Loved by Parents 'Fab Woman of Year' - Wendy Shand

Yesterday, Wendy Shand, founder of Tots to Travel was awarded the winner of Loved by Parents ' Fab Woman of the Year' award.  This is completely deserved, she is a mum of three, the youngest being just 2!!  She has built an award-winning business, also giving other mums the chance to run their own businesses with her support and training through her network of Lettings Experts, currently based in France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Cyprus and expanding into other countries.

The business grow from a seedling idea after a near-miss with her oldest child while on holiday.

This is the interview from Loved by Parents website

Name: Wendy Shand

Age: 37

Family Members
Rob - husband,  Barnaby - son aged 9,   Maisy - daughter aged 7   Monty - son aged  2

Previous Career SAHM, primary school teacher

What is the Name and Nature of your Business?
Tots to Travel (http://www.totstotravel.co.uk/) is an online holiday lettings company specialising in family friendly properties. We source, visit and vet self-catering holiday properties in multiple countries, ensuring that they are suitable for families with young children, specifically assessing safety and ensuring all the kit parents need is provided. We market these properties to parents and help them find the holiday that best suits their needs. In addition, we help holiday home owners extend their holiday season by niche marketing their properties to the young families market.

What Inspired You to Start It?
My inspiration for the business came after a family holiday in which my then 2 year old son fell into an unenclosed swimming pool, while staying at a gîte in France. I realised that there was a gap in the market to provide genuinely safe and family friendly holiday properties, which allowed parents to relax, instead of working even harder than usual. At the time, the options for parents were either very expensive hotels or resorts with kids clubs, camping or more-shabby-than-chic self-catering properties that seldom suited families with young children. There was nothing that addressed the very specific needs of this target segment. As a mother, I completely understood what parents needed, so I specifically decided to target parents with children under the age of five, ensuring that the properties provide everything that families with young children need. By targeting this sector which is not bound by school holidays, Tots to Travel is able to secure bookings for property owners outside of the peak holiday season, extending their season and boosting their income.

How Did you Get Everything Up and Running?

In 2005 I studied an online business course using Tots to Travel as a case study. I quickly realised that the idea was viable and approached Welsh Business Eye for pointers. Ffatri Fenter (The Enterprise Factory) gave me an initial £100 on the back of my business plan to ‘test’ the concept which I used to pay for the logo and to undertake some initial marketing. Ffatri Fenter also lent me £1000 as an interest free loan to get the business off the ground. Mentor Mon, (the business advice service in Anglesey) offered support and assistance with accessing local council funding. This resulted in the promise of 40% of my start up costs (IT, website development, marketing etc.) which subsequently fell through when my husband was posted at short notice to the south of England, posing one of my greatest challenges yet! Despite that early set back, I flew to France, lined up my first 9 properties and it grew from there. Within the space of five years, we’ve grown our annual turnover to £1 million pounds and we have over 300 properties on our books in France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, the UK, the Balearics and the Canary Islands, all of which have been personally visited and vetted by my team of marketing agents.

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Well done Wendy, you deserve it!!

Being a WAHM

I used to be (in my pre-children days) a hotel manager and I enjoyed it.  The shifts didnt bother me, working weekends didnt bother me, just meant my weekend was when everyone else was working!  I met my husband through work and so our schedules ran in parallel. 

But when I had Sophie, some 5 years ago, before she was born I did want to go back and knew it would be difficult with both of us in the same 'unsocial' industry.  But being in a managerial position I hoped I could make it more stable hours and be able to do both.  At first I started to look for a childminder, as I wanted her to be cared for in a 'family environment' and it was flexible to my job.  Not surprisingly when I looked for a flexible hours childminder, I think there was two.  So I went to visit both, one was completely unsuitable and the other was a possibility but I wasnt thrilled with her.  But looking back now, (considering I had been a mother for all of 5 mins, not literally) I was CRAZY to think I could do both.  I think I was still holding onto the idea of what motherhood and working 'would' be like, rather than what it 'really' was.  Also a factor into this crazy thinking was, my boss would not agree to stable or flexi-hours (something I later found out came from 'above'), I would still have to continue the 'as necessary' shift work.  So I ummed and arred and stressed for a while.  Until I finally woke up and realised it was just not possible to do the job I did before, trying to work childcare around those crazy 'unsociable' hours just wasnt going to do it.  So we decided I wouldnt go back and would work part-time instead, which actually benefitted us financially more.  Once, I made that decision there was a wave of relief over me and I was relaxed as I went to give my notice, and I knew it was the right deicision.  As much as I didnt want to give up or delay my career, this was the best thing.

From then, through various sources I started reading about Work at Home Mums and people who were doing their own thing whilst being there for their family.  That was what I wanted to do, but didnt know how. I tried a few things with ebay and surveys etc but it never went anywhere and was all more effort than it was worth.  I was working part-time and so got to spend the afternoons and weekends with my daughter, which was half way there.  Then I got made redundant and my husband got offered a better job here in Portugal, so off we went.  At this time I was thinking of trying to go back into 'regular' work in Portugal but nothing to rush as we were financially ok with me at home.  Finding a job in Portugal is not easy, sorry bloody hard and learning the language even harder, not to forget the now terrible financial crisis we are in.  Then we had our second daughter and so even more I wanted to be a WAHM, doing my own thing. 

Late last year, I got the opportunity to start working with Tots to Travel and the wonderful, Wendy Shand, inspirational Mumpreneur.  So now I feel I am on my way, but Im not there yet.

But being a WAHM is not perfect (for me at least), it is hard work, you must be self-motivated and that is not very easy with little people running round the house, calling mummy, mummy, mummy or chasing you round when you are trying to talk on the phone.  There is a certain amount of guilt I feel for not being able to give them my undivided attention, even though we are here together, but I havent been doing this very long and so need to learn some more skills to balance things better.  And sometimes I honestly do wonder if working for someone else would be easier, yes probably it would be easier, but then I would lose something more important - time with my children.  And a chance to work on 'my terms'.