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Mumpreneur Profile: Andrea of Wren Elite Travel
Name of Business: Wren Elite Travel
Tell us about your family: I’m a single parent of a son who is now aged 16 (where do the years go?!). When he was 9, his dad sadly died after a burst appendix. Now, I do have a partner that I’ve been with for 5 years, but he doesn’t live with us so my son and I are a very close team in our small terrace in Greater Manchester. Our 10 year old Staffordshire Terrier Ruby and our 2 year autistic cat (we suspect!) Seymour do live with us, though.
What did you do before coming up with your business idea and how was it making the transition?
I worked in social care a few years back, but started working for myself as a freelance writer when life got too tough as a lone parent in full-time employment looking after a grieving child. It was a huge relief to be managing my own time and to be around more for my son, and alongside the writing, travel has always been my passion. Having been fortunate enough to do lots of travel writing and hotel reviews, progressing to launching a travel business seemed like a natural thing to do – particularly now that my son is older and I’m free to explore the world more!
How did you get started?
I initially just knew that I wanted to own a business in travel, but didn’t quite know what! I did lots of research, looking into franchises and routes to join the travel industry. I made contacts, did lots of networking and also managed to do some home-working for a call centre agency specialising in luxury travel, as well as enrolling on a BTEC in Travel & Tourism course. After much deliberation, I decided to take the plunge and start my own agency focusing on adventure travel and luxury holidays, and applied for my commercial terms through the Travel Trust Association (TTA) – which means my customers get full financial protection.
I launched my web-based agency at the end of October 2008, when I got my TTA membership.
What has worked well about your business?
I’m finding that I’m still learning so much, but I love dealing with interesting enquiries from people who want to go to far flung places and do exciting things! I’m very pleased with the feedback I’ve had about my website as well, especially as I created it myself! I have intended not to go down the ‘instant booking’ route, as I want to build relationships with my customers and also, I think the perfect holiday needs some discussion!
What has been your biggest challenge so far?
I think not swanning off and booking myself into all the offers I get coming through on a daily basis is my hardest challenge! I find myself with these fantastic deals and think ‘Hmmm, shall I book this one for me?’. I did that for my recent trip to Barbados, which was totally fantastic, but it was time out of work at the start of my business! I think I need to stay in the UK more this year, and save my own travelling for when I am more established.
If you have a flexible working business opportunity, please explain briefly what you offer and how people find out more.
I’m looking for experienced and committed travel agents with their own client bases, who are keen to work from home as self-employed people, and who might be interested in working on a commission-only basis. Anyone interested can email me via my website.
Your website link. www.wrenelitetravel.co.uk
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Mumpreneur Profile: Andrea of Wren Elite Travel
Name of Business: Wren Elite Travel
Tell us about your family: I’m a single parent of a son who is now aged 16 (where do the years go?!). When he was 9, his dad sadly died after a burst appendix. Now, I do have a partner that I’ve been with for 5 years, but he doesn’t live with us so my son and I are a very close team in our small terrace in Greater Manchester. Our 10 year old Staffordshire Terrier Ruby and our 2 year autistic cat (we suspect!) Seymour do live with us, though.
What did you do before coming up with your business idea and how was it making the transition?
I worked in social care a few years back, but started working for myself as a freelance writer when life got too tough as a lone parent in full-time employment looking after a grieving child. It was a huge relief to be managing my own time and to be around more for my son, and alongside the writing, travel has always been my passion. Having been fortunate enough to do lots of travel writing and hotel reviews, progressing to launching a travel business seemed like a natural thing to do – particularly now that my son is older and I’m free to explore the world more!
How did you get started?
I initially just knew that I wanted to own a business in travel, but didn’t quite know what! I did lots of research, looking into franchises and routes to join the travel industry. I made contacts, did lots of networking and also managed to do some home-working for a call centre agency specialising in luxury travel, as well as enrolling on a BTEC in Travel & Tourism course. After much deliberation, I decided to take the plunge and start my own agency focusing on adventure travel and luxury holidays, and applied for my commercial terms through the Travel Trust Association (TTA) – which means my customers get full financial protection.
I launched my web-based agency at the end of October 2008, when I got my TTA membership.
What has worked well about your business?
I’m finding that I’m still learning so much, but I love dealing with interesting enquiries from people who want to go to far flung places and do exciting things! I’m very pleased with the feedback I’ve had about my website as well, especially as I created it myself! I have intended not to go down the ‘instant booking’ route, as I want to build relationships with my customers and also, I think the perfect holiday needs some discussion!
What has been your biggest challenge so far?
I think not swanning off and booking myself into all the offers I get coming through on a daily basis is my hardest challenge! I find myself with these fantastic deals and think ‘Hmmm, shall I book this one for me?’. I did that for my recent trip to Barbados, which was totally fantastic, but it was time out of work at the start of my business! I think I need to stay in the UK more this year, and save my own travelling for when I am more established.
If you have a flexible working business opportunity, please explain briefly what you offer and how people find out more.
I’m looking for experienced and committed travel agents with their own client bases, who are keen to work from home as self-employed people, and who might be interested in working on a commission-only basis. Anyone interested can email me via my website.
Your website link. www.wrenelitetravel.co.uk
This entry was posted on Saturday, May 9th, 2009 at 9:00 am and is filed under Mumpreneur Profiles, travel mums. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Leave a Reply
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Manchester Terrier…
Mumpreneur Profile: Andrea of Wren Elite Travel ” Family … was a very useful post….