Free CRM - a great tool!

Keeping Contacts up to date, tracking your Sales Team Funnel and doing email marketing campaigns are all challenges for companies in the SME sector. There are alternatives: from stand alone or groupware software like ACT from Sage through to online systems such as SalesForce.com

Recently I discovered freecrm.com an online alternative that comes already configured with all the things a business needs. There is a Pro version that has no advertising and better guaranteed uptimes as well as integration to Outlook and others. The advertising I have seen on the free version is unobtrusive.

With the free version you get: Calendar, Companies, Contacts, Deals, Tasks, Cases, Email and SMS campaign managment. As well you can manage documents stored and setup Surveys and forms for customer satisfaction. Lastly, you get about 55 reports preconfigured. Need anything else.....for no cost to you?

Yes it is software as a service and you are entrusting your data to a 3rd party. But, if you export from the system regularly, you will get the backups of where you are at. Keep your reports and run those weekly as well.

To get started you can import your lists of contacts from Excel or however you are doing it today.

Advantages:

• you do not have to maintain an infrastructure of computers and servers dedicated to this task
• free.....I said Free!
• already comprehensively setup, no setting of forms or reports
• they do backups
  

Disadvantages:

• you do not have the data in house unless you export and save
• if company fails you dont have a stand alone copy of the software to keep running

Overall, these days we trust our email to Google (Gmail), we store our photos on Facebook or Flicker, we trust so many "Cloud Computing" applications.

If you are starting up or you are looking for an alternative to reduce your costs have a look at feecrm.com

theBizWiz

http://www.boulterassociates.com.au/
http://www.informgroup.com.au/

Developing a Functional Organisation Structure

InFormGroup has just released a new E-Book to our range of books available from the InFormGroup site. This new release is from Wayne Moloney.

"When organisations are built around people and personalities, when multiple lines flow
into individual boxes, the structure will be non-functional.". Wayne describes the:

• Dangers of non functional organisation and management
• what a functional organisation looks like and how it should operate
• use of authority
• lines of accountability and working relationships
• how Org charts fit in to the models

There is a full range of Free downloads as well as products for purchase in at the site.

theBizWiz

http://www.boulterassociates.com.au/
http://www.informgroup.com.au/

Netbooks - Dell Inspiron Mini 9- Asus EeePC 901-Acer Aspire One 270-Lenovo N270

Gee, It wasn't too long ago when I started the journey of seeing if one of these devices could work for my daughter starting University next year. Has the job gotten easier?

Nope. This afternoon I opened the latest Harris Technology catalogue. Page 4 has a host of Netbooks. The Del, Acer, Lenovo, Toshiba and Wind versions are all there sporting essentially the same specifications. Mostly they differ in the hard disk drives and the battery life and most importantly price.

The Dell Inspiron Mini 9 does not come with a hard disk drive and so has higher battery life. To get extra data or applications you would use a 8GB Flash drive or attach a USB powered external drive. Of course with that attached and sucking power it will reduce the battery to the life of the others.

It might be good to look at the details closer.

Feature	Dell Inspiron Mini 9	Acer Aspire N270	Wind U100	Lenovo N270 or Netbook S10
Processor	Intel Atom 1.6GHz	Intel Atom 1.6GHz	Intel Atom 1.6GHz	Intel Atom 1.6GHz
Memory	1GB	1GB	1 GB	1GB
Hard Drive	16GB SSD	160GB SSD available	120GB	160GB
Screen Size	8.9"	8.9"	8.9"	8.9"
Integrated Webcam	Optional	Yes	Yes	yes
USB 2.0	3	3	3	3
Bluetooth	No	No	Yes	Yes
WiFi	g	a/b/g	a/g/n+	a/g/n+
Price	$549	$529	$699	$699
Weight	2.28lbs	n/a	1kg	2.65lbs

Over all so far the Acer Aspire One 270 looks the best. It has a low price, a real HDD so you can put some data on it. I assume it weighs the same as the others which is about 1KG.

Next stop is to go and have a look at the shops. I would get the Windows XP version as it is easier to understand. If I bought one for myself it would have Linux, of course.

If you have one of these I would love to hear more.


theBizWiz

http://www.boulterassociates.com.au/
http://www.informgroup.com.au/

Have you used an in car GPS?

My wife and I spent a night in the City a few weeks ago. We stayed at the Sydney Harbour Bed & Breakfast.

