Table of contents

• Finding My First Customers: Where It All Began
• Learning Lessons – What Worked for Cars May Not Work for Other Businesses
• Changing My Approach – Learning to Pivot
• Trying to Scale In the Travel Business
• Learning Through Movement
• Starting From Zero Again
• Building Familiarity and Trust
• Finding Customers My Own Way

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

I’m Adam Thornhill, an entrepreneur and investor based in Dubai, originally from Liverpool, England. This series looks back at the early stages of my career – the businesses I built, the mistakes I made, and what those experiences taught me about building something that lasts. I hope you find these lessons useful. I’d love to connect with you if so.

Finding My First Customers: Where It All Began

One of the most important lessons I’ve learned over time is that every business needs customers, but the reality of where you find customers changes depending on where you are in life, what you’re building, and who you have around you. 

There are so many variables that it can be difficult to sustain a business long-term unless you have the right strategy. I’ve finally got there now, but it took me a while! 

Let’s rewind…

When I was 17 and first starting to buy and sell cars, I didn’t have a marketing plan or any kind of strategy for finding or retaining customers. 

What I did have, however, was a network. Most of my friends were just passing their driving tests. Naturally they were all looking for cheap first cars, so that’s what I focused on sourcing.

My first customers were simply the people around me. I didn’t realise at the time how important this would turn out to be. 

Learning Lessons – What Worked for Cars May Not Work for Other Businesses

As time passed, my network changed as it does for most people when they’re young. People moved on, friendship groups grew smaller, and that initial network wasn’t enough anymore. I couldn’t rely on selling cars to the same group of people forever, so I had to find other ways to make money.

This is when I moved into the taxi business and realised I was facing a completely new challenge. I wasn’t trying to sell vehicles anymore – I needed to find reliable drivers.

Taxi businesses tend to run in two main ways: either the vehicle is shared between two drivers on day and night shifts, or one driver keeps the car full-time. In both cases, reliability matters more than anything else.

At first, I tried going straight to taxi ranks and speaking to drivers directly, but looking back, this was never going to work. Most of the drivers had been doing it for years, and I was a 20-year-old trying to rent out taxis – one of which was bright pink with a PrettyLittleThing wrap. It didn’t exactly build confidence.

Changing My Approach – Learning to Pivot

Eventually, I had to change how I approached the business. I couldn’t just rock up and expect people to trust me like my friends had. I had to build those relationships gradually.

So that’s what I did. There was a local place where taxi drivers would congregate after their shifts to play pool and have a drink, so I started going there regularly. I didn’t try to pitch anything straight away – I just spent time there, got to know people and let conversations happen naturally.

After a few visits, though, I managed to secure my first drivers, who agreed to split the cab between them on a day and night basis. When Christmas came around, I gave them a week free to settle in, which helped build trust early on. Later, when I added a second taxi, those same drivers started recommending their friends.

This was the first time I saw how powerful word-of-mouth networking can be when you’re not trying to force anything. 

Trying to Scale In the Travel Business

When I later moved into the travel business, I knew straight away that friends and referrals alone wouldn’t be enough.

So I learned from my earlier pivot into the taxi industry and tried several different approaches. I experimented with Meta ads and even radio placements, but neither really gave me the return I was expecting. I felt like I was spending money without building anything long-term.

Then, I tried something more practical. I put advertising stickers on my taxis and told the drivers that if they brought travel clients to me, they’d get paid for referrals. It gave them a reason to talk about the business and created another channel for customers to come through.

Around the same time, I joined BNI Alpha in Liverpool, which was a different world entirely. Every week, business owners would meet, talk about what they were doing, and actively look for ways to help each other through referrals. It also meant standing up and presenting regularly, which wasn’t something I was used to.

The first few times were uncomfortable, but eventually it built confidence and helped me get better at explaining what I was actually offering.

Learning Through Movement

At one point, I decided to travel across Europe, spending time in places like Haarlem, Paris and Belgium.

Part of my reasoning for this was so I could advise travel clients more effectively, but it also gave me the chance to meet people along the way. Conversations with travellers and tourists naturally led to new connections.

After around 10 months, I returned to the UK, but I was already thinking about what was next. Dubai was positioning itself as a global business hub, and it felt like a place where I could build relationships with people who valued service and were willing to pay for it.

