Halstead Travel homeworker Arline Sloan is taking on two family members to work in her first town-centre shop, which is opening this weekend.
Arline, who was one of the recent winners in Jet2holidays’ Scale Up Your Street initiative, will open Halstead Travel in the town of Coggeshall, Essex, on Saturday.
She has run Halstead Travel as a homeworking business for eight years, under Independent Travel Experts. Before that she spent 10 years at TUI and has also worked as a resort rep.
Her 13-year-old daughter Charlotte will work in the shop on Saturdays and her soon-to-be sister-in-law, Stacey Koeck, will join her when needed.
Arline said: “When I applied for Scale Up Your Street, I went out interviewing people in Coggeshall, who told me that there used to be a Coggeshall Travel agency but it closed down a few years ago and now they have to travel six miles to get to their nearest agent. They all said they’d love to have an agency in their village again.
“It’s 10 minutes from where I live and I noticed there was a shop to let in a premium place. It’s a nice place and people look out for each other.
“I just thought: ‘I’m going to do it’ and it’s the best decision I have ever made. I’ve been making myself known in the community.
“People are excited and all my existing clients are on board. I’m keeping the name Halstead Travel as it’s well known in this area. I had a tear in my eye when the sign was going up above the shop. I’m scared but I think we will do well.”
Arline credited Seaside Travel owner Nicola Park, who was a judge on the Scale Up Your Street panel, for giving her the confidence to open to shop.
She said: “Nicola is remarkable and a great role model. She told me: ‘I believe in you. I know you can do it’. She’s such a wonderful, vibrant person and it was lovely to get that kind of feedback.”
Nicola told Travel Gossip: “Arline is so enthusiastic and so hungry. She has made a real go of it as a homeworker and built a brilliant client base and I just think she has picked the perfect place to open a shop.
“She’s negotiated the rent and she’s next to a really busy couple of shops including a really busy café and I just think she is going to do absolutely marvellously. People will come in for her – she has got a great personality.”
Inset picture shows, from left: Stacey, Arline and Charlotte
