The founders of Guru Travel are to launch a homeworker recruitment drive at the end of March, with a pledge to offer weekly business coaching to agents who join them.
Husband-and-wife team Paul and Emily Salisbury plan this initiative as they aim to expand their five-strong team further, ahead of their 10-year anniversary in 2026.
Emily said: “We turn over about £5 million in a year and about 97% of that is just from us two. The only real way of expanding is going into homeworking.”
Paul launched the agency in 2016 with Not Just Travel, then became an Advantage managed service agency in December 2018.
He said: “We’re aiming for one to two homeworkers a month, hoping to maybe have 20 on board by the end of the year. The three-year goal is to get to 50.
“Our biggest USP is us. We have already done what these [homeworkers] are trying to do.
“If they’re new to the trade, we’re going to coach them; if they’re already in the trade but they want to develop then we can help them do that.
“On a day-to-day 24/7 basis, we are running an actual home-based business, and [we want to] help other people do what we’ve done.”
Emily added: “We’ve been in the same boat…almost every problem they come up against, we’ve probably already tackled.”
They aim to help every homeworker to have a business launch six months after they join Guru Travel, to help develop a customer base.
This will be supported by mail-drops organised by Advantage’s marketing team, targeting areas where the homeworker will run a showcase event.
Guru is asking its supplier partners, such as Gold Medal, Beachcomber and Sandals, to support the event too.
“You can’t just sit on social media now and expect sales to drop on your lap, because it just doesn’t happen,” explained Paul, noting Guru Travel has 60,000 followers on social media.
“And travellers who are 40-plus like to go to travel shows because they learn something new. Older people are probably going to spend more on holidays potentially.”
Emily added: “You need a lot of capital now to initiate a business and get a following on social media.”
As well as supporting a launch event, Paul and Emily will also provide homeworkers with leads.
“We mainly focus on luxury long-haul – Indian Ocean, Caribbean, US, safaris – but we don’t do a lot of Europe,” said Emily.
“We’re dipping our toes in cruise and we don’t offer ski.
“We have a huge customer base that comes to us for long haul, and they will ask us for the other [destinations].
“We are so busy, we’re turning people away.”
She continued: “We only want to take on people who are serious about building a business, and we don’t mind if it’s part time or flexible, if they’re new to travel or have experience.
“It is about having the mindset of building a business, not treating it as a hobby.”
Paul and Emily will also hold “shadowing” days so agents can visit them at their house in Staffordshire to see how they work, pick up tips and ask any questions.
There will be no joining or monthly fees and agents will earn a “generous” percentage of the commission.
“It’s going to be negotiable, depending on…whether they’re generating their own leads or we provide them with the lead,” she continued.
Homeworkers will have free email addresses and a website landing page – and will be paid commission when the client pays their bill.
Details of how to register will be on Guru Travel’s website, so agents can ask for a homeworking brochure then arrange an informal chat.
Paul added: “We also want to organise fam trips to the likes of the Indian Ocean and the Caribbean with our partners and plan a conference at some point.
“We also have an inhouse tour operation so we can be a lot more competitive on price.”
“We are a testament to being able to build a business with a very small supplier list; we never use more than seven or eight because I would rather have a really good relationship with one company and direct most of the business to them.”
He said homeworkers can come from across the country, noting how about 60% of Guru Travel’s clients are from the M25 area and almost 20% of its business comes from Scotland.
“We might also do our own travel show locally as we have recently moved to a bigger village,” he added.
“And if people want to have their own travel name, that’s absolutely fine…such as ‘Hello Travel at Guru Travel’, or ‘in association with Guru Travel’.
He highlighted recent successes such as a series of Star Awards from Sandals in 2024, including the UK Top Selling Sandals Agency, and partnerships with Shamwari Private Game Reserve in South Africa and Emerald Resorts in the Maldives.
“2024 was really big year. We will probably have very similar accolades this year,” he said.
“Our average booking value is about £9k. We are way above the average.”