Real Small Business: Sales & Marketing

Sho Donozo

From the Editors of Real Small Business

Name:	Sho Dozono
Job Title:	President
Company:	Pacific Gateway
Location:	Portland, OR
Type of Business:	Air travel consolidator

Q. What pricing issues have you faced?

A. We've always offered discounts. While a typical industry price might be $1,500, we'll charge $500. But a long time ago, we had tremendous growth at the expense of profit margins. If you can't make the money, you can't stay in business. So, we changed our pricing somewhat.

Even more difficult, however, was what happened after Sept. 11. Through the end of December, our sales stopped. We refunded 1,000 tickets. So, we had to discount our product to get people back. Since March of this year, however, we've begun to recover. In May, we got our pricing back to normal. We're now 65 percent over last year in sales.


Q. How did you come up with the idea for the business?

A. We grew out of my father-in-law's full-service travel agency. We started in 1987, when Delta began service from Portland to Tokyo. We contacted them at the time, to see if we could become their first air consolidator, selling wholesale airline tickets to other travel agencies. Now we work with eight carriers.


Q. How did you fund the business?

A. Our retail parent got us started. It didn't take a lot of capital to launch.


Q. What's the biggest challenge you've faced?

A. Right now, the global uncertainty and questions about safety are the biggest challenges we've ever encountered. It's an on-going problem.


Q. What's the most significant mistake you've made?

A. We haven't had significant mishaps. If I've made any mistakes, it's been with my relationships with some airlines, in building a mutually beneficial relationship. I parted company with one particular airline some years ago over a disagreement, and, if I had to do it again, I would probably have handled it differently.


Q. Have you changed your business strategy?

A. We're now focusing on large chains of agencies. We just started a relationship with AAA and American Express. Technology has allowed us to communicate more effectively on a national basis.


Q. What have been the biggest surprises you've met with?

A. We've been very pleased at how quickly the business came back this year. We've had extraordinary growth, particularly thanks to our relationships with large chains. It reinforced our business philosophy that relationships are what's most important for our success.


Q. Who in the business world do you look up to and what have you learned from them?

A. My father-in-law. He started his business 53 years ago. He's very steady; I'm sometimes much more aggressive in my business style. He's taught me about integrity and customer service.


Q. How do you set yourself apart from others in your industry?

A. Trying to provide superior service and by pricing ourselves so that we can offer low prices and still be profitable.


Q. What one piece of advice would you give someone starting his or her own small business?

A. You need to know the marketplace. People don't study the business they're trying to get into adequately. Also, they should find a mentor who has gone through some of the ups and downs of business. Many cities have SCORE chapters, which can provide advisers. I've been very active in our Chamber of Commerce, which has a small business network. That's another good resource.