Smart50 rank: 38
Revenue: $61,500,000
Growth: 47.24%
Founders: Helen Logas, 46
Based: New South Wales
Employees: 38
Industry: Retail trade
Website: www.travelcorp.com.au
Travelcorp founder Helen Logas has no doubt about her greatest strength - her ability to negotiate. It is this skill on which she has built her travel firm Travelcorp, which posted revenue of $6.15 million in 2008-09 and has recorded average annual growth of 47.24% over the past three years.
"I taught myself to use my greatest strength to attain good fares and negotiate distress advertising rates. The response was great," Logas says.
"And I then employed staff, I taught them to listen to the caller and ask a set of questions to identify if they were a potential corporate client. We would then undertake a sales call and begin managing the client's business."
But passing her skills onto her staff also led to Logas' biggest crisis when her second-in-command suddenly walked out, taking 40% of her clients and three key staff with him. "I was emotionally devastated as I trusted this person explicitly," she says.
Logas immediately started to rebuild, hiring two new staff who would eventually become stars. But the incident taught her a valuable lesson.
"Be patient, keep control and try and keep your people unified and focused."
Logas' next goal is to open an office in New Zealand. "This would make us the first mid-sized company to offer a Trans-Tasman solution based on the same platforms. The global travel management companies sell themselves on this but they do not offer the same platforms."
However, this means the company will need to be ready for a busy period when the recovery begins.
"We need to be ready for when it comes back, as the new business will be in place in addition to the existing business. Staff need to be trained and ready to provide the high level of service we are proud of."
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