We had a great time and maybe a review later on. But I had just obtained a Navman and thought i would use it to get to there from our home at Glen Alpine. Now you may say that this trip was not difficult. Just M5 to City, take a city exit and make you way over to the Rocks. Well yes.......

On the M5 no problems, but loved the speed camera alert that was pretty accurate. It said I was near it in the M5 tunnel and I looked around and sure enough I could see the camera for the first time.

Next, I would normally take the Kings X exit and make my way across the City that way. The Navman told me to go further on the ED and exit around the Art Gallery. It then expertly directed me, with Karen telling me to left and right etc through Hunter Street, across George and eventually into the Rocks ending near the King George V Recreation Centre and the ubiqutous Australian Hotel.

The story was the same the next day. My wife had taken the train to the City and she heard all about the Navman at dinner that night. Mrs Technophobe was even impressed by the Navman on the way home although she was wondering what other voices were available.

I have been thinking of new voice that could save your wife from having to get huffy on the usual car trip. "Turn left 300 metres.....turn left 100 metres.......Oh [sigh].....turn around and turn right 100 metres....I told you we would be late !"

theBizWiz

www.boulterassociates.com.au
www.informgroup.com.au

Asus EeePCs

The other day my daughter was looking for a laptop for University. She would have a long commute to/from University and wanted something cool that would not be a piece of luggage. I thought I would ask some questions on LinkedIn.

The response was great. Within the hour I had comments from all over the world. Some people were users and not geeks, others were geeks. the balance was great. I quickly understood the technical aspects of the machines in question and also had live experience from users.

Just about all the responses (over 80) were positive. There was always a note of caution about what the machines limitations were. These essentially revolved around the screen sizes and the keyboard. The screens are around 10" in size and the keyboard a bit small for lots of typing.

My thoughts would be to have the no disk drive version (SSD) and carry a small external drive (like a Seagate 120GB) that plugs into the USB for the files I may need sometimes.

Battery life was exceptional and the weight was a plus. The price is outstanding and on EBay you can pick these up around the AU$399 mark running Windows XP.

theBizWiz

www.boulterassociates.com.au
www.informgroup.com.au

Retaining Customers in Hard Times

Back to basics is probably the best advice that was given to me recently. You may be having trouble getting people to buy your products or services at present, especially if your business is not in the necessity category. But if you already have customers that buy from you regularly, keeping them is a number one priority.

So how?

Well first remind them of your services or products.But you have to watch your own costs, so develop a focused and planned marketing message that consistently reaches your target audience through the best channel.

Tell them why you are different. Brand is partially about great customer experiences. If a customer has a good experience with your business they will relate better to your brand and be a marketing channel for you.

If a customer is loyal, reward them. This can be as simple as a discount program for repeat purchase. It could be a competition only open to existing customers. It could be special days where only existing customers are invited to your showroom and items are specially discounted.

We all know how hard it is to get a new customer. Keeping the ones we have is even more important.

theBizWiz

www.boulterasscociates.com.au
www.informgroup.com.au

Worlds Best Sales Tips #4

More Sales Tips from a really good book. "The World's Best Sales Tips" by Ciaran McGuigan is a quick toolkit for improving your sales techniques.

On Page 4 Ciaran talks about "Who is presenting? You or Bill Gates".

The article is a good reminder of the classic death by PowerPoint. The 20 slides in 20 minute thing is a waste of everybody's time. In fact, maybe all you need is 3-4 slides at most. If you want to leave some material behind with the customer, do that, but don't present it all.

What people want to know is usually: what is the problem you are addressing, how is it going to be solved, what's in it for me and what are suggested next steps. Using NLP is also a good way to get the message across. VAK works !

theBizWiz

www.boulterassociates.com.au
www.informgroup.com.au

Against the Trend

There is lots being said about the worldwide financial crisis. The natural reaction is to conserve resources and not spend till the crisis is over.

Well, maybe that is what your competition is doing, regardless of what business they are in.

What if you did the opposite?

I guess it depends on what you are selling. Some products are resistant to the market changes. If you can afford a Lamborghini then you probably dont really pay attention to the market or the advertising. But if you are after services to help you while you work harder to earn extra money or to help organise your finances then you will be looking. If you are a supplier of these services then now is the time to advertise more.

