Working Travel Agent | Recruitment Advise

Homeworking for Travel Entrepreneurs….

At Kwik Travel we like to call ourselves the “caring homeworking company”. While we are quite particular who we take on, anyone that becomes one of the family will find we look after them. This is one of the reasons why many of our Homeworkers are attracted to us by personal recommendation.

We appreciate that you may be apprehensive about taking the leap in to homeworking, probably because of the uncertainty around your income in the early months.

Don’t worry, Kwik Travel have the answer!

Unlike most homeworking companies we can pay you the commission you have earned from a booking straightaway, we don’t wait for the customer to pay the balance before we pay you.

This means for example that in January when you may be making summer bookings you will get paid in February rather than have to wait until May or June for the commission to be paid to you. This makes a big difference for new Homeworkers, as your income will not take months to build up. You should be able to ‘hit the ground running’ as we say.

Since we introduced homeworking in 1996 we have developed many variations of the homeworking concept. In fact some of our team don’t actually work from home; they work from an office or shop and employ others to meet the demands of their business. The vast majority though work from home and manage successful homeworking businesses from their dining room, converted bedroom or conservatory.

There are two homeworking models to consider.

Kwik Travel (Media Model) - Self employed

On this model you can log into our call distribution system and receive enquiries generated by our Marketing Team. In addition we will provide you with your own website and organise frequent e shots to your customer database, helping you to swiftly build a loyal customer base. The level of commission on this model will vary between 28percent and 33percent of the gross commission of the booking.

Holidays First (Personal Travel Advisors) - Self Employed.

You will again be self employed, but you will be responsible for driving your own demand with the help and guidance of our central marketing team. This scheme will appeal to Travel Agent entrepreneurs experienced in marketing and business development who already have an extensive loyal customer database. Again we will provide you with your own website and organise frequent e-shots to your customer data base. On this scheme you will receive 60% of the profit, but you will take more ownership of your operating costs.

In addition to the above we can also consider hybrid commission schemes which are variations on the standard homeworking models.

Sally like many of her homeworker colleagues, ‘logs in’ to receive the (company generated) advertised calls and is gradually building her ‘client bank’ by providing exemplary service to her new customers and working her extensive Facebook ‘friends’ and linking them to her website.

Ruth ‘logs in’ to receive the advertised calls as well, but concentrates mostly on her own ‘client bank’ of regular loyal customers, many of which she brought with her when she joined Kwik Travel 3 years ago from a high street travel agent. Ruth benefits significantly from the weekly e-shots to her loyal database and she gets a good response to offers and promotions. She also networks locally through friends and relatives and local businesses.

Annie creates her own demand mostly. She works on manually loaded HOD’s (Teletext website) selling specific destinations or products, like the Cape Verde Islands or Skiing holidays to Bulgaria. We have built her websites to promote the same destinations and she manages her own Google adwords campaigns

Bob works from an office and gets business from his own extensive ‘client bank’. Before Bob and his wife joined us they had their own high street travel agency business, but came to us for financial shelter. Bob networks locally and runs a strong HOD campaign. He also does wedding fayres and organises golfing groups.

Carol focuses again on developing her own demand. Carols husband Mike works for Greater Manchester Police and Carol puts all her marketing resource into developing demand from Mike’s colleagues and from Police Federation members throughout the UK.

The secret to our success...

As one of the first travel retailers to operate entirely with a homeworking sales team, Kwik Travel now contracts Personal Travel Advisors all over the UK. Together we have transformed the working lives of many travel professionals. In addition to our pro-active internal culture, we strongly believe in and provide:

Close channels of communication between our Sales Force and Central Office
The best IT systems and support
Round the clock support from one of the best management teams in the business, who are very much hands on
Dedicated administration and customer services support
Strong commercial relationships with the leading suppliers
A comprehensive range of sales tools including the best 'dynamic packaging' holiday booking system in the business
The full support of our Marketing Team, to help you generate your own demand and where appropriate full and comprehensive training will be provided

Working with Kwik Travel as a homeworker is all about developing mutually rewarding and profitable business partnerships, with the all-important benefit of retaining your freedom. Join us and we will help you manage your career so that it not only suits you but also enhances your lifestyle. So if you are passionate about selling travel, have a dynamic get up and go personality and a desire to build a business around your career, your future may be with Kwik Travel.

