“I was looking for something I enjoyed doing and travel was a natural fit for me”

Not Just Travel franchisee Jenifer Compton shares how her travel business has given her more freedom and flexibility

After a 20-year corporate career, Jenifer Compton was feeling burnt out by the lifestyle. She came across The Travel Franchise by Not Just Travel and immediately saw how the business could help her make a change.

“I’d just had enough of it,” said Jenifer. “But I didn’t want to work for anyone else. I was looking for something that I enjoyed doing or something that I was really interested in and travel was a natural fit for me.”

It runs in the blood

Inspired by her adventurous grandparents, Jenifer has loved to travel ever since her university days. She explained: “Back in the 1920s and 1930s, one of my grandfathers was going to work on the steam trains down in Argentina. And the other had travelled all around Switzerland, he’d lived in India and Africa. I saw all their photos and that inspired me a lot.”

Jenifer is also a huge fan of getting off the beaten track and exploring new places and cultures.

“Cambodia for me is a big one, I travelled way back in 1997, long before it was even a backpackers destination. I love India – I’ve been there several times. And I spent a couple of months in Columbia and South America. I stayed with a local family, did Spanish language school and then travelled all around,” she said.

Enjoying the work-life balance

Jenifer was looking for something that would give her the option to enjoy more of her life, rather than have work dictate limited times she could go away or visit family. And because she can run her travel business part-time, Jenifer can now have the perfect work-life balance and focus on her other commitments, including volunteering. She can also get away to see family and friends whenever she wants.

“My parents are in their late eighties and don’t live close to me,” Jenifer explained. “They’re a couple of hundred miles away. So if I need to rush off and see them, I can go do that. My sister lives in France and I had a really limited amount of time to be able to go over and see her. Now, if I want to go and stay with my sister, I can go do that. I can work while I’m away. So it just gives me a much more flexible lifestyle that I can make fit around what I want to do.”

But that doesn’t mean lacking ambition.

Focussed on growth

Because there aren’t sales targets or a boss to answer to, Jenifer’s growing her travel franchise business at her own pace. And she is making some brilliant holiday bookings with high values.

She is also focused on more unusual holidays, such as exotic walking trips, and has even booked an old friend on a unique type of luxury cruise.

Jenifer said: “She was talking about going on a cruise with another friend and it came up that they’d both love to go and see some polar bears. I knew exactly what companies to speak to. I managed to secure a really good discount because of different offers – even though the trip came in at £40,000, they’re really happy with the booking.”

Far from still being burnt out by life, Jenifer now has a rewarding lifestyle. And a big part of that is thanks to her new part-time travel business, with every day offering a new adventure.