Sometimes your natural reaction to be conservative in tough times, is not necessarily the right thing to do.

theBizWiz

www.boulterassociates.com.au
www.informgroup.com.au

The future of Magazines.....and Newsagents

With the green movement being all pervasive. Is the Newsagency dead? If we stop using paper for glossy magazines how else will we get our fix? One way might be via the Internet through sites like Zinio.

Have a look and you will see magazines you can buy at the newsagent today. the first thing you will notice is the price is substantially less. Click on the "Try It!" near a magazine and you will get a download of the covers, contents and a few pages. Roll your mouse over the top right hand corner and you will see a cool way of turning the pages, just like the real thing.

So if this is the way magazines are going how will the corner newsagent survive?

Selling Lottery tickets and stationary items is one way as well as the upbiqutous Birthday and Xmas cards. One thing is for sure in 10 years time a newsagent will look a lot different to what it does today. Maybe you will walk in and dock your iPod like device, in the special News dispenser, to get the daily newspaper to carry to work on the train. Of course you will buy an instant lottery ticket, hoping to win, so you can afford the fuel for the trip back home from the station that night.

theBizWiz

www.boulterassociates.com.au
www.informgroup.com.au

Really Good Sales Websites

Lets face it, without Sales your business is dead. You can have a great product, you can have the best quality services but without customers and actual sales you have nothing.

Here are some good resources for you:

• Sales Gravy is a wealth of resources. It has pointers to other sites and aggregates things such as Podcasts, Blogs, Videos. It has a Community section where you can sign up and chat with others, look for jobs and find others to work with. There is even a shop where you can buy books and download free books. (If you are in that market, unashamedly, check out our Business Book store)


• SalesRoundup Podcast is great podcast for anybody into complex sales. It is delivered by Joe and Mike who have been is Sales forever. If you dont listen to Podcasts while on the road, in the car or the plane, then do yourself a favour.


• Plain old Google. Google Alerts are a great way to track information on a suspect in your sales funnel. Just set an alert on a persons name or a company and each day you will receive an email of what has been mentioned on the Internet that day about them.


• If you want more intelligence about what is happening in your marketplace use LinkedIn. By following the Questions tab of your LinkedIn account and setting a RSS feed into something like Google Reader, you can get a pulse of what are some of the issues happening


• Lastly is the book I have referred to before. The World's Best Sales Tips by Ciaran McGuigan

If you are in Sales what resources do you use?

the BizWiz

http://www.boulterassociates.com.au/

http://www.informgroup.com.au/

Worlds Best Sales Tips #3

More Sales Tips from a really good book. "The World's Best Sales Tips by Ciaran McGuigan is a quick toolkit for improving your sales techniques.

Ciaran talks about "Exploding your opportunities" on page 4. What he is referring to is using the contacts of existing customers as a base for future Suspects. All SMEs suffer from not enough sales funnel. We struggle looking for lists and other ways to get more contacts to approach.

This method involves looking at each of your customers in turn. Think about the suppliers and customers that this customer has. Try and write down six names associated with each customer.

This way you can quickly go from 6 customers to 6 customers and 36 suspects to contact.

Be sure to make sure you have permission from your customers to contact these new contacts. Also it is great to get a written referral from your customer on how you have helped them. Think about how your products and services can assist each of the new contacts and draft a letter to each introducing yourself and enclosing the referral from your existing customer.

Another twist on this is to look at the suppliers to your existing customer. They usually like to keep their customers happy so if your customer says that he would like to refer you to them, they will naturally have to at least take your call or see you.

Powerful?

the BizWiz
http://www.boulterassociates.com.au/
http://www.informgroup.com.au/

Qantas: How to destroy customer loyalty

Qantas enjoys a higher than normal loyalty rate compared to other airlines.

Why is this?

Well, personally, I am proud to be Australian. After too many years travelling I know this is the best place to live.Qantas, through clever marketing over many years is an Aussie Icon. The Flying Kangaroo has strong brand presence, globally.

With no major accidents on record, this speaks strong and is clearly a differentiator. When hurtling through the air with 400 other people and tonnes of Jet-A1 I don't want to be thinking about maintenance standards.

I have been prepared to change schedules, deal with connections and pay a premium at times to not wonder about the maintenance schedules.

So whats been going wrong?

Well, for a number of years there has been a steady decline in the Spirit of Australia, there was a time when Qantas staff made all the difference. It was the smile. It was the pragmatism. It was going that extra mile. It was feeling like you were in Australia even before you arrived home.