Self-assessment - How many boxes can you tick?

Please have a look at the list below and assess your suitability for homeworking with Kwik Travel. If you cannot tick all the boxes, don’t worry. You may still be of interest to us. Just call the recruitment line and we will provide an honest assessment of your suitability.

	Do you have a minimum of three years (ideally more) full time ABTA travel sales experience, accumulated during the last five years working in either a high street ABTA Travel Agency or Call Centre selling holidays to the general public?
	We have to register you with ABTA as an outworker under our ABTA license so this box does need to be ticked before continuing
	How successful do you want to be? Our most successful homeworkers areentrepreneurs like Annie, Bob and Carol, who are very hard working, they ‘think outside the box’, and invest time and effort developing their own niche products and benefit from a high conversion of enquiries to sales.
	Do you know the holiday business inside out? Do you have excellent general product knowledge for worldwide destinations and especially for our key selling areas in the Mediterranean, Aegean, Canary Islands and the Red Sea? Do you have expertise in a particular market like Ski or Cruise or a specific destination like Goa or Cuba?
	Do you have experience of ‘dynamically packaging’ short and long haul holidays by using specialist suppliers’, bed banks and low cost airlines?
	Do you have a proven holiday sales record with the drive and enthusiasm to convert a high proportion of enquiries in to sales? This is not a role for average sales performers.
	How good are your IT and key board skills? Do you know your way around Travel systems, the Internet and email?
	Are you prepared to work (be available for calls) for at least 30 hours per week, some of which will be evenings and weekends? This is not a 9 to 5 opportunity.
	Do you have a quiet area in your residence where you can work, which can be segregated to allow you quality time to concentrate on your enquiries?
	Have you given some thought about how you might promote your business to your local community? We will provide you with a comprehensive marketing support package through Teletext and the web, but your friends and family network may also have a role to play to top up your enquiries.
	Are you organised, methodical and have good attention to detail.
	Are you self motivated, enthusiastic and have the drive and determination to be successful? The rewards in homeworking come to those who work hard.

By joining Kwik Travel as a self-employed, home-based personal travel advisor and selling holidays under our trusted and powerful brand names, the opportunity to develop your own successful business is well within reach. True success will only come from working together and in return for providing the following infrastructure; we require that you be completely committed to making a success of your career.

Administration and Customer Services Support

Our highly experienced Central Office team in Tamworth, Staffordshire will provide you with comprehensive support in all areas. Our Customer Services team will assist you in a majority of administrative duties, including customer confirmations and invoices, the dispatch of ‘paper’ tickets. They will also provide support in relation to booking amendments and balance collections. All we ask of you is to create a Tarsc file and receipt the payment you have taken. Most of our customer documentation (receipts, confirmations, invoices) are sent out by email. You will be required to issue some documentation for customers travelling imminently or for bookings involving low cost airlines. You will have direct access to the management team both during and out of office hours should you require immediate assistance.

Earning, Time Commitment, Commission Levels and Training

You will be self employed and responsible for your own Tax and National Insurance. Don’t let self-employment put you off, there are many benefits of being self-employed and the documentation is straightforward. We can provide you with all the information you need.

In your first year working full time, we would expect your earnings to be between £14,000 and £17,000. However we do have new homeworkers who earn £25,000 plus, in their first year.

As your bank of customers grows and your confidence develops, your earnings will increase year on year. We have many homeworkers regularly achieving annual incomes of £30,000 to £50,000 and one home worker in 2010 earned over £65,000!

What remains clear is that sales and profit are directly related to the time and effort expended and your ability to sell.

We would expect you to be available for calls for a minimum of 30 hours each week (media model). This is not a 9 to 5 job. Your hours will need to include at least 2 to 3 full evenings a week and some quality time over the weekends. At peak periods your commitment will need to be greater to maximise your sales.

At Kwik Travel we do not normally charge a commitment or joining fee. This would be agreed with you as we process your application. If a fee were applicable the cost would be £295 plus VAT.

All new starters will be provided with comprehensive, (one to one) 3-4 day induction training at our Tamworth Head Office and on going assistance especially in your early months. We pay for your travelling costs and your accommodation if appropriate.

