The Travel Franchise franchisee David Walker goes from zero experience to £1million in commission

After 22 successful years in HR, David Walker became a travel consultant with The Travel Franchise and with zero experience just made over a million in commission.

David had a highly successful 22 year career working abroad in HR. But, on returning to the UK, he discovered that path was something he was no longer interested in pursuing.

After much deliberation, he decided he’d love to open his own travel agency.

There were just a few problems:

• Despite being well travelled, he’d never sold a holiday in his life
• He had few contacts in the UK after so long living abroad
• Setting up independently would take years and around six figures in investment.

David had no experience running his own business before

David is immensely well-travelled. So much so, he’s actually already visited every country where he’s sent a client on holiday – over 136 of them!

But that alone couldn’t help with setting up a travel agency from scratch.

Joining a franchise eliminated all of the hassle he’d have encountered if he’d tried to go it alone.

Instead of having to deal with everything required in setting up a new company, he got a ready-made travel agency from day one.

That meant David was free to focus on the most important thing; finding customers.

It was the first time I had my own business. Things such as contracts with our suppliers. I don’t get involved in that. That’s what the franchise does. I just focused on building up a client base early. Literally started ringing people that I’ve spoken to once or met years and years ago and hadn’t touched base with, to tell them what I was doing.

David was so successful, he beat our Money-Back Challenge in just 7 months

David is a very target-driven person. He decided to focus on getting his business for free, as part of our unique Money-Back Challenge.

And he did just that, hitting the commission target just 7 months after setting up.

But none of that came at the expense of doing the right thing for the customer.

“I didn’t focus necessarily on how much I was going to make. Technically, people say you never make money in your first year, but I did it by spending a lot of time talking to the clients to find out what they actually want. Then I tell the suppliers I want this hotel, or these flights at this time. I’m technically making less money, but the client knows I’m doing what’s right for them, not for me.”