Margie Lenau’s granddaughter Kaitlyn was in kindergarten when she announced she wanted to take over the family business. The Disney app would come on TV, and she would say “Grandma, grandma, look, it’s your work!”
In middle school, she was involved in a program that taught children about business. She spent a few summers there studying marketing, building marketing plans and budgets to support them. In college, she majored in business and marketing.
“Travel agencies are really just big marketing companies,” Lenau says. “I wish I had majored in business.”
But it’s not an issue any longer, as Kaitlyn is filling the gap at Wonderland Family Vacations in Grand Rapids MI.
She already has developed complicated marketing plans, including a multifaceted marketing plan that has been accepted by Disney and will bring in coop marketing funds. Lenau, a Disney specialist, already was hosting an annual summer Disney movie for her customers. Now Kaitlyn is spearheading that: organizing the event, coordinating with the theater, going on-site to be sure everything runs smoothly, and mailing out thank-yous to attendees afterward. Lenau also sent advisors from her agency on an Adventures by Disney agent education program, so they can post pictures on social media. The fam will include a visit to Jim Henson’s house and Walt Disney’s apartment. Kaitlyn was still in school, but she was involved in the organizing and the marketing plan.
“This is not a marketing plan that says ‘We did a movie and it was great.’ She carefully tracked the SEO and the ROI so we can use it as a reference guide the next time we do something like this, and look for ways to get a better return.”
Now she has produced an annual marketing plan for Disney, covering September 2023 to September 2024, including events for the four quarters and radio advertising, “showing what can we do to maximize our Disney sales each quarter.”
“As an agency owner, we get stuck in selling and servicing and booking travel,” Lenau says. “It’s hard when you’re running a business, and you also need to be a marketing machine. So having Kaitlyn has been super helpful; she’s young and she knows what’s trending, and she concentrates on the marketing.”
Even though Kaitlyn is just 20 and still in college, Lenau already is thinking about where she fits in the future of the family business. For now, she gets paid by the hour or by the event.
“I’m healthy and I’m going to go to the day I die, but we’re talking about what happens when I want to get out of this, or if something happens with my health; those are two different ways to look at succession planning. I’m talking to my financial planner and my CPA. When I ask Kaitlyn if she wants to take over she says ‘yes,’ and I would like her to take it over one day—but I want to set her up for success. When she starts full-time, in addition to marketing, I’ll have her do the CRM and the groups.”
Big Enough to Support Two
Meanwhile, Gail Pastor’s decision to partner with her daughter yielded a growth plan at first. Only now has it become an exit strategy.
Cheri was in fifth grade when Pastor opened her Dream Vacations franchise in Inverness, FL, in 1993. Fifteen years later, Cheri’s travel experiences and background in marketing made her a perfect fit to join the business—but the two realized they needed something extra to grow their business enough to support two owners. Brainstorming over their shared hobby of scrapbooking one evening, they came up with the idea of a craft-themed cruise, and Cruise And Crop was born.
Today, the majority of their sales come from about 40 of those craft cruises each year, thanks to an early alliance with Michaels, the national art-and-crafts retailer.
“Getting that revenue—and doing it together—was a lot of fun,” Pastor says, and cemented both their business partnership and their personal relationship.
Now Pastor is about to retire, and her exit strategy is easy. Her husband, a CFO in a local company, has helped them set up the paperwork to have Cheri (now Cheri Thomas) buy the business outright.
“When you bring in a child, you have to have a plan of what you eventually want to do, so you have no issues with your relationship outside of the business,” Pastor says. “The money is not that important; the most important thing is to remain best friends. I’m so glad Cheri wants to do it and is excelling in it. I’m very proud of that.”
Part Timers Fill the Gap
At Centsible Vacations, outside of Washington DC, owner Shawn Graves is not ready to share ownership of the business. But she is happy for the support of her family, whom she calls upon regularly as needed and pays by the hour.
She often employs family to support her during group travel and celebration travel.
“Groups are my forte,” she says, “but I can’t do it all. It helps that they understand what the business is about and how to operate and manage. So I deploy them on an as-needed basis.”
Coming up, for example, is a group of 200—for which she needs “not just my travel consultants and ICs but also family members who pitch in to stuff swag bags, help with communication, email and fax documents, handle social media posting, and make sure I’m dotting my i’s and crossing my t’s.”
Not just any family member will do, of course. Even if the role is just part-time—and indeed, maybe even more so in that case—“they have to be committed; they have to be able to switch gears and transition from being family and hanging out together to doing business. As a business owner, you have to set up those standard operating procedures and have those difficult discussions, but still keep it fun.”
And like any manager, you have to reward people for doing a good job with a surprise spa treatment or weekend getaway for their birthday from time to time, she says. “You have to say you appreciate the help and the support they provided.”
Double the Connections
At Elite Travel & Events in Arlington Heights, IL, owner Melody Sadleir is thrilled to have her son Daniel onboard. He joined nine years after she started her second career, after 30 years at United Airlines.
“Thank God Dan came along, because his strengths are my weaknesses and vice versa,” she says. “I’m the one who makes sure everything is dotted, because there is so much involved. I send out the invoices and arrange luxury FITs and destination weddings, and I do the airfares because after working at United I’m an airline perfectionist. And before we do a group trip, I make lunch for everyone at my house; I like them all to meet each other so they get along, and then they become friends and then they keep coming back.”
Dan focuses on building relationships with suppliers, and handles the social media and the website; when he bought into the company in 2009 “it didn’t even have an e-mail domain” he says. He also is involved in hosted group tours, luxury FITs and destination weddings, and has begun growing incentive groups. He also trains the new independent contractors, of which the agency now has a dozen.
When it comes to making decisions, the two owners each stay in their designated lane. “We decided at the beginning to delegate everything to whoever is better at it, and we really never argue about things,” Dan says.
But some things just work better when they go together. At trade shows, for example, they take a team approach to building relationship with suppliers, introducing each other and working together to build relationships.
“I think people remember us better because we’re a mother-son team,” Dan says.
Cheryl’s 40-year career in journalism is bookended by roles in the travel industry, including Executive Editor of Business Travel News in the 1990s, and recently, Editor in Chief of Travel Market Report and admin of Cheryl Rosen’s Group for Travel Professionals, a news and support group on Facebook. As an independent contractor since retiring from the 9-to-5 to travel more, she has written regular articles about the life and business of travel agents for Luxury Travel Advisor, Travel Agent, and Insider Travel Report. She also writes and edits for professional publications in the financial services, business, and technology sectors.