Making your phones ring…

For our Media Model homeworkers we employ a range of both established and innovative routes to market, we are committed to delivering high quality sales leads to our sales force. Join us and you will receive calls from our extensive Teletext national and regional frames on Freeview & Sky TV and on line enquiries from our websites. Our main websites are www.kwiktravel.com and www.yourholidaysfirst.co.uk

We also work very closely with many UK based travel ‘portals’ like -

Our most successful Homeworkers, don’t just rely on the enquiries that we generate, they work with our Marketing Team to create their own demand. This can include your own Text page and loading manual HODS for specific destinations. Many of our Personal Travel Advisors are members of local networking organisations like business breakfast clubs which have raised their business profile amongst the local business community.

We enjoy enviable commercial deals and incentives through our affiliation with the Freedom Travel Group, part of the Co-operative Group. We are totally independent so you’re never forced to sell specific suppliers. You benefit from the best commissions in the industry with the main suppliers like Thomas Cook Group, TUI Holidays Group, Kuoni, Virgin, Red Sea Holidays, Travel 2 and all the major cruise lines. We also work very closely with our sister companies Longwood Holidays, Peltours, Amathus, Preston Holidays and Jersey Travel Service.

Technology and Kit

You will be provided with all the tools necessary to run your own travel business from home, including.

PC and 15 inch TFT flat monitor
BT cordless digital telephone and a fax/ phone/ answer machine
Two telephone lines, plus ADSL Broadband data connection
Your own freephone 0800 direct line number, for your customers to call you back on
Your own website, for example www.kwiktraveldeals.co.uk/karen-taylor
Weekly personalized emails sent to your customers featuring holiday offers prevalent to the time of year
Colour printer and ink cartridges
Internet and email facility
TARSC (front and back office software)
‘Magic Professional’ our advanced late availability search system
Software to enable you to send personal e-brochures to your customers
Access to ‘Kwik Search’ our in house dynamic packaging software
Automated credit card authorisation
Comprehensive office stationery pack
All branded stationery, such as letterheads, business cards, compliment slips, luggage labels and ticket wallets

There will be an administration fee deducted from your commission each month which is your contribution to your fixed and variable costs. The monthly fee will be sent to you in the form of an invoice which can be used to offset against tax when either you or your accountant submits your annual self employed tax return to the Inland Revenue.

If you have not been self employed before, please do not be put off, it is not as daunting as it may seem and we will provide you with all the information you require.

Kwik Travel Group - A brief history

Kwik Travel was founded in 1994 and is today a highly respected and successful UK holiday and travel business. The company was privately owned until the business was acquired by the Preston Travel Group in November 2006.

The Preston Travel Holiday Group is a wholly owned subsidiary of Rosedale Investments; a substantial Jersey based trust which owns Flybe Airlines, plus other substantial investments within an extensive and diverse portfolio.

Preston Travel Group Holdings own the UK’s largest Channel Islands Tour Operator Preston Holidays, as well as Jersey Travel Service. They also own Amathus Holidays, who specialise in Greece / Cyprus, Peltours the Red Sea specialist and in November 2010 the Group acquired Longwood Holidays who have an extensive programme of holidays to Egypt, Jordan and Israel.

The Kwik Travel Group is a member of the Freedom Travel Group travel agents consortium, which is a division of the Co-operative Travel Group, one of the largest and most profitable independent travel distributors in the UK. In the last few years the Kwik Travel Group have also made two acquisitions. In September 2007 ‘Holiday City’, a South Wales based Teletext and Web Travel Agency and in October 2010 ‘Holidays First’ a homeworking Travel company based in South Yorkshire.

Quality is the key word at Kwik Travel. The focus is on providing a quality value for money holiday proposition to our customers and the highest possible level of customer service before, during and after they travel. This ensures that our customers stay loyal and even become ambassadors for Kwik Travel, telling friends and relatives of their experiences.

So, if you like what you see and believe our future could lie together, please get in touch today by calling Steve Briggs on 0800 655 6804 for an honest assessment of your suitability for homeworking. Alternatively you can complete and submit our online application form or email steveb@kwiktravel.com.

Kwik Travel Group Victoria House, Cygnet Drive, Tamworth, Staffordshire,

B79 7RU. Tel 0844 77 007 44 - Fax 01827 311655