Homeworking agency The Holiday Fixer is to recruit a sales manager and launch a new venture in March as part of its growth plans for 2025.
The company, founded by Britt-Marie Monks, currently has 27 homeworkers and plans to expand to 50 by the end of this year.
Monks hopes the new venture, Pinch Travel, will attract experienced agents with clients who are high-net-worth individuals.
Currently The Holiday Fixer takes on agents who do not necessarily have travel experience, although recruits are expected to have a sales and business background.
“Pinch will be different to The Holiday Fixers; we will start it small, recruiting one or two and stress-testing it first,” said Monks, who is the firm’s chief executive.
“When I feel it is right, the sales manager will grow that slowly over the next 12-18 months.”
She said the new sales manager will also have business development manager responsibilities and will help The Holiday Fixer to reach to its target of 50 by the end of 2025, generating sales of £3 million.
“We did £1 million in the first year after Covid and have since had year-on-year growth each year,” she added.
“We are having a phenomenal peaks.”
More: Advantage attracts expanding homeworking travel firm
The agency recently held its inaugural conference at the Bath Spa Hotel, with its 27 agents coming from as far afield as Newcastle, Belfast, Liverpool and the southeast.
The day-long programme included networking with 13 supplier representatives; talks from five headline sponsors; an interactive keynote by confidence and lifestyle coach, Camilla Collins, from CJC Coaching; and a dinner and entertainment.
Monks described the conference as a “resounding success”, adding: “Although we regularly meet virtually via Facebook, it is very rare we actually spend time together as a group.
“It gave the Fixers and sponsors the chance to not only to network and exchange ideas but also get to know each other better. The whole day had a lovely vibe and it felt like we were one big, happy family.”
She also used the event to showcase the new Holiday Fixers advertisement and outline plans for an improved website and the £3 million sales target for 2025.
“I am very confident about those targets,” she said, emphasising how she is focused on “quality rather than quantity” when taking on agents.
The revamped website will operate faster and enable agents to have more control, such as being able to add blogs, for example – and it will feature a ‘find a fixer’ tool for customers.
Monks said her website ranks highly on Google and brings in recruits for the 12-week Become a Holiday Fixer Mentorship training programme, which launched in March 2023.
“The programme has been very successful and, as a result, the team of Holiday Fixers has grown to 27,” she said.
“At the end of that 12-week period, we have an appraisal about what support they need to grow their business.
“Twenty [agents] have successfully completed that mentorship programme and are now trading successfully as independent agents under the Holiday Fixer branding.”
She moved her business to the Advantage Travel Partnership in December, under its Advantage Managed Services (AMS) model.
“Advantage has been amazing for me,” she commented.
She started her travel career in 2016 with Not Just Travel then joined Midcounties Co-operative Travel in 2018 to set up The Honeymoon Fixer and The Holiday Fixer brands.
Her business has grown despite the pandemic and Monks being diagnosed with hereditary breast cancer in July 2019.
She has now been clear of cancer for five years and added: “Breast cancer and Covid did not deter us.”
More: Agency reveals plan to double number of homeworkers in next year [May 2023]
Readers’ Lives: Britt-Marie Monks [March 2019]