When Cath Bracegirdle joined The Travel Franchise during COVID with no travel background, she had no idea she would go on to build a thriving travel business, complete the Money Back Challenge, and eventually become a mentor helping a brand new consultant secure over £80,000 in holiday bookings in just three months, including a single £50,000 booking. Her story is a compelling case study in what is possible with the right franchise model behind you.

A career that found her

Cath had tried many things before travel. A graphics illustration degree she never used. Picture framing. Running an art gallery. Selling CCTV systems. A chocolate making business. Bookkeeping. Her friends used to tease her about never settling on anything.

Then, during COVID, she was networking online and fell into a conversation that would change everything. Through a chain of introductions she found herself speaking to The Travel Franchise team. She came away from that conversation knowing immediately what she wanted to do.

She joined as an Elite franchisee in October 2021, trained in December, and got started. Her first booking, a £7,000 trip to Mexico, came through a Facebook Live she did completely out of her comfort zone to introduce herself to her network. It was referred by her cousin to her boss. A real referral, from someone she had never met, on her very first booking.

"It solidified that this works," she says. "And it just built up from there."

The Money Back Challenge and what followed

Cath completed The Travel Franchise Money Back Challenge on the very last day, at eleven o'clock at night, earning back her entire £14,995 Elite franchise fee within her first twelve months. She had started part time alongside a 20 hour a week employed role, fitting the travel business around evenings, weekends and spare days. When her employed role became difficult she made the decision to go full time on travel and never looked back.

The business grew steadily from there. Repeat clients, referrals, supplier relationships built on genuine loyalty, and the compounding effect of looking after people so well they keep coming back and send everyone they know.

She attended the Millionaire's Retreat in Cyprus, one of two fully funded overseas retreats included as standard in the Elite package, at a point when her confidence had dipped. She came home re-energised and part of a WhatsApp group of 30 consultants that is still active years later.

The Elite Experience in Jamaica was where something more fundamental shifted.

"The realisation that yes, I can do this and yes I do have my own business and it's getting somewhere," she says. "Up until then I think I had a bit of imposter syndrome. Not believing in yourself. It's very strange."

In February this year she took on her first employee, her 27 year old daughter, who had been helping with social media in the background for years and finally came on board full time. The business is now a proper family operation.

The Lite package and a new role

Earlier this year The Travel Franchise launched the Lite Mentorship Programme, a new entry point into the travel industry starting from the equivalent of £28 a week, part time, designed for people who want to build a travel business gradually without the full commitment of the Elite package from day one.

The model pairs new Lite consultants with one of twenty hand-picked experienced travel consultants who mentor them through the industry from day one. New starters focus on finding customers and building relationships while their mentor handles the booking complexity and guides their development as their confidence and client base grow. Both parties earn commission on every booking that completes.

Cath was selected as one of those twenty mentors, chosen not just for the business she has built but for her patience, her nurturing approach, and her genuine commitment to bringing others along with her.

"It's the start of something new," she says. "It's a way for me to scale my business, with new income streams."

Her Lite mentee Jo joined at the end of February with no travel background. In just two and a half months she had generated 14 bookings totalling approximately £81,000 in sales. The commission on that split between them means Jo has already effectively covered her initial investment.

"She takes everything on board, she listens, she gets out there and tells everybody what she's started and what she's doing," Cath says. "She's been absolutely brilliant."

The £50,000 booking

The booking that illustrates everything about what this partnership can produce came through while Cath was away at a specialist training event for Lite mentors.

Jo had reconnected with someone through LinkedIn, a contact from her previous employment. He wanted to book a trip to Canada, Alaska and America. A six and a half week itinerary for two people, business class flights, nearly twenty hotels, internal flights, excursions, landing on glaciers, the Rocky Mountaineer. The kind of complex, high value trip that most people attempting to plan it alone online would quickly abandon.

Jo took the details and passed them to Cath. Cath called the client, built the itinerary, worked through multiple rounds of tweaks with a specialist supplier who had been to the destination personally, and got it over the line.

The total was £50,488 for two people, travelling this July. Jo's commission from that single booking effectively covered the majority of her initial investment in the Lite package.

"It was very stressful to deal with and just trying to get over the line," Cath says. "And then it was a nice little message I sent her because I was working at the time and I couldn't call. She was on holiday. It was a nice little message to send."

What this means for anyone considering joining

Cath's story demonstrates what The Travel Franchise is built to do. Take people from ordinary backgrounds with no travel experience and give them the training, support, tools and community to build something genuinely significant.

The Elite package, starting at £14,995, is the flagship route into the business. It includes five days of launch training, a dedicated business consultant from day one, two fully funded overseas mentorship retreats, the Money Back Challenge for those who pay in full, access to over 500 suppliers and the buying power of the Hays Travel Independence Group, and a full suite of technology tools including the TProfile quotation tool and NJT Smart AI, provided completely free.

For those who want a more gradual entry point, the Lite Mentorship Programme starts from the equivalent of £28 a week, part time, without any requirement to leave an existing job. From day one every Lite consultant is paired with an experienced mentor like Cath, someone who has already built the kind of business they are working towards and who is personally invested in helping them get there.

The Travel Franchise has been voted Best Lifestyle Franchise in the World by the International Franchise Association for two consecutive years, 2025 and 2026. It is one of the top ten franchises in the UK overall and the only travel franchise to make that list. It generates over £200 million in holiday sales annually and is backed by celebrity brand ambassadors Eamonn Holmes OBE and double Olympic champion Daley Thompson CBE.

Jo started with no travel background in February. Three months later she had generated over £80,000 in sales and had a £50,000 booking secured on her behalf. As Cath puts it, she is going for it and she is not stopping.

That is the Lite package working exactly as it should. And it is available to anyone ready to take the first step.