows.
He said: “Personally, I have been cruising for the past 15 years so I feel I can speak with experience – but not everybody knew that I had done this or could sell it, so I had to start from scratch and raise my profile.
“The growth of the Internet and the big cruise clubs is a challenge for me – I started off doing cruise mailshots from my own database to get the message out that ‘I do cruise’.”
Andrew has so far taken a stand at three agricultural shows in his area, with the help of Complete Cruise Solution and Fred Olsen.
“For me, it is great to get out and talk to people – as a homeworker I realise that I need to do these shows as I don’t have face-to-face contact with clients on a daily basis. It is productive – I get about 50 new clients every time I do one and I have already had two bookings from them for next year.”
Since joining the Travel Weekly Cruise Club, Andrew has been on a number of ship visits, attended the first UK Cruise Convention in Dover in May and has had cruise sales representatives visit him.
He said: “I have found ship visits particularly useful and I seriously think that it is great if a rep has taken the time to come and see me at home.”
“Unfortunately, as it is just me I can’t focus on one product – I will do cruise but I need to give attention to my ‘bread and butter’ bookings as well,” he added.
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