That has gone.

Qantas staff are no longer proud to be Qantas.

This is clearly management's fault. Bringing efficiencies and driving out cost from a business are important. But it is easy to do that: design a spreadsheet and execute. Doing this while keeping the culture & the company spirit alive is hard.

Don't worry Qantas you are not alone. MBAs pore over case study after case study on this topic.

I don't profess to know the answers. But, I do know the symptoms. this is not about off-shoring the maintenance. Proper quality control and audits (which should be happening regardless of location) should ensure the maintenance standards. CASA's recent review has uncovered a number of shortcomings in process and control.

Another symptom is service during the flight. I think that the same number of staff are on board. They are there for our safety not just to get us meals. It used to be easy to get a drink or other items and now it is a case of having to tackle the person. They have mastered the art of seeing through your signal. Maybe that is part of our health management on the flight. My liver thanks you Qantas !

But more importantly it is the feel from the staff that is coming out. I would guess that the staff are not happy and their fears and feelings come out in body language. In every organisation some people could be unhappy, but an epidemic across staff means there has to be an influence from management.

All airlines have technical difficulties but there has been an "unlucky run for Qantas" according to CASA.

What does that mean?

400 people all incurring extra cost and aggro in changing bookings etc. Qantas is more than happy to charge penalties when we change our plans but what about the costs we incur in lost hotel bookings, re booking non Qantas flights & lost holiday days.

For me it has been two international flights in 3 months that have been cancelled. I cannot afford for it to happen again. Cathay Pacific and Singapore Airlines are next for me !

Qantas has not lost me forever but they have lost my loyalty and my word of mouth advertising.

the BizWiz
http://www.boulterassociates.com.au/
http://www.informgroup.com.au/

Generating Business by LinkedIn

It has been a busy week. I set out one week ago to increase my network on LinkedIn. At that time I had about 140+ connections and thought I was reasonably connected. A few weeks earlier I had been at a Conference where Stan Relihan spoke. He is Australia's most LinkedIn person with some 16,000+ connections. You can also see him noted on TopLinkedIn where others around the world are listed.

From this I felt a need to see where this would take me. Using Business Cards and my existing Outlook, I was able to generate another 100+ connections and I was past my original goal of 250+. Then I discovered there are groups which I joined and was able to find more people connected to me via our common connections to Associations, past companies etc.

Now I was on a role.....500+ was in my grasp. Why did I want 500+? Well when you look at Stan's profile you will see he has 500+ connections. I wanted that same tag. Compared to my profile, you will see I have a unique number noted .

Another thing I noticed along the journey was that some people did not want to Link. They would mark my Invitation as "Dont know him". This is a bad. If you get five of these you get blocked from directly linking and have to know the person's email address to Link.

Why do people do this? the reason you join something like Linked In is to build your connections and business network. Every connection is valuable . I had somebody even say they were "limiting their network at this time". That is an interesting concept. I would suggest FaceBook or MySpace is about that. You have a limited number of people you wish to be with.

So how is this helping Business?

Well one of my connections, Luke Harvey-Palmer, blogged this on Buzz Blog. He outlined 40 things you must do in LinkedIn to improve your Personal Brand.

What has been my experience? Well today at 470+ LinkedIn has noticed me. I have little box that was not there before. It says my profile has been viewed by 12 people in the last 4 days and I have been in search results 31 times in the last 3 days. Two weeks ago that was not happening.

What else? Well I have been contacted by Recruiters seeing if I know anybody for roles. I have been contacted by Recruiters wondering if I am interested in a role. That doesnt happen often. I have been contacted by people wondering if we can do business together. I have been contacted by people to see "what I am up to" and lastly I have had people contacting me to sell me a service.

The traffic to my website and to my InForm consulting website has quadrupled in the last two weeks. All the good SEO tips work.

As Luke would say I feel a "Buzz". All in all, this is good. Your Personal Brand is important. Any possible way you can raise your profile, legally, is a good thing.

Let me tell you how it is going in one months time. Just a blip?

What about your experience? Have you tried LinkedIn?

theBizWiz
www.boulterassociates.com.au
www.informgroup.com.au

How to sell more stuff and the Credit Crisis

So you have a website, whats next? Most likely you have a Web 1.0 site that is basically a Business Card and a Brochure cupboard with limited feedback via email forms. You could up the anti to a Web2.0 or even a Web3.0 when it comes or is it here now!). Later for more on that.

