With my old business partner George Szubinski’s (RIP) daughter Joanne Kemp now with her daughter making such a huge success of her Travel Counsellors business I thought posting this under our original Zig Zag Digital Associates business name was a fitting tribute to all George’s dreams. These are now being continued at pace by Joanne and I strongly recommend you use her services. For those that have not heard of Travel Counsellors :
“Travel Counsellors provides bespoke travel planning and concierge services, offering tailored itineraries for leisure, luxury, adventure, and corporate clients worldwide. With trusted, independent advisers, they deliver exceptional experiences and dedicated support from booking to return.”
To book that next holiday contact Joanne below :
https://www.travelcounsellors.co.uk/joanne.kemp
Here is Joanne’s story below.
Where it all started! ✈️ 🌍 🌅 👙
In September 1987, I embarked on my journey as a YTS Trainee at Lunn Poly in Redditch, also attending college to earn my Cotac Level 1
& 2 Travel qualifications, I stayed here for over 13 years, then onto Thomas Cook for 6 years.
▪️ I remember when everyone lined up outside the agency to snag Free Child Places or £50 One Day Boxing Day Sales!
▪️ When flight tickets were handwritten and validated with an Airline plate!
▪️ When the Internet didn’t exist, and Travel Agents were filled on the High Street.
▪️ When I would hunt for the best deals and create window cards!
Over the past 38 years, so much has changed in travel. However, for the last 19 years at Travel Counsellors, my business has thrived on the belief that people still need a personal touch in their travel arrangements.
Yes, today there are countless online options, but nothing compares to speaking with someone who truly understands your individual needs and can alleviate all the stress of research, planning and booking. Ensuring every single detail is looked after, until you’re safely back home.
I’ve built some amazing relationships with my fabulous clients by listening, providing honest guidance, and ensuring that every trip feels unique to them. This personal connection is what brings my clients back every year, it's been the foundation of my business.
I want to say a huge big thank you to everyone who has booked with me over the years, your support means the world to me. Also for those that have referred me to your friends or family.
You’ve played such an important role in shaping my business and I’m so grateful for your continued support and business.
Here’s to many more years of arranging your holidays and if you're considering your next trip …I’d love the opportunity to help. 😊
Joanne Kemp, Travel Counsellors, Redditch
Below is another business Ison Travel built on the same model but more corporate than retail focussed. The Times Copyright acknowledged.
Many women struggle to return to paid work after raising children — a “motherhood penalty” that underpins the gender pay gap. Helen Cannon is trying to fix the problem.
Cannon, 49, is a mother of five. She quit her job in marketing after having her second child because going part-time wasn’t an option at her agency in 2003. A decade later, she launched Wokingbased Ison Travel, partly because she believed no employer would take her on.
“After the fifth child was born, I knew I had to get back to work … There was no way I was going to find an employer that would be able to cope with me and five children and the hectic life I have, including three dogs.
“I thought: ‘I’ll have to do something for myself … This is the time to start something brand new.’”
Today, Cannon employs 120 people at her corporate travel management company, which does everything from organising business trips, to chartering private jets, and finding flights for school sports teams. Employees work remotely and Ison has “no barriers to entry”, including no hiring age limit.
Its team is 70 per cent female and half of all the employees started in part-time roles.
“Our first part-time hire is now our chief of staff,” Cannon said.
Ison had revenues of £53 million last year, up from £40 million in 2023 and £6 million in 2019. It has a 24/7 operation serving clients including sports car business McLaren, and has bases in America, Dubai, the Philippines and India.
Last year Cannon began buying companies as part of a strategic expansion. Deals were funded by retained profits. Ison had pre-tax profits of £1 million last year after investing in acquisitions and increased staffing.
Cannon expects profits to rise this year along with revenues, which are projected at £78 million.
The founder and chief executive had no travel sector experience when she launched Ison. She grew up near Birmingham as a “fiercely independent” only child, and says this meant she is never “phased at taking a bold leap”. The business idea came about during a conversation with a friend, Paul Richer, who had worked in travel for decades.
“It was as simple as: ‘I love travelling … I know how to build a brand and take a brand to market, and build relationships with clients and a team. So if you can come on board with some clients, let’s give it a go’.”
Cannon founded the company and Richer became her employee. The pair grew Ison “quite slowly”, relying on traditional sales and networks. “My youngest was still only a year old, so I was juggling coming to terms with working, being a mum and learning a new industry.”
Then, in 2016, Cannon’s husband Matt Gough, 60, a former IT salesman, asked if he could join as head of growth. Cannon agreed.
“He has been the hidden force behind me,” she said.
“We’re very different and that works really well, because we often don’t agree on something, but by the end we’ve come to the right decision. He’s been really good at seeing new opportunities.”
Opportunities included opening an office in India in 2017 to deliver clients a 24/7 in-house service. Openings in the Philippines and Dubai followed. By 2019, Ison employed 12 people and was turning over £6 million.
I hope I’m showing my girls that if you want to you can do it
Then, Cannon and the team managed to turn Covid, which hammered the travel sector, into a period of hypergrowth.
Ison turned over £9.7 million in 2021 despite lockdowns and travel bans, rising to £32 million in 2022.
Cannon puts this success down to Ison’s remote-work set-up and her small team’s ability to pivot “really fast”.
Ison was also fortunate that several of its core clients were in the marine and energy sectors, which were unaffected by lockdowns.
Crucially, Cannon said, they invested in hiring top talent being laid off by competitors.
“We knew [travel] would come back bigger, and we wanted to be ready.”
When restrictions eased in 2022, Ison was poised to capitalise on pent-up demand. The team also began to diversify. They offered a service chartering private jets and set up a private client division offering “bespoke services” such as chefs and yoga instructors. They also launched an events arm, and moved into co-ordinating trips for school sports teams’ overseas tours.
Last year, Ison bought Heathrow-based Screen & Music Travel, which specialises in managing travel for film and TV production companies, and the femaleowned Global Excellence TMC, based in Rhode Island in America. In the six months after acquisition, Global Excellence doubled its team and turnover, and established three offices across the US, Cannon said. Ison has also just made a third acquisition, a UK events business.
It hasn’t all been easy, however. “It was tough coming into 2023 when we’d grown so quickly … We were 100 people and in different countries, so there was a very different feel. Some felt we were [becoming more like a] bigger corporate, and that’s not why they’d joined us.”
Cannon implemented “top-down, bottom-up” listening sessions with the team, who said they wanted to retain flexibility and autonomy, and avoid layers of management. She shifted teams to retain elements of the company’s original “flat structure” and committed to doing a monthly town hall. It has worked so far, she said.
Ison is also facing disruption from AI tools, and a fiercely competitive market where global tech-driven, venture capital-backed rivals such as Navan are vying for clients. She is confident Ison’s personal touch will ensure it stands out.
Cannon has won awards including Everywoman’s Woman of the Year in 2023, and hopes to be an inspiration for her three daughters. Gigi, 19, is already working in Ison’s account management team.
Cannon said: “The girls are quite like me, they’re all very strong-minded. I just hope that I’m showing them that if you want to, you can go out there and do it.”
No comments:
Post a Comment