| In the Lounge |
| helping small businesses in travel & tourism with online technology |

Summer’s winding down quickly….
| In This Issue |
If there’s a topic you’d like to see learn more about, just click reply and let me know. |
| Celebrating Success: Two Wheel Africa Tours |
| A quick note to wish our customer and fellow lounge member Sandi Langton congratulations – we’ve just launched her new website for her fantastic new venture, Two Wheel Africa Tours:
http://www.twowheelafricatours.com You must go and check it out, even if it’s just to see Sandi’s amazing photography – some great shots. And she’s got some pretty cool tours also, and even a forum for lovers of motorbike touring world-wide. Sandi’s busy preparing some core content for the blog still, but together we’ve done a lot of work in just under a month so we’ll give her a little more time to finish. Sandi was a customer of our value-packed website/blog launch service. If you’d like more information on how we can help you improve your online presence (or get you started in the first place), don’t be afraid to click reply and get in touch. Each package is customised just for you! |
| Required Reading: Tips from Seth Godin and Lea Woodward |
| I have two articles that are this month’s required reading, one from marketing legend Seth Godin and one from online entrepreneur Lea Woodward.
Seth shares some fantastic Lessons Learned from Tiny Businesses. My favourite points: go where your customers, outlast the competition, and most importantly: respond. Small businesses have so much more capability to provide an amazing customer service than the big guys, so take advantage of that. Lea also gave us some insightful thoughts with her article, What if Twitter Went Down and Never Came Back Up? It doesn’t matter if you are on Twitter or not, but read the article anyway and consider what would happen is any of your critical business systems went down. Laptop stolen? Website provider goes out of business and takes your website with it? Consider where all of your eggs are in one basket when it comes to online tech, and figure out what’s the emergency backup plan. You never want to be crippled by the breaking of a weak link in the chain. |
| Your Questions Answered: What is the hardest part about online business?? |
| Last month I opened up the communication lines and asked everyone here in the lounge the following question:
What do you find the hardest part about online business? We had some interesting questions and thoughts. I’d like to highlight the following submission from Lisa:
Ouch! Thanks for opening up and sharing your sore spot, Lisa. This is a very common response and when I started my travel website, I had the same problem – was anyone listening? Here’s my thoughts on the matter:
I hope that helps, Lisa! Hang in there and don’t get discouraged – we’re all here for you. |
When you’ve finished reading this month’s newsletter, be sure to:
Otherwise, thanks for listening. See you soon. -Andy |


