When is the right time to launch a company? Ideally, it’s when you’re still a student, says Barry Moore, Cofounder of UK travel agency, Party Hard Travel.
‘While you’re a student you probably have more time than you’ll ever have once you graduate and have work commitments,’ he reasons.
Barry set up his company (while still at university) in 2014 alongside business partner, Nathan Cable and Party Hard Travel has since been able to expand and take on new recruits, particularly during those all-important summer months. In this, Barry has found great value in personality tests: ‘We get every new hire to complete the Myers-Briggs test when they start. We’ve learnt from experience that what you think you’re good at isn’t always what you’re actually good at.’
In the following interview, Barry [pictured below, right] also outlines how his own role has evolved over time and why he believes mentoring should be a two-way street – ‘think about how you can make it beneficial for your mentor too,’ he advises. Read on to learn more.
Can you tell us a little bit about your current role and what it involves?
My role has evolved a lot from the early days. When we started Party Hard Travel, we fell into work tasks and I worked on social posts while Nathan [pictured above, right] dealt with details. It wasn’t working well. Doing the Myers-Briggs test [a questionnaire designed to identify differing psychological preferences] helped push us into the right areas with Nathan focused on sales and marketing, while I concentrate on operations.
Operating in such a competitive industry means constantly innovating. My preoccupation has been how we can adapt our operations to improve them and drive the business forward, and I’m forever reading business books and podcasts, all of which can spark ideas. The one thing we don’t want to do is stagnate or become stale.
We get every new hire to complete the Myers-Briggs test when they start. We’ve learnt from experience that what you think you’re good at isn’t always what you’re actually good at. Our growth so far has been phenomenal and we’ve taken on a number of new staff to help drive this period of growth. Nowadays, most of my role is helping to build systems and structures to enable the rest of the team to work as well as possible.
What single piece of advice would you offer undergraduate and post-graduate students of business and management who plan to start their own companies after completing their studies?
Get started as soon as you can, ideally while you are still studying. We set up Party Hard Travel during our second and third year at university.
You might not realise it at the time, but while you’re a student you probably have more time than you’ll ever have once you graduate and have work commitments. It’s an opportunity to explore ideas and do the laborious research and planning stages for your business. There’s also a huge amount of support on offer from universities for students wishing to set up their own businesses. Get all of the advice you can while it’s there.
Mentorship schemes in business are becoming increasingly popular. Who would have been your dream mentor when you were at the outset of your career and why?
At the outset of my career, my dream mentor would have been Duncan Bannatyne. He’s from a working-class (lower socioeconomic) background and started out with a single ice cream van, which became a fleet, before moving into care homes, nurseries and health clubs, building progressively more valuable businesses. After seeing Bannatyne on [UK TV programme] Dragons’ Den and reading his autobiography, what really impressed me was how he has built his businesses from nothing. Today, it’d be Elon Musk – what a legend!
Nathan and I have had a number of great mentors over the years. Portsmouth University set us up with our first mentor when we were starting out. Then we met Paul Stanyer, who set up Holiday Taxis and previously worked as a rep in our industry, and his advice has been invaluable. Gary Lewis from the Travel Network Group is a current mentor and we have Richard Woods from [UK TV programme] The Apprentice as a consultant.
If you’re starting out, a mentor can be hugely beneficial for you, but also think about how you can make it beneficial for your mentor too. For example, we offered Paul a stake in the business, and our time to assist him with a new startup.
What are some of the challenges you’re currently facing, both as a leader and as an organisation?
The biggest challenge we have is when our team more than quadruples over the summer. From our core team of eight, we take on around 25-30 resort hosts between June and September. Party Hard Travel has been built on the product and the service and that means that each and every temporary resort host needs to buy into us as a company.
Yes, our customers will liaise with the head office team when they book their holiday and through other touchpoints, such as social media, but the majority of their customer experience will come through the resort experience delivered by resort hosts. In effect, we’re setting up mini businesses across Europe, and giving our resort hosts the skills and tools they need to deliver that optimal brand experience.
Please outline the importance of responsible management to your company’s strategy and why you feel it is important to business approaches as a whole today.
Responsible management is really important to us as a brand. We give great opportunities to everyone working for us and try to help them to develop new skills rather than just hiring people who already have the skills but might not fit our culture.
A good example is when we hire resort hosts to work for us over the summer. We give them the opportunity to develop skills and experience in a particular area, such as social media marketing, supply networks, finance or event management, as well as real responsibility and influence.
It’s hugely important to have team members that fit your culture and believe in what you’re doing. If you just see people as a resource and don’t care about them, they’re going to be extremely unhappy in the office and/or they’re going to leave as soon as they get a better offer.
Which three words best describe your approach to leadership (or your management style) and why?
I went to the team to answer this one and the three things they came back with on my approach to leadership are honesty, positivity and independence.
Honesty allows staff to understand how their efforts are impacting the business as a whole. Nothing is off limits; the financials are there for everyone to see and we’ll even train staff to understand them better. This creates a culture of honesty.
A positive culture is paramount, both in work and personally. We have professional targets for staff based around the future growth of the company, but also personal targets like receiving a monetary bonus for hitting fitness goals. Positivity is also about [fostering the] belief that any task is doable and showing that each staff member can achieve their goals.
For me, it’s also important to lead in a way that enables each team member to work independently. It’s good for motivation, engagement and professional satisfaction – and ultimately, that’s good for everyone.