When I later launched my consultancy business, I approached things differently again. This time, I avoided paid ads completely and went straight to the customers, relying on networking, building relationships, and word-of-mouth advertising. 

Starting From Zero Again

When I first moved to Dubai and launched Relate Consultancies (a consultancy that supports foreign nationals and international businesses looking to operate in the UAE), I joined Facebook groups aimed at British expats living in the area.

Rather than posting services straight away, I spent time reading through the posts and comments. I looked at the questions people were asking and the problems they were dealing with – visas, bank accounts, moving logistics. Then I started helping.

Some of the first people I helped, I didn’t charge at all. Partly because I wanted to build relationships, and partly because I was still learning myself. They tell you to never give anything away for free in business, but this turned out to be one of the best decisions I made.

These early connections started recommending their friends and associates, and before long, the network began to grow on its own. At one stage, it was bringing in roughly one new client per week!

Building Familiarity and Trust

To build on my existing network, I started going to Liverpool supporter clubs in Dubai. (I’m actually an Everton fan, but that didn’t really matter. Being around people from my same city created an immediate level of familiarity!)

Here, instead of being another business owner, I was someone from home. That made conversations easier and I found it was quicker to build trust with new people. At the same time, people back in the UK would occasionally hear about someone planning to move abroad and pass my details on.

More recently, even running has played a part. I’ve met a few clients through conversations after events or training sessions, just through being around the right environments. 

All of this goes to show that when you have the right attitude and approach, you can find customers anywhere and everywhere. 

Finding Customers My Own Way

Looking back, I tried most of the usual routes when it came to finding customers: online ads, radio, sponsorships and referrals.

Some of these approaches worked better than others, but the most consistent results have always come from the same place – meeting people in real life, and helping without expecting anything back. 

It might be slower at the start, but it builds something more solid over time.

If you’re inspired by my story, please get in touch – I’d love to hear from you.

The post How I Learned to Find Customers, Wherever I Was in the World appeared first on Adam Joseph Thornhill.

Table of contents

• My Love of Cars: Where It All Began
• My First Lesson in Vehicle Loss
• From Driver to Trader: Getting into Business
• The Land Rover Discovery TD5: Learning to Improve Value
• The Subaru: Discovering Restoration and Patience
• A Crucial Realisation: Overlooked Vehicles Present Real Opportunity
• The Fiesta ST and Letting Go
• Returning to Cars in Dubai

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

I’m Adam Thornhill, an entrepreneur and investor based in Dubai, originally from Liverpool, England. This series looks back at the early stages of my career – the businesses I built, the mistakes I made, and what those experiences taught me about building something that lasts. I hope you find these lessons useful. I’d love to connect with you if so.

Throughout this series, I’ve written about calculated risk, resilience, and long-term strategic decision making. We’ve discussed my health, my hobbies and my entrepreneurial pursuits, and it’s been great to share my story publicly.

Long before I started building companies, consultancies, or investment portfolios, however, there was something far simpler I was drawn to – something that taught me early on about independence, profit and loss. Cars.

My Love of Cars: Where It All Began

Even as a child, I was drawn to cars. It wasn’t just about the flashiest models or how they looked – it was how they worked, the intricate mechanisms under the hood.  

I was fascinated by the idea that thousands of individual components could function together as one system. When maintained properly, it boggled my mind that this machine on wheels could take you anywhere you wanted to go, and that you were in complete control.

While most people saw cars purely as transport, I saw them as mechanical systems that could be understood, fixed, improved and, in some cases, rescued. This curiosity led me to study a BTEC in Vehicle Technology at school, which later inspired my first taxi business.

Then, at sixteen, I bought a scooter and completed my CBT. It wasn’t glamorous, but it gave me something far more important: independence. For the first time, I could move without relying on anyone else.

My First Lesson in Vehicle Loss

At seventeen, my uncle, who was a motor trader, gifted me a Renault Clio he had picked up from auction. The car was far from perfect – the alternator was failing and it had its own quirks – but it was mine.

I learned to drive in that Clio. Every stall, every smoother gear change, every small improvement happened inside that car. Passing my driving test felt like independence officially earned. But a week later, my beloved car was written off in an accident.

