Not content to settle for a dull graduate job, Daniel Smith, 24, developed a business plan while still at university. He now runs Tours4 ltd, who organise sporting journeys across Europe. He tells us that it is game on.

Name: Daniel Smith
Age: 24
Business: Tours4 ltd
Type of business: Sports tours and group travel operator
Start date: 20/09/05

When did you first decide you wanted to start your own business?
I met my business partner Sam Jennings in France while we were working as English assistants in schools near Bordeaux. I played football and Sam played rugby during that year and we helped organise tours to France for a few sides from the UK. We organised and managed the tours very well and the feedback from the teams was excellent, so we started looking into whether we could make a living from it. Determined to turn our ideas into reality we started to develop the business after graduating from university and Tours4 ltd started trading on September 20 2005.

Tell us about your business
Tours4 ltd is a fully insured sports tour and group travel operator with offices in Manchester and Ramsgate, Kent. Tours4 currently has two divisions: ‘Tours4 Sport’ and ‘Tours4 Students’. Tours4 Sport is the sports tours division of Tours4 ltd, organising tours in the UK and abroad for sports teams of all budgets, ages and abilities. We arrange flights, coach travel, accommodation, fixtures or tournaments, insurance and days or nights out for football, rugby, cricket, hockey, netball and basketball teams. Our top destinations include Paris, Barcelona, Prague, Amsterdam and many others. Tours4 Students organises days or nights out in the UK and weekend breaks to major European cities for groups of university students. We organise coach travel and entry into attractions throughout the UK including paintball parks, comedy clubs, nightclubs, ice rinks, sports matches and many more. We can cater for 8 to 800 students.

What makes you think there’s a market for your business?
We have done a lot of local and national market research among sports teams, which has demonstrated that there is a large regional market for sports tours in Kent and Manchester. We therefore have two regional markets to target as well as a national market.

Once you’d decided to start a business, what did you do first?
As we had no business experience, Sam and I sought advice from anywhere we could. I ran the idea past a business advisor at Businesslink Kent and I have been working with them ever since.

What research did you do?
We did a lot of market research with specific regard to prices and services for Tours4 Sport. We contacted players, managers and directors of sports teams at schools, clubs and universities throughout the UK to ask for their opinions and brief them about Tours4 and what we do.

What advice did you seek?
We went to Businesslink Kent and joined the start-up programme, which gave us a good foundation for our business principles. Businesslink also gave us a £2000 grant for website development which enabled us to more than double our website budget. I joined the Federation of Small Business and sought advice on the legal side of operating a business through their help lines. Our accountant takes care of all financial matters and was very helpful in the early stages of the business.

What other help did you get?
We went to every bank around and found HSBC to be the most knowledgeable and friendly towards two graduates with a fair amount of student debt and a good business idea.

Does the government need to provide more help to people trying to start a business?
The current government is saddling students with so much debt that most of them are deterred from starting businesses when they leave University. Most graduates who have a business idea have to work to pay off their student debt and lose the passion for their idea, becoming settled on a graduate scheme or in a 9 to 5 career. While Business link courses have been useful, there really is no specific help for graduate entrepreneurs. Graduates desperately need an organisation that helps them plan and set up their businesses and offers financial advice for business and personal financial issues.

Talk us through the process of writing your business plan.
The business plan for Tours4 was vital in demonstrating to tour operator insurance companies and banks that we were confident in our idea and that it would work. We approached all the major banks as most of them offer free business plan software or at least a guide to what we needed to show. We talked the figures through with our accountant and got a business advisor to check it before we took it to the banks and insurance companies. Because we took our time on the plan the banks and insurance companies not only liked the idea, they liked the business too.

How useful has your business plan been and do you think you’ll stick to it as your business begins to grow?
There is only so much you can estimate before starting a business but we thought realistically about every business scenario that we would encounter so there haven’t been any nasty surprises ….yet! The Tours4 business plan contains expansion plans and is a general guide for our business principles and financial targets. We have stuck to it so far but a good business plan should be able to adapt to every new situation.