Case studies: Flavours Italian Cookery Holidays

Flavours Italian Cookery Holidays
Lorne Blyth

Tel: 01506 854621

Email: lorne@flavoursholidays.com

Background

Lorne Blyth runs Flavours Italian Cookery Holidays. She started in 1998 with one route to Northern Lazio and the company has now grown four fold. In 2003 Flavours’ website won the Winners at the Web Best Micro Business Site for West Lothian.

Lorne started her business at the age of twenty-five, an achievement that she attributes partly to her upbringing; "I am an only child – someone told me that if you are an only child you are much more likely to start your own business."

Lorne graduated with a degree in German, economics and politics and went on to teach English as a foreign language and work as a tour guide throughout Europe. Her love of Italy and her fascination with food and cookery meant that it didn’t take her long to figure out a way to put those things together and turn them into a winning business idea.

Having a father who had run his own business was a big inspiration to Lorne. She says, "When he died I inherited some money and I also had some money put aside for me by my uncles. They intended it to be used for my wedding – but well, I used it to set up my own business instead! I think that they were shocked but it was a long-term dream for me to do something like this."

Support from Business Gateway and Women Into Business

Flavours is a limited company that Lorne runs from home. She has had support along the way, initially from Business Gateway, who provided advice and pointed her in the right direction, and also from Women into Business Networking which she describes as "fantastic!" adding, "The support that is out there for you if you go and ask is tremendous." The business is growing every year, and Lorne is now looking into acquiring office space.

A clear vision

Lorne has a clear idea of how to run things effectively and is always on the look out for ways to improve, "I contract out work as need be – I look on it as putting together an effective team to cover everything from PR and design to buying and cooking local ingredients (whatever is in the market that day!) at our locations in Italy. I have recently started going to a life coach and that has been a wonderful way to focus on improving the way the business runs."

Good planning

Stringent financial planning has been a necessity for the business, as Lorne explains, "One of the biggest difficulties is that as a tour operator all the money paid by clients goes into a trust account until their holiday is complete. With people often booking months ahead and expenses ongoing that was difficult at first.

"I thought that running my own business would be very up and down but in fact it has been steadier than I anticipated. I am very lucky in that the demand has been good most of the time and I have been able to grow every year – now I run holidays to three luxury locations in Italy and I am looking at a fourth."

Going it alone can be full of surprises, and for Lorne one of those surprises was her own commitment to the business, she says, "One thing I definitely didn’t realise at the beginning was how absorbing running your own business is. It really becomes an obsession! In the end I know that I am responsible for everything from seeing that clients are picked up from the airport to making sure that we pick the best recipes for what is available that day at the local market.

Job satisfaction

"The highest point in my job is the wonderful feeling I get when a group has had a great holiday – people are really excited and it makes me happy knowing they’ve had a good time and seen something of Italy that they can’t get on the regular tourist trail."

So what does the future hold for Flavour's Holidays? Lorne says, "I always have a hundred plans for what I am going to do! Right now I am working on setting up a mail order/web shop for luxury Italian produce. So many people have asked how they can find the specialist products we recommend in Italy in the UK that I have decided to make it easy! Now that I have spent five years on and off in Italy cooking regional specialities I am going to use that side of my knowledge – I want to be a recognised authority."

Lorne's advice for other potential entrepreneurs

"To be a successful entrepreneur you have to be very determined. When I started I had very little business experience and I was very young. I hardly spoke Italian! You just have to take on those challenges and know that you can adapt to whatever you need. I have found that having supportive people around me – both professionally and personally – is probably most important of all.

"After all if you are operating in a climate where you aren’t taken seriously or people don’t believe in you then it can be very damaging. It is so unusual for a young woman to do something like this that there is enough self-questioning going on without other people adding to it. I am really blessed with a great support team from staff in Italy to friends and family at home. Not to mention my boxer dog Pip who is a great office companion!"