Holidaysplease is offering loans to homeworkers to set up their own high street agencies or call centres.

Director Richard Dixon said the loans will enable people to work in teams, rather than individually.

“Over the years we have had homeworkers expand their homeworking business onto the high street or into a call-centre environment so we know that the way we work and the systems we provide work well for expanding teams,” he said.

“We know that there are initial costs to cover when setting up a retail agency or office environment so we will be offering start up loans where needed to the ambitious people we are looking to work with to help them get off the ground.”

No limit has been set on the loans, he added. “We will look at each business plan individually and judge what we can loan on merit.

“The loans would be for people who want to have a high street presence or start a call-centre, so would support the initial costs attached to opening a premises or office.”

Richard said the interest charged on the loans will ‘no more than market rates’ and the repayment period will be based on the plan presented. “We would aim to be as flexible as we possibly could be to help get people off the ground,” he added.

The loans are aimed at experienced travel agents and travel call-centre staff who are attracted to homeworking but want to stay in a team rather than work individually, or existing and experienced managers or team leaders who want to develop their own homeworking team.

“A couple of go-getting colleagues may initially start together to build momentum then push on to build their own homeworking team, there really is no upper limit. The right people will have the opportunity and all the support needed to take their business as far as they want to.”