Don’t make investments except you’re ready to lose all the cash you make investments. This can be a excessive danger funding and you might be unlikely to be protected if one thing goes unsuitable. Take 2 minutes to study extra.
There’s a rising demand for experiential and wellness journey.
Not within the Guidebooks supply genuine experiential journey designed and delivered by native hosts. From day experiences to longer itineraries all full of native experiences, premium lodging, and transfers included making it hassle-free and straightforward to e book.
For this text, we sat down with the CEO, Carol Savage, to search out out just a little extra in regards to the inspiration behind the enterprise.
We’d like to learn about your profession earlier than Not within the Guidebooks and the place you first discovered that entrepreneurial spark.
I’ve had a diversified profession however at all times in advertising and marketing , gross sales and extra latterly e-commerce. I’ve had senior advertising and marketing roles at manufacturers corresponding to Disney, Whitbread and Pizza Hut.
My first enterprise was after I was doing my MBA at London Enterprise faculty. I used to be pregnant and I arrange my first enterprise to assist individuals work flexibly – it was a really totally different world than it’s in the present day! I used to be capable of construct this consultancy and recruitment enterprise to over £5m after which offered the enterprise.
My second enterprise was a recipe sharing enterprise which I pitched and gained backing for on Dragons Den – and importantly, I realized a number of classes of what to not do in enterprise.
Thanks on your honesty. So, inform us about this enterprise – what it’s, what it goals to attain?
Not within the Guidebooks is a platform to assist travellers discover and e book essentially the most experiential holidays; staying in distinctive premium motels with itineraries full of genuine experiences all designed and delivered by native hosts. Our imaginative and prescient is To create a world the place individuals join with locals, and interact with the place and tradition in a extra intimate method, while having a minimal affect on the planet.
Our purpose is to broaden our catalogue of experiences and experiential holidays, and construct an exit-ready £50m+ enterprise.
Presently we promote through Journey Brokers and direct to the shopper. We’re working with many of the UK company teams together with Hays Journey, Journey Counsellors and Coop journey to call a couple of and so they have entry to over 12m prospects. They’re sharing our content material to encourage their viewers. We additionally attain direct prospects through media partnerships (eg Wanderlust and Sunday Instances), social media, search engine optimization and PPC.
How has the enterprise developed since its launch?
We flipped the enterprise utterly – we launched three months earlier than covid as a B2C enterprise. When lockdown occurred, we spent the next two years constructing relationships and contracting company teams and constructing our brokers platform. We made Not within the Guidebooks targeted on fixing the issue of the way to discover and e book native operators on one single platform with one single foreign money for journey brokers, in order that they may create essentially the most experiential and sustainable journeys for his or her prospects.
What are you able to inform us in regards to the market and the way Not within the Guidebooks is positioning itself for achievement?
The journey market and the travelling shopper has modified fairly considerably over the previous few years. Persons are searching for extra experiences once they journey – even when they e book a seashore vacation or a cruise they nonetheless wish to join with locals even for simply in the future once they get to the place they’re visiting. The journey market has grown by 148% since earlier than the pandemic. And many individuals will select various kinds of holidays for various events, from coastal holidays to metropolis breaks.
We’re positioning ourselves to be the very best supplier of experiential sustainable journey for when individuals don’t simply wish to sit on the seashore .
How did your online business react to the pandemic and the journey restrictions in place?
When the pandemic hit we turned our enterprise to be a provider to the commerce. We contracted quirky experiential lodging within the UK in addition to English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish experiences. For example, there’s one in Northern Eire the place you keep in a shepherd’s hut and study wooden whittling to make a salad bowl – it’s on my should do listing!
Now in 2023, what are the goals of this elevate and why is true now the very best time to launch the marketing campaign?
We’re inundated with demand and we don’t have sufficient employees to supply the service ranges we wish to.
We are going to rent extra individuals (we at present have a ridiculously small workforce and I’m so happy with them for what they’ve achieved to this point) in order that we will carry on extra experiences and create extra glorious informative and galvanizing content material. We plan to additional have interaction with our company companions to enhance and improve our expertise in addition to put money into advertising and marketing to construct model consciousness and attain new prospects.
Might you inform us about a few of your largest achievements thus far?
My absolute largest achievement in my life to this point is my three superior sons! As a working mum, I feel it does actually nice issues on your kids to witness your arduous work and it’s introduced out a extremely robust work ethic in them. Nevertheless to make it actually work I made certain I used to be there for all of the essential moments of my household’s life.
Except for my household, finishing my MBA while on maternity depart to being provided both funding or a job from all of the dragons on Dragon’s Den!
After which with Not within the Guidebooks, organising a journey firm three months earlier than the pandemic and navigating one of many craziest occasions in enterprise, I’m so happy with the unbelievable workforce and robust model we’ve constructed.
Not within the Guidebooks is a premium accountable journey platform providing immersive native experiences for impartial travellers. The marketing campaign is a superb alternative to hitch a mission to create genuine, distinctive journey experiences while being hassle-free.
Take a look at the marketing campaign web page to study extra.