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.