Your Stories: Ex-paediatric dietitian Janet Lacey on her move into the travel sector

Q. What did you do before travel?

I started off life as a paediatric dietician, working for the NHS then private pharmaceutical companies for more than 30 years. I had a lot of travel opportunities through work, including unusual places such as Russia, China and Saudi Arabia.

 

Q. How did you move into travel? 

I chose to make the move partly because I was made redundant unexpectedly in October 2018. I had a skill set in sales and marketing and had travelled to more than 90 countries, and needed to bring in an income. I started researching career opportunities and came across Not Just Travel. My husband and I signed up between Christmas and New Year that year, trained the following February and launched the business on March 1.

 

Q. How did the pandemic affect your franchise?

Our first peaks was in 2020, and we had an amazing first two months until the world shut down in March. It was a tough period. We spent the entire time refunding and rescheduling. But when I ask myself if I could do it all over again, and whether it was the right time to launch a travel business, I think it was because we did really well in our first year. Plus, the goodwill I built up by helping people, even those who hadn’t booked with me, has paid me back in spades.

 

Not Just Travel does an interesting thing called The Money Back Challenge, where they pay back your franchise fee if you deliver a certain amount of money in the first year. I had a measure on my wall to motivate me to hit that target, and we achieved it in nine months. Those payments continued during Covid and helped us survive, plus my husband carried on working as a handyman to keep the wolf from the door.

 

Q. What sets your business apart?

We do a lot of tailor-made packages and try very hard to sell memories and experiences, not just a holiday. We encourage our clients to do activities that are related to the destination. We’re adventurous travellers ourselves and have a ‘little black book’ of guides and contacts we’ve collected from around the world that we can recommend. We also offer a very personal approach 24/7. Clients like knowing it will be me answering the phone and I have no desire to grow the business into a faceless machine.

 

Q. How do you find your clients?

I am a big believer that networking takes many shapes and forms. We find our clients everywhere, from Facebook groups like the Maidenhead Gossip Girls, to dentist and doctor waiting rooms, parcel delivery people and our own cruises and holidays. Every chance to meet people represents an opportunity. My best client, who booked a £150,000 luxury world cruise with me, is someone I met on a cruise with my mum. He has now booked five cruises with us. I also joined BNI (Business Network International) when I launched, and between a fifth and a quarter of our business comes directly or indirectly from that.

 

Q. What is your advice for anyone wanting to set up their own business?

I would tell people who are setting up that it is not easy. Unless you are somehow very lucky, you are not going to sell huge numbers of holidays in your first couple of months. It is going to take time. Family and friends can be the worst clients, so you need to find links outside of your immediate circle, like I did with my choir. I would also advise never to assume that people cannot afford to go on holiday, and to always listen.

 

You never know who has received an inheritance or previously had a high-paying job. A £1,000 fly-and-flop beach holiday customer may later come to you with a £20,000 Australia booking. It’s important to recognise that a holiday is potentially the biggest purchase someone makes every year. Apart from cars, kitchens and houses, it’s probably the most significant investment we undertake, so holidays are important to people.