Don’t worry, I’m not abandoning Exit171… just expanding. With Exit172 LLC up-and-running I decided to start another blog specifically for the business. Nothing fancy, but just another way to keep everyone up-to-date on the latest news regarding Exit172 LLC.

For those interested, the new blog is being hosted on WordPress.com. The photo in my blog header (also pictured above) is a pic I took at the 2007 NYC Marathon.

Exit172 Travel is now up-and-running! If you typically book your travel on the web with highly advertised sites like Expedia, Orbitz, or Priceline, you also need to check out www.exit172travel.com. We offer competitive rates on flights, hotels, cars, cruises, golf packages, vacation packages, and “Extras” such as flowers and event tickets.

Don’t be afraid to book on my site… Exit172 Travel is powered by Travelocity and YTB Travel Network. YTB is a full-fledged travel agency backed by a 1,200 person call center and 24 hour customer service. In addition, our “Extras” are brought to you by industry leaders Flora2000 and TicketsNow.

Please let me know if you’re interested in owning your own online travel web site — I’d love to sponsor you. If you have 10 minutes, check out the video at the following link. It’ll give you a brief overview of what this is all about.

www.ytbpres2007.com

If it makes sense to you, let’s talk. Selling hot dogs (travel) is nice, but owning the hot dog cart (travel web site) is even better.

Technorati Tags: travel,flights,hotels,cars,cruises,golf packages,vacation packages,flowers,event tickets,web business,expedia,orbitz,travelocity,priceline, golf,concerts,theater,business opportunities

I love the start of the “New Year”. It’s like a clean slate… well, at least for a day or two until reality sets in… yup, everything you were involved with at the end of the previous year is still there (good and bad). If you’re one for resolutions, maybe that’ll keep you energized a little longer than most.

I have high hopes for 2008. At the beginning of 2007 I explored a concept/book called Asset-Based Thinking. In a nutshell, it teaches you to look at every situation differently, but to focus on the positive (asset-based) elements versus the negative (deficit-based) side. Sort of “the glass is half full” mindset. I still practice this frequently and it has helped me in many challenging situations.

In 2008 I’ve decided to start capitalizing on a few opportunities that have been dangling in front of me for some time… I will finally formalize my own part-time business. My new company, Exit172 LLC, will represent several ventures:

• Exit172 Travel — a 24×7 online travel agency powered by Travelocity and YTB Travel Network
• Exit172 Photography — my freelance photography endeavors
• Exit172 Technology Services — IT consulting & services for homes and small business

I’m excited to finally gather all of this under one umbrella. As Anthony Robbins and all the other motivational/self-help folks have taught me over the years, sometimes you need to go out and make things happen, instead of waiting for things to happen… life’s too short…

I’ve been messing with a new app on the iPhone to help me organize my life… reQall is a new way to keep a to-do list or help me remember miscellaneous factoids. Instead of writing stuff down (or typing it in on my computer) I call a toll free number and leave a message. My voice message then gets translated into text and shows up on my personal reQall page which is accessible via the web or a nicely formatted iPhone page. reQall also sends me an email a day with the “tasks” I’ve recorded. Pretty neat.

I used to call my answering machine and leave myself “to-do” messages, but that had some limitations. It’s kinda neat that I can now make that same call, it gets automatically transcribed (with pretty good accuracy), and is accessible from pretty much anywhere. Very helpful when I’m on the run. Even if you don’t have an iPhone, you can try it out (it’s free). Check it out!

[reQall]

I’m disappointed that AT&T has chosen to get rid of the Cingular brand. I think it’s a big mistake. I concur with Jason Dunn (of Pocket PC Thoughts):

AT&T Dumping Cingular Brand Explained by Stephen Colbert

Kudos to Garmin for excellent customer service. I was having problems with the Heart Rate Monitor for my Edge 305 GPS (it simply stopped working). I called tech support and they sent me a brand new HRM sensor/strap. I’m now back up and running (or cycling I should say).

I love quality products and services. Even more so, I love great customer service. Smart companies realize the importance of this and strive to develop strong relationships with customers… so they become repeat customers.

Let’s face it, no matter how well a product is made sometimes things go wrong. Most consumers can accept this, as long as things are handled quickly and fairly by the company. As Donald Porter, VP British Airways, once said, “Customers don’t expect you to be perfect. They do expect you to fix things when they go wrong.”

I rarely have problems with Bose products (I own at least 6 of them). Yes, they charge a premium, but their products are well designed and work well. Unfortunately, I’ve encountered problems with their QuietComfort 2 Acoustic Noise Cancelling headphones a couple times already. I blogged about this last year and I was very satisfied when Bose quickly replaced my defective headset with a brand new unit (for free and no questions asked). As luck would have it, the replacement unit they gave me was an identical design and eventually I encountered the same problem.

This second time around Bose gave me a new headset for free, but it was an updated version. Apparently I wasn’t the only one encountering this problem and Bose felt compelled to fix the issue. In a nutshell, they’re now using a more flexible material in the headband area that kept breaking. Based on what I can see, it looks like they may have addressed the issue. Time will tell.

