Entrepreneur: Young W. Sexton Company Name: WingGate Travel, Inc. 8645 College Blvd., Ste. 100 Overland Park, KS 66210 (913) 451-9200 Type of Business: Full-service travel agency Year Founded: 1991 Number of Employees: 13 Keys to Success: “Persistence, hanging in there during changing times, and trying to constantly learn new and better ways to improve.”
First Class Travel Agency WingGate Travel will go to the ends of the earth to please clients.
By Bill Williams
It’s a good thing Young Sexton owns a travel agency, because she travels to see her family in South Korea all the time. And her customers say it’s great she owns the service, because there’s no one like her in town.
If you need to get anywhere, she’ll get you there—by boats, planes or trains. And that goes for corporate or leisure travel, with or without a hotel room or a rental car.
Sexton founded WingGate Travel Inc., a full-service travel agency, in 1991 in Overland Park. She had worked in the insurance industry in Kansas City for 13 years. When she decided to open her own travel agency, she realized she didn’t know much about it, but decided it was similar to the insurance business model and systems, so she hired a manager with experience and the business took off. Zoomed off, you might say.
WingGate did about a half-million in sales the first year and doubled sales every year for three years until it leveled off. During the high growth years she added staff and moved to a larger office. Now that the business is highly automated, she uses the technology to her advantage and to keep staffing stable.
“I have 13 employees nationwide,” said Sexton. “Seven in my Overland Park office, two in North Kansas City and four that are servicing government contracts in Mississippi and Texas for the U.S. Department of Defense.”
Sexton has made new bids on government contracts that could lead to hundreds of millions of travel bookings. And she said expansion is a possibility.
One of Sexton’s biggest customers is Northrop Grumman in Leavenworth. She’s been doing business with Northrop’s business manager, John Finan, for five years.
Northrop supports the U.S. battle command training program.
Northrop’s 500 people rack up thousands of travel bookings a year all over the world, and Sexton provides the travel services, including lodging and airlines.
“Sexton is conscientious, very smart, and knows the travel business very well,” said Finan. “She knows the trends in her industry and she knows what we do because she has taken the time to come visit us many times.”
Personalized Service Sexton, her employees and their customers believe it is personalized service that sets WingGate apart from other agencies.
“We really take ownership interest in our clients and try to deliver value to our clients,” said Sexton. “We have long-term relationships with them. It’s rewarding to become personal friends with customers.”
Marsha Mooney manages WingGate’s North Kansas City office. She’s worked for Sexton for nearly 10 years, and said her boss makes customers and employees feel like family.
“We’ve learned to care about our customers,” Mooney said. “It’s all about relationships. I know our clients’ kids and when they graduate. It helps us take care of the details when clients need to travel.”
Mooney also said Sexton is fun to watch because she’s always a lady and always calm, even in tough times. And, it hasn’t all been an easy trip. Sexton and other agencies in town have lost business to the Internet. And not many landed on their feet after terrorism and new security regulations broadsided them.
Sexton says there’s a suitcase full of regulatory red tape that she didn’t have to deal with years ago. But she also realizes she has the responsibility to be more aware of new customers with respect to security issues.
September 11th impacted the travel industry with cancellations over fears of travel. But even before 9/11 and the economic downturn, Sexton was in a highly competitive business. She was up against a lot of mom and pop travel agencies. In the good old days, the agencies got commissions from the airlines, hotels and car rental companies, and that paid the mom and pops’ bills. But when the commissions stopped, the little agencies went out of business. Cruise lines are now cutting Sexton’s commissions and it’s hard to tell customers that instead of vendors paying, they have to pay. To ask clients for fees has taken several years of changing the collective mindset.
Sexton weathered the economic storm by looking for opportunity. When the industry suffered, she acquired two local travel agencies. It’s part of her philosophy: to see the downside but look for the upside.
“I’m fortunate that corporate and leisure travel made a comeback in the last part of 2003,” Sexton said. “You can almost predict it with the stock market. Travel is emotional, so if you’re doing well financially, you go.”
Five Star Travel Her niche is upscale leisure travel planning—not necessarily the destination—but more the type of hotel quality, or a higher end cruise ship line. Many of her clients appreciate five to six star hotels, fly first class, rent a Cadillac and go for private guided tours.
“It’s a lot of hand holding, but it’s what we do well,” said Sexton.
Sun Pai and her Overland Park family have utilized WingGate’s services for 10 years to do extensive travel. Pai says Sexton’s attention to detail has shown on tours of the American West, the Mediterranean, the Baltics, Scandinavia and Mazatlan, Mexico.
“Young is very bright and very organized,” Pai said. “When we ask her a question, she answers to the point, and always in a pleasant manner.” And it’s not just airlines or cruise ships. The service provided to Pai has included four-star hotels, nice rental cars and a touch of class, like the time Sexton had a gift basket delivered to Pai’s cruise cabin on an Istanbul excursion.
Sexton says her keys to success are persistence, hanging in there during changing times, and trying to constantly learn new and better ways to work.
She began partnering with American Express in 1999. While she pays a healthy fee for that, she said it was a smart strategic move to become part of a winning team, and part of a name that carries weight with many travelers.
“I think you have to re-invent yourself from time to time,” said Sexton. “I became an American Express franchise to tap into their technology and learn how the big guys operate their business.”
Her philosophy is simple: Be the best you can be, do the right thing, for clients, employees and yourself, and good things will happen.
Her biggest challenge has been overcoming the perception of being a small business.
“Some think we don’t have all the capabilities, or experience, or know-how,” she said. “But I’m the kind of person who says I can do it if you give me a chance to compete.”
WingGate is certified as an 8(a) company through the Small Business Administration; a certified minority business enterprise through the Minority Supplier Council; and with the City of Kansas City, Missouri, the state of Missouri and in the state of Kansas as a minority business and a woman-owned business. Award-Winning Business WingGate was recently given a Top Ten Small Business award from the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce; the Professional Service award from the SBA; and was nominated for the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year award.
Kansas City is very special to Sexton.
“I’m a first-generation immigrant. People talk about this being the land of opportunity or the American Dream. And it’s all very true,” she said. Sexton travels a lot and sees perspectives from places like Europe and Japan.
“It breaks my heart to hear people trash America.”
She said this is the greatest country and Kansas City is the greatest city. She had married and moved here with her now ex-husband after earning a master’s in international affairs from Florida State University.
“We have all the benefits of a big town: sports, fine arts, a nice standard of living, affordable housing, wonderful people and a great place to raise a family,” Sexton said.
Her son, Burton, just graduated from Rockhurst University and has been in charge of all the back office administrative functions and keeping the WingGate computer system running smoothly.
Sexton is on the board of trustees at Rockhurst University. She believes in giving back to the community, so she also volunteers for Rotary Club philanthropic events that help the Bridge Home for abused children. She is on the board of the Minority Supply Council, and she co-founded the Asian American Chamber of Commerce where she serves as president.
“My dream is to help other Asian business owners grow,” said Sexton. There are more than 2,000 Asian business owners in Kansas City. I want them to get involved with the community.”
She calls herself the black sheep of the family, and travels home to Seoul, South Korea, as often as possible to see her aging parents and tell the family how her business is doing.
She keeps an eye on her former home country because it regularly makes headlines on the international stage. But she is also keeping close watch over her business because she wants to grow it, potentially to the one of the top two agencies in Kansas City.
“You’ve got to grow, sell, get out or close the door,” Sexton said. “You can’t be comfortable keeping your business in one place.”
Bill Williams is the managing editor of Kansas City Small Business Monthly.
