Business Travel,
a Key Niche for Cristopherson Travel

Did you hear about the bean counter from Utah who purchased a small company, shared a vision for the future, and then carved out a new niche to turn the company into Utah's leader in business travel, a multi-million dollar industry showpiece?It happened when Mike Cameron, a CPA and entrepreneur, and his wife Camille, purchased Christopherson Travel in 1990. Shortly after purchasing Christopherson he obtained aSBA loan from Zion's Bank to finance the growing working capital needs of the company.

But how did they manage to grow this relatively small company, with $1 million in annual sales, into a $100 million powerhouse amidst, Internet competition, the airlines eliminating commissions, the September 11th tragedy, a SAR's epidemic, a war in Iraq and a general economic downturn?

In the first of many strategic moves, he changed Christopherson's entire focus to Business Travel. "We were trying to be all things to all people. It made sense for us to identify a niche and get tightly focused. We decided to go after the business travel segment in a big way."

By revamping sales, marketing and operations, Cameron focused the business exclusively on meeting the needs of the Utah business traveler. But to do that consistently and better than any other agency in the state, he needed the best, most experienced corporate travel agents and support staff. And he began to hire them away from other travel agencies, a move that surely frustrated competitors.

Enter yet another strategy to keep the top-notch people he'd invested in. Cameron instituted employee appreciation programs and policies that ensured Christopherson would remain the most desirable travel agency to work at. Unusual company parties, sales incentive programs and travel giveaways are now commonplace at the firm.

So what did the innovative Mr. Cameron do when airlines cut travel agency commissions in 1997? He gave his employees a raise to boost morale. To pay for it, he cut costs in several ways and increased sales volume and profitability through implementing new productivity procedures.

Another strategic move was made in 1998 when Christopherson opened its first "client dedicated on-site office" located in a client's building. It was staffed with travel agents, computers and ticket printers and dedicated to managing the travel for the one client company. This turned out to be a great strategic move. Christopherson recently opened their 20th client dedicated office to meet the needs of the University of Utah Health Sciences colleges, including the University Hospital, and the Huntsman Cancer Hospital. By 2000 Christopherson had several small offices that had all grown to capacity and were "bursting at the seams" for space to house their newly hired agents. Cameron approached the SBA again, for a loan to build a 42,000 square foot building on the side of the I-15 freeway at about 5600 South. Four offices were all combined into one central location. This provided great efficiencies and brought with it the added value of a high traffic, centralized location that created more name recognition and fueled their growth even faster.

Today, Christopherson Travel is "Utah's Leader in Business Travel." With 100 employees and 22 offices across the Intermountain West, the company supports more than $100 million in annual travel bookings. Christopherson Travel provides intelligent travel management to more than 600 successful companies in the Intermountain West. Christopherson is the Utah/Idaho affiliate of WorldTravel BTI-one of the largest and most progressive travel management firms in the world.

Cameron's advice for other entrepreneurs stems from his basic business roots: find an unmet need, hire the best employees and treat them well, embrace technology, find creative and relatively painless ways to cut costs, and always work with the customer in mind. A CEO is the "Chief Encourager and Optimist" and must provide positive leadership in the most difficult of times.

(Reprinted with permission from the 2005 SBA Small Business Guide.)

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