It was an early lesson that freedom can be temporary, and that loss doesn’t ask whether you’re ready for it.

From Driver to Trader: Getting into Business

With limited money, I bought what I consider my first real car, which was a Vauxhall Astra. By modern standards, it was pretty basic, but it represented momentum – a life moving forward.

I soon discovered that although I loved driving, it wasn’t enough for me. I wanted to be more involved, and somehow combine my passion for cars with my aptitude for business. 

I started going to auctions, just observing at first. I watched experienced traders evaluate vehicles in seconds, making decisions quickly and without emotion. Gradually, I started participating, buying, and selling on a small scale.

Not every deal worked, and some mistakes were expensive. But every misjudgement refined my instincts. Cars became more than transport; they became my first experience of buying low, improving value, and managing risk – all crucial entrepreneurial lessons. 

The Land Rover Discovery TD5: Learning to Improve Value

One of the most memorable projects from that period was a Land Rover Discovery TD5.

I purchased it as a project vehicle and converted it to make it more capable off-road, preparing it for events I planned to attend. This was the first time I was able to take something functional and improve it through effort and understanding. 

The TD5 was a huge milestone for me and reinforced a principle that has stayed with me ever since: value is often created through intelligent improvement rather than initial perfection.

If you buy correctly and make calculated upgrades, you can increase both utility and appeal, but if you over-invest emotionally or ignore margin, the numbers rarely work in your favour. That balance between passion and practicality is something I still apply in business today.

The Subaru: Discovering Restoration and Patience

Around the same time, I completed a full restoration on a Subaru. Restoration teaches patience in a way few other projects can, because shortcuts reveal themselves later, usually at a higher cost.

Working through that process strengthened my appreciation for doing things properly the first time. It also highlighted something important: effort compounds. The more time you invest in understanding a system, the more confident your decisions become.

A Crucial Realisation: Overlooked Vehicles Present Real Opportunity

Not all the vehicles I worked with were exciting: Ex-Royal Mail vans, Peugeot Partners, Transit campers, and Hackney cabs formed part of the mix. These were vehicles most people overlooked, but they taught me that assets don’t need to impress – they just need to perform. That distinction later fed directly into my first taxi business, where vehicles became income-generating tools rather than passion projects.

There is a difference between loving something and monetising it, and learning that difference early shaped how I evaluated opportunities moving forward.

The Fiesta ST and Letting Go

Just before leaving the UK, I bought a Ford Fiesta ST. This purchase represented progress – it was one of those cars you looked forward to driving, not because you had somewhere important to be, but because you enjoyed the experience itself.

Not long after buying it, however, it was stolen and never recovered.

The financial loss was frustrating, but what stayed with me was the personal element. It symbolised a chapter of work and independence, and losing it created a strange sense of closure.

Looking back, that moment became one of the factors that pushed me to leave the UK. Sometimes losing something creates the space for something new to begin.

When I moved to the Netherlands, cars became distant for the first time in years. I drove rentals when needed, but ownership creates a different level of connection and responsibility.

I also noticed how significantly more expensive vehicles were compared to the UK. Cars that would be affordable at home carried substantial premiums there. It reinforced an important lesson: geography shapes opportunity. The same asset can carry different value depending on location, demand, and regulation. 

Returning to Cars in Dubai

When I moved to Dubai and decided to stay long-term, my love for cars returned.

Dubai is a city built for driving, and I enrolled with Copart locally. Following the floods, there were significant numbers of damaged vehicles entering the auction that many people avoided.

But years earlier in the UK, I had learned how to evaluate vehicles quickly and without emotion. Assessing damage, calculating potential repair costs, and weighing risk against margin felt less like starting again and more like returning to fundamentals.

What Cars Actually Taught Me

Looking back, cars were never just about transport for me. They were my first exposure to risk management, loss recovery, margin awareness, and opportunity recognition. They taught me how to detach emotion from investment decisions and how to improve an asset rather than simply consume it.

But most importantly, they gave me independence. Perhaps this is more meaningful to me because I was born with clubfoot and movement was restricted, I don’t know. 

All I know is that before offices, before employees, before consultancy or investment portfolios, cars gave me movement. That movement created autonomy, autonomy created confidence, and confidence made entrepreneurship feel possible.

