Shifting Gears: Bicycle Exec to Travel Agent

It’s been nearly two decades since Tony Huffman shifted gears, leaving behind Huffy Corp., his family’s 100-year-old bicycle business, to open up Huffman Travel.

Huffman was in his early 50s at the time. For the previous 20 years he had worked for the bicycle manufacturing and import business that his great grandfather founded in the 1890s, beginning in sales and ending up as chief marketing officer.

When Huffman decided to “retire,” he told a friend at a cocktail party that he thought he might like to open a travel agency.

The friend said, “Go ahead.” And he did.

In the beginning
Huffman scoured the Yellow Pages for agencies within a 10-minute drive of his house that were not open on weekends. He had his attorney call the seven he found and three were interested in talking.

The agency he bought was just a shell—a storefront in an upscale area—and an ARC number. It had no customer list or computerized financial system.

After putting together a marketing plan and redecorating the office space, Huffman solicited corporate travel business from his friends who own small companies in the Dayton area. That helped pay Huffman Travel’s bills for the first couple of years.

He later expanded into the leisure business, concentrating on the luxury end of the market, since there was no real competition in Dayton at the time for that type of travel.

“There was one American Express agency that was sort of competition, but the owner hated the business,” Huffman said. “I eventually acquired him.” He went on to make two more acquisitions.

A lot in common
What do running Huffy Corp., a former Fortune 500 company, and a travel agency have in common?

“I discovered that the training I had working for a big corporation and understanding the dynamics of running a business, the dynamics of managing budgets, is fundamentally the same whether it’s a small company or a big corporation,” he said. “This isn’t just a hobby for me.”

In the beginning, Huffman had zero travel industry experience.

“I still don’t know how to book an airline ticket,” he said. “I decided I was not going to be a slave to the GDS system.”

The two employees who came with the business weren’t particularly good but helped Huffman learn the business.

He did the marketing and managed the business and, at the same time, learned how to be a very competent luxury travel advisory, specializing in custom luxury FITs.

Going national
Using his storefront in the wealthy village of Oakwood just south of Dayton as a base, Huffman built a national business through word of mouth. Today, about 80% of his clients live outside Ohio.

Huffman Travel, a Virtuoso member, has six full-time advisors and 15 independent contractors, mostly in the Dayton area, but also one each in Michigan, outside New York City, Atlanta, Chicago and Los Angeles.

To ensure profitability, Huffman started charging airline ticket booking fees soon after opening the business in 1997. He currently charges $48 for domestic and $78 for international airline tickets.

High-end business
Huffman Travel’s trip planning fee ranges from $100 to $5,000. He books custom FITs that can cost as much as $200,000 or $300,000.

While those bookings are rare, Huffman’s agency concentrates on the upper end of the market.

“We don’t want to waste time booking a $400 Carnival cruise when we can book a $40,000 Seaborne cruise,” he said.

In keeping with the spirit of his former business, Huffman sells a lot of bicycle trips with companies like Backroads and Butterfield and Robinson.

A family affair
The bicycle trips aren’t the only thing that harken back to Huffman’s days with Huffy Corp., the family business.

Huffman turned Huffman Travel into a family business when his daughter Shawna Huffman Owen joined the company.

After a career as a management consultant, Owen, decided to leave J.P. Morgan to spend more time with her children. Still wanting to work, she asked her dad if she could join the business.

Now 43, Owen began working out of her Chicago home in 2008 and built a clientele of mostly stay-at-home, upwardly mobile moms.

In October 2012 Huffman Travel opened a storefront in downtown Chicago staffed by Owen and one other employee.

His daughter is now president and COO and owns 49% of the company. “That’s my succession plan,” Huffman said.

Another family dynasty was born.