Lianne Gater openly admits she had a tough 2013. After 12 years of homeworking at Freedom Travel Group, she was in a rut.
“It’s easy to complain that the phones aren’t ringing… but if you’re not proactive, they won’t ring. But a bad year is not a terrible thing. It gave me an extra kick to get back out there.”
A fresh start presented itself after a meeting with Vertical Systems’ chief executive Peter Healey at last year’s World Travel Market, who invited Gater to join his 50-strong team of homeworkers, working under the Your Holiday Booking brand.
The move paid off. Gater had her best January in 12 years, and she was the top commission earner for Your Holiday Booking in January and February.
Integral to her success is her specialism on Florida, the US and the Caribbean. “I have a smile on my face when I’m selling America,” she reveals. “I don’t have the same buzz with Turkey or Spain, and I think clients can pick up on that.”
A twist of fate has provided a natural candidate to serve those clients, so she does not miss out on short-haul bookings: “My sister Lauren has 10 years’ experience of selling short-haul on the high street, and she was facing redundancy, so she came to work for me in January.”
This extra pair of hands has freed Gater’s time to chase new business. She’s distributed flyers in local businesses, from gyms to hairdressers.
She attends two wedding fairs a month, and she sends out a travel deals mailshot three times a year to the database of a local school, with the promise of a £15 donation to the school for every booking. She has an understanding with the governors that she will not promote holidays in term time.
Secrets to success
She’s not afraid of hard work: “The majority of customers have my mobile number and they know I’m available evenings and weekends.” This flexible style of working suits Gater, because she’s also a mum and “family time means the world to me”.
She’s also been nicknamed a “callback junkie” by other homeworkers: “Many customers don’t book until the fifth or sixth call. When I send a quote, I say I will call the client at a set time to follow up, and I do. I’m not a pest, but sometimes you need to push.”
She’s fortunate to have a loyal client base, which dates back to her earliest days as a homeworker, when Teletext provided many of her bookings.
“It was very fast,” she says. “Call came after call… I loved that buzz.”
“I sometimes pinch myself. Are you supposed to be this happy at work?”
Things are very different now, as she spends more time on fewer calls. “People don’t want to book in 10 minutes any longer,” she says. “They want reassurance.”
Her working space has also changed over the years. When she started as a homeworker, she worked in her spare bedroom. When her children were born, she worked out of her own bedroom, and then an office in the garden. Although she didn’t know it at the time, she admits to being lonely working from home.
“I needed to reconnect with the world,” she says. Two years ago, she rented an office in her town, Waltham Abbey. An office downstairs has become available, which she is turning into a travel lounge, where she can host clients.
She’s savvy about her relationships - she sends a great deal of business Goodlife Florida Villas’ way. She visits Florida with them every year, to tour new homes, and the company has provided her with a white-label website, which has a live feed of its properties, but she can customise it with her content: “I’m honest with them about what I want to do and that goes a long way,” she says.
A new website, a new travel lounge, a new recruit and record-breaking commission - it’s a dramatic turnaround in fortunes in just six months. It’s no surprise Gater finds it hard to believe. “I sometimes pinch myself,” she says. “Are you supposed to be this happy at work?”
She adds: “Thank you to everyone who has supported me over the years from the good old Co-operative personal travel advisor days right to where we are today. The support in this wonderful industry over the years has been incredible and that I will never forget.
“Anyone that is considering moving over to homeworking I would say 110% go for it. There are challenges, highs and lows as there are in every job, but I honestly can say I would not change it for the world.”