If you’re inspired by my story, please get in touch – I’d love to hear from you. If you’d like to work with me.

The post What Cars Taught Me About Risk and Independence appeared first on Adam Joseph Thornhill.

Table of contents

• When Routine Bloodtests Flagged a Health Scare
• Feeling Both Relief and Responsibility
• Why I Returned to Running to Take Charge of My Health
• From Health Scare to Public Accountability
• The Link Between Health and Entrepreneurship
• What Did the Numbers Show?
• Why I’m Sharing This Publicly

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

I’m Adam Thornhill, an entrepreneur and investor based in Dubai, originally from Liverpool, England. This series looks back at the early stages of my career – the businesses I built, the mistakes I made, and what those experiences taught me about building something that lasts. I hope you find these lessons useful. I’d love to connect with you if so.

Throughout this series, I’ve written about business risk, business pressure and calculated decision-making. What I haven’t written about much is health, and how quickly that can put everything else into perspective.

As I’ve shared previously, I was born with clubfoot. Because of this, running was never easy for me like it was for others. Over time, though, through boxing, cadets and other sports, I was able to build a strong, healthy body that I was proud to live in.

But somehow, over the years I spent focusing on entrepreneurship, I drifted away from that version of myself. Long days, broken sleep and lots of travel meant my meals, exercise and rest were all inconsistent at best, and this lifestyle eventually took its toll. 

In July 2025, at 26 years old, I had a health scare that forced me to reassess how I was living. This is the story of what happened, what the data showed and why I decided to return to running to rebuild strength and discipline. 

When Routine Bloodtests Flagged a Health Scare

Last year, I went in for routine blood tests in Dubai to see what was going on inside my body. Straight away, I was told that certain markers required further investigation. Cancer markers. 

And suddenly, after years of neglecting my body, I was paying attention. 

Follow-up tumour marker tests were carried out, including CEA, CA 19.9, and AFP. Thankfully, the results came back within normal reference ranges, and the immediate risk of cancer was ruled out. 

However, an abdominal ultrasound revealed two findings I couldn’t ignore:

• Diffuse fatty liver (grade I–II)
• A 3mm echogenic focus in the superior pole of the left kidney, likely a kidney stone

The liver showed mild to moderate increased parenchymal echogenicity – clinical language that points to early-stage fatty liver disease. At 26, this wasn’t ideal.

Feeling Both Relief and Responsibility

There’s a strange duality in hearing “it’s not cancer” while simultaneously discovering you have underlying health issues.

Neither of these diagnoses was catastrophic, but they were warning signs. That’s when the determination kicked in: this was something I could reverse, something I could control. 

Fatty liver in young adults isn’t rare, but it is avoidable in many cases. It can also be a contributing factor in developing kidney stones, which, from what I’ve heard, are more painful the bigger they get!

In business, I’ve always believed in acting on early indicators before problems escalate. Ironically, I hadn’t applied the same logic to my own health, but now I had a chance to. 

Why I Returned to Running to Take Charge of My Health

 I’ve never been a runner per se, but I have run in the past. I took part in the Santa Dash 5Ks in Liverpool and the Wirral Half Marathon in 2016, but business has always taken priority since then, and running just fell out of my schedule. 

A year or so before the health scare, however, I had already decided to lace up my running shoes and get back out there, mainly so I could lose some weight. However, I knew that just pounding the pavement a few times a week with zero direction wasn’t going to motivate me to change my health.

If I was going to reverse early fatty liver changes and improve overall cardiovascular fitness, it needed to be measurable. I needed data. 

That’s when I began tracking performance metrics using WHOOP. My early reports showed:

• Average resting heart rate: 60 BPM
• Average sleep duration: 8.21 hours
• Average daily aerobic activity: 12 minutes

 The sleep was acceptable. The resting heart rate was stable. But 12 minutes of aerobic activity per day told me everything I needed to know.

From Health Scare to Public Accountability

Rather than setting unrealistic goals, I entered structured events to create accountability:

• Sketchers Performance Run 3km – January 2026
• Tristar 3km – January 2026
• Cancer Run 5km – February 2026
• NMC Community Run 5km – February 2026

There’s something powerful about pinning a number to your shirt and standing on a start line. For me, this wasn’t just about showing up or finishing races. It was about reversing unhealthy patterns and rebuilding discipline after a huge wake-up call.