But you can sell more stuff via your website without setting up a shop. Have a look at Amazons Associates and EBay Affiliates programs.

See how easy it is to embed something on your website that, if clicked and purchased by somebody, earns you money.


How do you earn the money? Well you have to attract people to your sites. That requires marketing. You could try SEO, you could try Blogging (sound familiar) or you could purchase Adwords

Another way is to become a reseller of services and advertise that on your site. Unashamedly WeeklyBizWiz is a reseller of service from Netregistry

Have a look at reseller programs and affiliate programs. You will be surprised that it can be done so easily.

Oh, what has this got to do with the Credit Crisis? Selling more stuff pays the Credit Card. Using a title like this in your blog attracts people looking for information. They may even buy this book.

The BizWiz
www.boulterassociates.com.au
www.informgroup.com.au

Worlds Best Sales Tips #2

Over the next few weeks I will add a few Sales Tips from a really good book. "The World's Best Sales Tips by Ciaran McGuigan is a quick toolkit for improving your sales techniques.

Back to the Cold Call, our long term friend. Once you have worked out you are speaking to the righter person what are you going to do? Are you going to say "the reason I cam calling you is to let you know....touch base.....was wondering....was in the area"

The reason for your call has to be a reason for THEM not you. The only way to do that is to tell them how you have helped similar businesses, tell them how you have reduced pain from problems and how you have increased the gains in their business.

Please dont ever say: " So tell me, what keeps you awake at night?" The answer is probably along the lines of ways to stop people asking that question !

So lets look at pain. If you havent figured it out yet, there is a lot of work to doing effective Cold Calling. You have to research the business before you call. Look for announcements, press releases, reorganisations and any other information you can get. You will find out who the people are you need to talk with. You will figure out what is happening and you can figure out how your products and services can help that company reduce pain and increase gain.

A good tool is Google Alerts. Just pug in the company name or any other criteria you want to search on and an email will be delivered each day with all references. Use this over a period of time to build a picture of the Suspects you have in your Pipeline and come up with ways to convert them to Prospects.

You wont waste time on dumb cold calls. You will bring more value and knowledge to your customer and your products and services should be a better fit.

TheBizWiz
www.boulterassociates.com.au
www.informgroup.com.au

Balloons and other advertising gadgets

What is it with balloons and Car Sale Yards?

I know I am a sad case, but today I noticed each car yard I went past had balloons tied to their cars. Was it balloon day for the cars? Obviously, the tactic worked. I saw the balloons moving all over the place and as I sat at traffic lights, I secretly hoped some would blow away in the strong wind. But the funny thing is I never noticed any of the cars for sale. I can see a session at the next Car Sales Manager Conference: "100 places to tie balloons to Cars".

At one yard, I noticed the now required balloons but then my eyes were taken to the giant "person" waving in the now stronger wind. Once again I never noticed the cars. Worse still I don't think I can tell you the name of the car yard.

This got me thinking about other promotional devices used in business. Ask any PA or Administrator in a business about conferences-events-promotional items and I can guarantee they will pull out at least one 50 page plus, full colour, catalogue of items that profess to keep the business name in front of mind.

A quick count on my desk shows four pens with obligatory website and phone contact details, one post it note pad with catchy logo and website(again) and one A4 notepad from another conference (with the sponsor's name and website). All of this things are very handy and I am more than happy to receive them. But do they make me come back to their website again or buy their products?

It is one of the conundrums of marketing, how to measure the response to a promotion or advertising campaign. Who knows, the subliminal message of using the pen each day may influence a purchase at some future time. More likely the pen will run out and I will be left with a remnant memory: " I used to have a pen with a website for that photocopier reseller, geez I wish I had it so I could buy a photocopier from them.......oh well fire up google again."

Next time I see the balloons, I promise to make a conscious decision to look at the car dealers name. I promise to pay more attention to the websites on the pens I use. And next time I write a note on my pad I will look at who the company was that kindly gave me the pad.

I hope you do as well.

the BizWiz
www.informgroup.com.au
www.boulterassociates.com.au

World's Best Sales Tips #1

Over the next few weeks I will add a few Sales Tips from a really good book. "The World's Best Sales Tips by Ciaran McGuigan is a quick toolkit for improving your sales techniques.

One of the classic problems is Cold Calling. Let's face it nobody likes rejection and Cold Calling has quite a bit of this.