Kudos to Bose for recognizing their flaws and fixing them! Not only did they correct their product, but they’ve kept their customers happy. I wish more companies would act more like Bose. I will continue to be a loyal customer for a long time to come.

First they form a partnership with Intel and now they’ve been banned from Google, a.k.a the “Google Death Penalty”! I love their cars and motorcycles, but I’m not sure about all of this.

From what it looks like, the German websites of car maker BMW have been kicked out of the Google index. BMW.de at this time has a PageRank of 0. A search for BMW Germany, which only days ago yielded BMW.de as a top result, now doesn’t show any sign of BMW.de at all. Instead, BMW.com – BMW’s international site – is on top for this search.

[via Google BlogoScoped]

It’s nice to see strong demand for AMD and HP products. Happy Holidays!

“We’re completely sold out of the $378 laptop, the $997 42-inch flatscreen TV and pretty much most of the electronics featured in the blitz sale,” an employee at the Wal-Mart store in Brick, N.J., told CNNMoney.com, adding that people had lined up outside the store since 10 p.m. Thursday to take advantage of the retailer’s six-hour “blitz sale.”

Industry watchers had picked Wal-Mart’s $378 HP pavilion laptop as one of the must-have deals of the season.

CNN showed video of a brawl inside a Wal-Mart store in Orlando, Fla. There were no immediate details about the scuffle.

[Article and Video at CNN]

I had the opportunity to meet Newegg’s CEO this past summer — great guy and a great company. Nice article on one of the best retailers on the net.

read more | digg story

Digg.com is getting hotter than hot. It’s been excellent for tech news, but I think it’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Congrats to Kevin Rose for getting $2.8 million in venture capital funding. From some primo investors too. Can’t do much better than the founder of eBay. Digg.com is now getting 500K daily visitors. Look forward to the digg engine to be used for non-tech news and instant messaging in the near future. I bet the site gets bought out for $50M within 12 months.

[via FirstAdopter.com]

Well no such luck with Butel Software (which is based in the Netherlands). Here’s their response when I asked if they could just issue me a new registration code (instead of waiting 2-3 weeks for them to look up my original). FYI, Gommert Buysen is the president of the company.

No, if you want a new code you can order one. We collect these requests and
process them every 2-3 weeks.

Kind regards.

Gommert Buysen
www.butelsoftware.com

@#$%! So much for customer service (and the $69.95 I paid for their software). This will be the last time I do business with this company. I’m glad I’m not a Public Service Agency with an emergency. Maybe next time I’ll order the software on CD. However, I get the feeling I’d still need a registration code. Oh, and by the way, they want an additional $15 for their software on CD.
It’s hard to believe in this day and age of computers, technology, and “instant everything”, that this type of response time is acceptable to this company. Looks like we still have a long way to go before we can get to a truly reliable and useful world of eCommerce (at least Butel Software has a long way to go).

A word of warning to those of you who purchase software online — keep good track of your registration codes. Lesson learned for me.

[Original Post — The Power of eCommerce?]

I purchased a software package online about a year ago. It’s a very specific app that allows me to control and program my 1,000 channel Bearcat Scanner from my PC. It’s a great application, but it’s one of those apps that requires a registration code to unlock all the features. The purchase transaction was simple via Kagi and my registration code was emailed to me separately from the software company… Overall, a good example of the ease and convenience of purchasing software online.

One year later I migrate to a new PC and need to reinstall my applications. I reinstall this particular app with the ZIP I downloaded when I bought it, but need to re-enter my registration code to use all the features. Uh-oh, where did I put that code?! I didn’t print it out and couldn’t locate a copy of the original e-mail they had sent me. I managed to locate my electronic invoice from Kagi, but it doesn’t contain my reg code. Okay, no biggie, I’ll just send an email to the software company and ask them to re-send my reg code…

This morning I get a response via email:

We will lookup your registration next time we process these requests, this takes 2-3 weeks.

2-3 weeks?! WTF?!!! They want me to wait 2-3 weeks to use the software that I bought from them for $69.95?! Okay, I realize this may be an inconvenience for them and that I should have done a better job of keeping track of that reg code, but I think 2-3 weeks for them to look it up is a bit ridiculous. I’m glad the company is still in business and that I received a timely response via email, but it’s not like I’m asking them to implement a new feature or fix some obscure bug. Just send me the code so I can use your software (that I paid for)!

I replied to the email asking them if they could just issue me a new code. I hope they do “the right thing”. Stay tuned.

Do you have a dog or cat (or know someone who does)? If you do, be sure to check out Just4Pooches. This company has been in business for a couple of years and has developed quite a loyal customer base. If you happen to be in NJ, be sure to also visit their store in Cranford.

Some info from their page:

Based in the beautiful New York City suburb of Cranford, New Jersey, Just4Pooches is a unique shopping experience for dog and cat lovers worldwide. Our store and web site are stocked with a variety of hand-picked products for our best friends.

We offer premium canine and feline products (sorry, no bird stuff yet!) from some of the industry’s finest manufacturers. Most products featured on this site are all-natural/holistic and all are guaranteed to satisfy. Several of the products are favorites of Mo, the company mascot, who you can spot in our logo!

I love it when small businesses succeed!!