Humble beginnings

Heard any good Horatio Alger stories lately? Here's one about a former manager of a summer camp who, without benefit of a high school diploma, now sits at the helm of a $275 million travel agency in New York.

And although company president Barry Liben used good old-fashioned elbow grease and some basic principles to succeed, he is the first to admit that sheer luck played a role in his Cinderella story.

"[I was] the neighbor of a two-person travel agency called Tzell Travel Specialists, which was doing less than $1 million a year," Liben said. "If my neighbor had been a plumber, I'm convinced that now I would own a large plumbing company,"

In 1977 he acquired an interest in the struggling agency and set about learning the business.

How did Liben turn the company around? First he broadened the market base, 85% of which had been arranging travel to and from Israel.

"We still have an active Israel department, but I knew it was a mistake not to reach out to other niches," he said.

Even with his strategy in place, the turnaround was difficult, he said, and it took some seven or eight years to pull the agency out of debt and into the black.

The company now counts corporate travel as its mainstay, accounting for up to 80% of its business.

If there is one thing Liben seized upon as a key ingredient in his agency's prosperity, it is his use of independent contractors, who make up about half of his staff of 300.

Liben stressed that he makes no major decisions without the input of his independent contractors.

In his 23 years in the industry, Liben said he has never had an independent leave voluntarily, and he has never had any lawsuits or liability issues with them.

He does require that independent contractors carry appropriate insurance, but the real trick is to treat them well and listen to their concerns, Liben said.

Of course, the 15-station gym, rooftop garden, fam trips and "crazy parties" don't hurt either.

The formula appears to be one Liben can take on the road. He has an office in Beverly Hills, Calif., and opened his first Boston office a year and a half ago. He now has four Beantown locations, where more than 50 agents are racking up $50 million in sales.

Looking to the stars

We hear of the occasional agency that specializes in high-profile clients as a sort of niche unto itself.

Barry Liben, owner of New York-based Tzell Travel Specialists, thinks big, however, and his roster of A-list clients is a case in point.

In the field of rock 'n' roll, for example, Liben handles the likes of Billy Joel and Eric Clapton as well as some equally famous performers he won't let us tell you about.

And in sports, he arranges fan tours for the New York area's finest teams -- the Yankees, the Jets, the Giants and the Mets -- through a division called Professional Sports Tours.

Dedicated staff are on hand to create special itineraries for the fans, whom they take on the road "a couple of hundred" at a time.

He also arranges special events for Giants' sponsors.

Liben said he has attracted all of these clients by word of mouth.

"We have no sales staff, and we have never advertised," he said.

In the music business, Liben said that one management company frequently will handle several clients, and by doing a good job for one, it is possible to then acquire the whole list.

The sports niche was born out of Liben's love of the Giants, a team he has been known to follow around.

"I figured if I'm going to go to San Francisco to watch them play, why not take 500 people with me and make money doing it?"

We know what your clients get when they call you during the day. They get a responsible, knowledgeable, professional voice -- well equipped to assist them wherever and whenever they might travel.

But what do clients get if they happen to call you after hours?

It might make sense to think about developing a strategy to get clients to call you after you've turned out the lights.

Let's start having our answering machines earn their keep. Let's turn your answering machine into an all-night employee.

This can be done by slowly letting the word get out that your answering machine features special deals and incentives that are simply unavailable elsewhere. And, they are only available for a 24- or 48-hour period.

Clients who call after business hours can leave a message or be put through to your evening hot line, which features special pricing offers that must be booked by 5 p.m. the following day.

This is one way to take those faxes that arrive, 30 at a time, and put them into your client's hands within hours. The new hot line enables you to develop an advertising campaign built around the premise that your office is, in a sense, open 24 hours a day.

This may be one way to fight the image of the Internet travel store open 24 hours a day.

Richard Turen is an industry consultant and travel agency president. Contact him at [email protected]