In Chapter 1 of this book Ciaran talks about the initial greeting. A BIG mistake is not qualifying that you are talking to the person you expect. Don't assume that the person answering is the person you expect to be talking to. You could have been put through to the wrong extension number or another person may be answering the phone for that person.

A really funny spin on this is: Show up & Throw Up from the SalesRoundup Podcast team. This is extreme but Ii think we have all seen elements of this.

What has been your experience? Heard any good stories?

TheBizWiz
www.boulterassociates.com.au
www.informgroup.com.au

Getting the best from International Employees

A challenge for Managers is to work out whether a problem with an overseas employee is because of poor skills, attitude, language or different cultural perspectives.

Bradford University has produced a guide to help managers understand the key cultural issues that could alter performance. (to get a copy email: c.l.haynes@bradford.ac.uk)

The guide covers particular issues such as the need to avoid loss of face with some cultures, how different cultures view success or failure and how some cultures have little grasp of teamworking.

For example, the guide quotes an employee who moved to the UK from Estonia. The employee was spoken to, by her Manager, in regards to making a greater contribution in the office. Her work was outstanding in every other way. The employee explained that as her country had moved out of communist culture, people did not trust each other in the same way and everyone concentrates on their own work and not helping each other.

Sometimes a Manager would not want to upset an employee so they don't say anything. The employee thinks they are doing a good job, because in their own country they would be told straight away if they were not doing something right.

Do you have employees in other countries? What have you found?

BizWiz
www.informgroup.com.au
www.boulterassociates.com.au

Entrepreneurs need "reality checks"

Many entrepreneurs struggle to cope with running their own companies because of naive preconceptions before starting up, research suggests. The YouGov survey produced on behalf of T-Mobile and Kingston University reveals huge disparities between the perceptions and actualities of running a business.

46% started a business to achieve a greater work - life balance but 38% said their business impacts on their relationships with family and friends. Anothr 36% admit to struggling to balance demands on their time effectively.

If you go into business for yourself and expect an easier life, think again. The early years are hard work and takes time to operate your business as well as work "on your business".

What has your experience been?
BizWiz

Presentations to Business Owners

You have the chance, finally, to present to the Senior team at a company you have been chasing for months. You have been given 30 mins. You prepare diligently with 20 slides allowing yourself 10 minutes for Q&A.
In the door you go.

Slide 1 - Introduction...almost to Slide 2 and the first question comes. You handle that magnificently. Point 2 of Slide 2 and question two arrives.........before you know it you have 15 slides to go and 5 mins to present it in.
Your maganificent build up and conclusion are ruined.

Happened to you before?
How did you handle it?

BizWiz

Mortgage Reduction Strategies

Following on from last post.

Join Qantas Club =$350.00

Buy a ticket with Qantas to USA = $2800.00 economy

Got to airport

Get delayed

Live in Qantas Club to flight leaves.........free food, free drinks and about the same as average mortgage.

No grass to mow either

BizWiz

Silly Job Titles

Have you ever noticed the trend towards "different" job titles? A survey in UK brought a few.

Vision Clearance Executive- Window Cleaner, Knowledge Navigator - Teacher were noteable.

Of course the usuals of Domestic Engineer and Waste Removal Engineer made the list

The survey of 4000 UK adults were asked to give the most interesting job titles they had come across. One in 20 actually new somebody with the title (not surprising as they were asked to give the title) and two percent had actually applied for a job with a title they were not sure of. Six percent of those ended up accepting the job.

Stock Replensihment Advisor - Shelf Stacker and Dispatch Services Facilitator - Postman were new ones as well.

Know anybody with an interesting job title?

BizWiz

Business Travel

At the Airport the staff member checking me in says: " You have Platinum Baggage Tags but you are Bronze?"

A smile comes on my face. " Yes, I and I am happy"

After years of travelling and losing so much time with my family, a badge of honour, like Platinum means nothing to me. Sure, when you are doing the hard yards travelling, being in limbo land of not being high enough for the good lounge means a lot of pain as well as the lost time in life.

So here I am, flight was at 1:30pm, delayed to 3:30pm, then 8:00pm, then 10:00pm and now 10:30pm. When I get to LAX it is a connection, probably around 7 or 8:00pm their time and then a drive to hotel. I would say in bed by midnight if I am lucky.

What sort of travel stories do you have?

BizWiz