Toby Sawday, Managing Director of Alastair Sawday’s, the travel publisher, and  the website Canopy & Stars tells us about the drawbacks and benefits of running a family company and how digital and social media has changed his business for the better. 

Stepping into an established family business can be challenging, but taking it in a new direction can be even more so. Toby Sawday has done just that, taking over the reigns from his father just as the travel industry faced its greatest shake up yet from sites like TripAdvisor and a shift towards user generated content in the travel industry. Here, he explains his approach and offers advice for those thinking of ‘keeping it in the family’ themselves.

Sawday's key point of difference is that you champion local businesses and places with a personal touch.

So, how did you spot this gap in the market, and was it a challenge to get people to buy into it at first?

It all sprang from a personal desire, really. My father Alistair Sawday used to organise guided tours for groups, and hated staying in the ubiquitous five-star hotels that were the done thing on these kinds of trips. He found that they were impersonal and the same everywhere he went. People were seeking a genuine travel experience, to see a place from a local perspective. So he started offering these kinds of unique places to stay to his guests – and they loved it. That’s the key to success really – recognising a desire or need that people have and finding a way to meet that need.

This is one reason why mums are often great entrepreneurs – they see things from their unique perspective and recognise needs and desires that other mums might have. They can then tailor their products and services to those needs.

Your guides are famous for only showing places that have been 'inspected and selected'. How difficult is that to maintain as you get bigger and is it something you still live by?

That is really important to us. It’s our core proposition and so we always invest in and maintain this aspect. Our customers trust us and we want to live up to that trust.

You took over the company from your dad. How is it working with a member of your family? Are there challenges that exist that might not in any other business?

There are bits which are more challenging and other bits which are more nourishing. One thing that’s great about a family business is that there is always complete trust – you will never doubt someone’s motives because they are your family and you know they only want what’s best for everyone. That’s an incredibly strong foundation on which to build.

The risk of this kind of business set-up is that there could be a parent/child dynamic to the relationship, which can get in the way of business discussions. However, I have to say that I was given massive free reign very early on and lots of space to do what I thought needed to be done.

What advice would you give to other entrepreneurs setting up a family business?

In a family business it’s not necessarily a meritocracy – so positions are earned on values and not on skills. Alastair (my father) was keen on preserving the company’s values and the way we treat people. There is a wider set of factors in play than just hard skills, but that needs to be balanced with a genuine aptitude for the job. 

My advice to anyone in a similar position would be to balance things carefully. Manage the morale of your staff – they can’t feel as though family members will just swoop in and take the best positions all the time. Certainly in our case, I put a lot of pressure on myself to prove to everyone that I earned it, that I had the skills and was not just given the role because of my family connection.

You're passionate about embracing digital media - what steps have you taken to make Sawday's a more digital business? Was it difficult to bring that change to the business at first?

It has been a challenge. Publishing moves quite slowly but digital technology moves fast. We’ve invested in new systems and platforms but really it’s not about those things – it’s a change in mind-set that’s needed. We’re on this journey but we haven’t arrived yet. As a member organisation, we need to get everyone on board.

We've dipped our toe in with quite a few of things in the last couple of years, like re-launching our websites, launching an app, and bringing in a new board director who has a digital background.

What impact has social media had on your business?

Through our Canopy & Stars website, we've been able to get more involved in social media to create a richer, more multi-dimensional sense of who we are. With Canopy & Stars, we haven’t had to advertise it at all – social media has been a key driver for us.

Sites like Trip Advisor have really changed the way people search for holidays nowadays. What's your opinion of these kinds of sites and how does Sawdays use them?

There’s no question that TripAdvisor and sites like it have changed the travel world. It’s an amazing resource to have, but at the same time there has been such widespread misuse of it (for example hotels posing as users and posting fake positive reviews) that people are not sure they can trust it anymore.

People are also overwhelmed by the volume of stuff available online. Did you know there are 13.5 million search results online for ‘B&B Tuscany’? (Probably more by the time people read this!) The scale and amount of choice can create anxiety. How do you know if you’re picking the right thing? Because of this, I think there’s been a shift towards people looking for more trusted voices online. That’s where we come in – we can narrow that choice down.

Looking into your crystal ball, what trends do you see for the travel business in 2014? Are there any new opportunities or challenges you expect to see this year?

There’s no question that despite the rise of digital media, traditional media still has a huge following. Word of mouth still has power – social media is just formalising this process. There are opportunities within social networking sites to support word of mouth communications. However, I think increasingly this idea of ‘trusted voices’ will become more important.

With regards to travel trends, I’d say ‘slow holidays’ are on the up, and by that I mean holidays with more depth and meaning than your typical ‘bucket and spade’ break. People don’t just want to stay in a hotel and be bussed in and out of tourist spots – instead they want to experience a true local meal with a local family, and see places as the residents would. Traditional beach holidays or itinerary-led city breaks are out – nowadays it’s about living a different life for a short time, getting under the skin of the place you’re in.

How many people do you employ and what are your thoughts on flexible working and employees working from home?

We've got 45 people working for the company now. We have flexible working policies in place because creative people need space – but everything we do is with the customer in mind, so we make sure that first and foremost their needs are met and our people are here when they need them.

I’m a real believer in flexible working though, because imposing rigid structures on people is always misguided. There are enormous benefits to home working – it’s even allowed us to hang on to great talent – for example, we had a member of staff who wanted to move to Cornwall for personal reasons. Thanks to flexible working, we were able to keep that person and they work from home, popping back to our office in Bristol when necessary.

Having said that, I do think it’s important to balance homeworking with culture. Being in the office together helps create familiarity within the team, and when companies are going through times of change, people do need to sit together and communicate effectively, but I think a balance needs to be struck.

What do you think the greatest challenge is running your own company? What are the greatest rewards?

I would suggest to anyone setting up a business to expect a hard slog. You read glorious stories of overnight successes in the press, but actually it takes a lot of grit and staying power to really make it work – and often a great deal of personal sacrifice. It’s a huge responsibility when you hire people to come and work for you. But at the same time, it offers incredible freedom, personal satisfaction, variety and fun.

What traits do you think make a good business leader?

You have to have an appetite for risk – and for change; the ability to communicate effectively, and also a certain level of curiosity about the outside world, particularly with regard to behavioural economics and technology. You need to be able to get a certain level of foresight into what people will want/need in the future in order to know what course to take today.

Another important skill is being able to recruit people who are better than you – those with more experience or a greater level of skill than yourself. Good leaders always recruit people who are better than them.

Finally, you need to be a jack-of-all-trades and turn your hand to all aspects of the business – whether that’s finance, marketing, product design. Of course you have skilled people to help you with that, but you also need to have an understanding of all the key areas in order to manage everything and keep the plates spinning.