The Link Between Health and Entrepreneurship

One thing this period reinforced for me is how closely health and business are tied together.

Through my research, I discovered that fatty liver doesn’t develop overnight – it builds gradually through repeated small decisions, such as what you eat and how much (or little) you exercise. The same applies to financial instability or operational weakness.

Both health and business respond to consistency, and my health was an area I clearly needed to improve.

What Did the Numbers Show?

In October 2023, my InBody scan recorded:

Weight: 98.0 kg

• Body Fat Mass: 37.2 kg
• BMI: 31.3
• Body Fat Percentage: 38.0%

By January 2025, that had shifted to:

•  
• Weight: 86.1 kg
• Body Fat Mass: 29.6 kg
• BMI: 27.5
• Body Fat Percentage: 34.4%

That’s nearly 12 kilograms lost and over 7 kilograms of body fat reduced. But although I had already started losing weight, the July 2025 ultrasound confirmed that my internal health hadn’t fully caught up with the external progress.

So even though the numbers have improved, my ongoing discipline now has to match them.

Why I’m Sharing This Publicly

It would have been easy to keep this health scare private. Many people do, and I could never judge them for that, as it’s so personal.

But for me, transparency creates accountability. By documenting my return to running and sharing my race results publicly, I remove the option of drifting back into complacency.

At 26, I was given a warning, not a diagnosis, and I chose to treat it as an opportunity.

The lesson I learned from this is similar to every other chapter in this series, and my life as a whole: measure honestly, adjust early, and build consistently.

Check out all my training and behind-the-scenes runs here:
https://strava.app.link/l7wjF9ovM0b

Follow my progress, see what goes into making race day happen! 💪🏃‍♂️📈

The post Finding Discipline After a Wake-Up Call: Returning to Running at 26 appeared first on Adam Joseph Thornhill.

Table of contents

• Starting Over With One Clear Focus
• Lessons Learned: Understanding the Market Before Diving in
• Building Credibility and Scaling Carefully
• How Running a Consultancy Changed How I Viewed Growth
• Lessons Learned from Building a Consultancy Business  

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

I’m Adam Thornhill, an entrepreneur and investor based in Dubai, originally from Liverpool, England. This series looks back at the early stages of my career – the businesses I built, the mistakes I made, and what those experiences taught me about building something that lasts. I hope you find these lessons useful. I’d love to connect with you if so.

Starting Over With One Clear Focus

Before I made the decision to focus on my Dubai consultancy, I was still running several businesses. 

Source Travel was dissolved in 2025, and the taxi business was winding down as Liverpool taxi plates had been steadily declining in value since COVID. Rather than trying to hold onto multiple businesses at once, I made the decision to sell up and simplify my portfolio. 

Armed with a clear vision and the lessons I’d learned through years of entrepreneurial ups and downs, I started a Dubai business consultancy for two main reasons. 

The first was practical: it allowed me to sponsor myself while living in the UAE. 

The second was more strategic: I wanted to properly understand the market from the inside rather than observing it from a distance.

For the first time in a while, I had one clear focus, no employees, and very little overhead. This clarity turned out to be an important advantage. 

Lessons Learned: Understanding the Market Before Diving in

In the early stages of building my consultancy, most of my time was spent listening rather than selling. I joined Facebook groups aimed at British expats living in Dubai and read through people’s experiences. 

The same problems appeared repeatedly: confusion around visas, difficulty opening bank accounts, uncertainty around company formation and a general lack of clear guidance for people relocating from the UK.

I began reaching out to people directly, offering help wherever I could. In many cases, I didn’t charge anything. The goal at that stage wasn’t revenue – it was understanding how the process worked in real situations and building trust. If people found value in the help, they passed my number on.

Momentum started to build through word of mouth. Around the same time, I began spending evenings at McGettigan’s JLT, which hosted a Liverpool supporters’ club. Despite being an Everton supporter, I went along anyway. Among fellow Scousers, there was an immediate level of familiarity and trust, and my network began to grow organically.

What started as informal advice gradually turned into consistent enquiries and, eventually, a structured consultancy.

Building Credibility and Scaling Carefully

As the consultancy gained traction, I made the decision to sponsor Mansfield Town FC. The decision wasn’t purely about football – it was about perception and credibility, particularly with UK-based clients who valued familiarity when dealing with companies overseas. The sponsorship helped position the business as more established and trustworthy at a time when reputation mattered more than scale.

Before long, the business outgrew informal meetings. We secured an office in Downtown Dubai and began hiring English-speaking staff. From the beginning, I made a deliberate decision to keep the team lean. We hired sales managers while outsourcing operational work, allowing the business to grow without creating high fixed costs.

The consultancy gradually evolved into a full-service operation. Clients wanted simplicity, so we handled processes end to end (company formation, visas, legal support, accounting, mortgage introductions, and concierge services). 

This often included practical details like arranging airport transfers, booking temporary accommodation, or providing UAE phone numbers so clients could arrive already set up.

The focus was always on removing friction from the relocation process rather than simply completing transactions.

How Running a Consultancy Changed How I Viewed Growth

Building the consultancy changed how I thought about growth. Earlier in my journey, expansion often meant adding more – more vehicles, more staff, more moving parts. In Dubai, I learned the value of simplicity.

By keeping overheads low and focusing on relationships rather than expansion, the business became more stable and predictable. It reinforced the idea that sustainable growth often comes from clarity rather than complexity.

It also showed me the importance of experience-led businesses. The consultancy worked because it was built around problems I had personally encountered. Instead of trying to force a business idea into the market, the market itself shaped the service.

That change in thinking influenced how I approached opportunities going forward. I became more interested in building things that could operate long-term rather than businesses that relied entirely on constant activity.

Lessons Learned from Building a Consultancy Business 

The lessons from building the Dubai consultancy continue to shape how I approach business today. Focusing on trust, reputation and operational simplicity has proven far more valuable than chasing rapid growth.

Working closely with expatriates and business owners also gave me a broader perspective on how people make decisions when moving countries or starting something new. Many are navigating uncertainty, and practical guidance often matters more than theory.

That experience ultimately created the foundation for the next stage – moving from service-based income toward long-term investment.

After several years of running the consultancy, I reached a point where I had enough capital to begin investing. That led to the creation of L5 Properties and marked a transition from building service businesses toward long-term, asset-backed investment in the Dubai real estate market.

If you’re inspired by my story, please get in touch – I’d love to hear from you. 

The post Building Something that Lasts: Shifting from Service-Based Work Towards Long-term Investment appeared first on Adam Joseph Thornhill.

Table of contents

• Starting from the Bottom in a Competitive Industry
• Learning the Reality of Margins and Value
• When Growth Becomes Pressure: A Vital Lesson
• Timing, Expansion and Hard Lessons
• What I Learned from Starting a Business in an Unfamiliar Industry

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

I’m Adam Thornhill, an entrepreneur and investor based in Dubai, originally from Liverpool, England. This series looks back at the early stages of my career – the businesses I built, the mistakes I made, and what those experiences taught me about building something that lasts. I hope you find these lessons useful. I’d love to connect with you if so.

Starting from the Bottom in a Competitive Industry

In 2021, I launched Source Travel alongside my business partner Heather Fletcher – a UK-based online travel agency and consultancy that offered holiday packages, flights, hotel bookings and cruises.

Neither of us had any experience in the travel industry, which meant we had to start from the bottom and learn quickly.

Rather than trying to enter at the top end of the market, we looked for the most accessible entry route. The home-agent franchise model felt like the most practical place to start.

After researching several options, we partnered with Not Just Travel, also known as The Travel Franchise. From the outset, I was clear that I didn’t want to operate purely under their brand – I wanted us to build something that could eventually stand independently. 

To their credit, they supported that approach and gave us access to key suppliers such as Jet2Holidays, Stuba and Emirates Holidays.

In the early stages, most of our growth came through word of mouth and small marketing collaborations. One of these involved working with Blaze Media, a marketing agency that helped us reach influencers, including Lauren Simon and members of her cast like Rachel Lugo. We also ran a giveaway campaign that brought in new customers and created a short-term spike in bookings. 

In 2024, we entered into a three-season commercial partnership with Mansfield Town Football Club, becoming both the club’s official travel partner and sleeve sponsor. We also won Best Use of Social Media (Travel Category) at the UK Business Awards.

Learning the Reality of Margins and Value

Despite our early success, it became clear that competing on price alone simply wasn’t sustainable – not when most customers were using apps like Skyscanner to find the cheapest alternatives. 

We couldn’t be the cheapest, so the only way to justify our position in the market was by focusing on service (being available, offering reassurance) and acting as a personal travel consultant rather than just another booking platform.

At the same time, I still owned the taxi business, so I encouraged drivers to mention the travel agency in conversations with passengers, offering small referral commissions. This wasn’t conventional marketing, but it worked in small ways and reinforced something I’d already learned: that growth often comes from relationships rather than advertising alone.

We also made the decision to relocate to the Netherlands for a period. Cities like Amsterdam attract a large number of English-speaking tourists, and the move gave us additional networking opportunities while continuing to build the business remotely.

As we adapted, we shifted our focus toward package holidays instead of flight-only bookings. This improved margins and brought more consistency. Around the same time, I joined BNI Alpha Liverpool, which became valuable not only for referrals but for personal development. 

This was the first environment where I was regularly presenting, pitching and learning how to communicate professionally with other business owners – an important skill for any entrepreneur or business leader. 

When Growth Becomes Pressure: A Vital Lesson

Despite progress, the business began to struggle financially. My business partner decided to step back, moving into care work while remaining involved on a part-time basis. 

From that point, the structure of the business changed. We continued operating by earning commission on bookings and applying modest mark-ups depending on the level of service provided. This marked a shift from a consultancy-led model toward a more volume-focused online travel agency. 

At the same time, I made the decision to move to Dubai. Living there exposed me first-hand to the challenges of visas, bank accounts and company formation. Through Facebook groups and informal conversations, I began helping other British expats navigate similar issues – often without charging, as I was still learning myself. 

At the time, this didn’t feel like the start of something new, but it quietly laid the groundwork for what would later become a consultancy business.

It soon became clear that Not Just Travel didn’t support the direction we wanted to take with Source Travel. We exited the partnership and secured a new arrangement with Protected Trust Services, allowing us to obtain our own ATOL and begin building a fully independent website.

We hired staff and invested heavily in development, but delays meant costs continued to rise while revenue lagged. Cash reserves began to shrink month by month, and eventually, we reached a point where waiting for a perfect launch was no longer an option. We had to go live with what we had.

Timing, Expansion and Hard Lessons

With limited funds remaining, marketing became the priority. We secured a travel partnership and sponsorship deal with Mansfield Town FC and launched Source Labs, a separate brand designed to help other travel agencies get online using our system as a configurable template.

The effort was significant, but timing ultimately worked against us. The level of focus and capital required came too late to fully stabilise the business. By the end of 2024, it became clear that attention needed to shift toward the Dubai consultancy work, which was gaining far stronger traction and demand.

Looking back, this period taught me some of the hardest lessons in business, particularly around timing, cash flow, and knowing when to change direction rather than forcing something to work.

What I Learned from Starting a Business in an Unfamiliar Industry

Entering an unfamiliar industry forced me to learn quickly and adapt constantly. It reinforced that enthusiasm and hard work alone aren’t enough. Timing, structure and market conditions matter just as much.

Earlier in my journey, expansion felt like progress by default. This experience showed me that growth without stability can create as many problems as it solves. I became far more focused on sustainability, margins and long-term viability rather than short-term momentum.

Perhaps most importantly, I learned to separate identity from individual businesses. Not every venture succeeds in the way you initially expect, but each one builds experience that shapes the next opportunity.

Today, the lessons from entering the travel industry continue to influence how I approach business decisions. Understanding how quickly markets can change makes it easier to stay pragmatic and avoid becoming overly attached to a single direction.

The shift toward consultancy work in Dubai marked the beginning of the next chapter, where experience gained through multiple industries began to consolidate into a more focused plan. 

If you’re inspired by my story, please get in touch – I’d love to hear from you.

The post Hard Lessons: How I Pivoted to the Travel Industry with No Experience appeared first on Adam Joseph Thornhill.