The Problems Air Passengers face in a troubled air travel industry

The London Evening Standard reported this week that according to IATA, 2009 was the worst year for passenger demand in the air travel industry. In fact, 2009 saw the industry’s largest drop in demand in history.  Airlines are expected to face heavy losses as a result - but why is there a drop in demand? Surely it can’t all be blamed on the recession. Many holidaymakers see the air travel experience as part of the holiday - so delays, long queues, security alerts and scrutiny, strikes, lousy service, endless staring at message boards and all the other unnecessary inconveniences we put up with when we go to the airport are inevitably seen as a turn off to air travel.

The airline that’s able to manage these inconveniences better for their passengers should be able to reverse the current trend. If the cinema/film industry is able to buck the trend in a recession by providing a very good movie-going experience, airlines should take a leaf out the film industry’s book by providing a better travel experience.

The use of technology is the key to reversing the trend for airlines - and I believe we can help many airlines with the technology we’re developing at Dgoose Technologies. 

Winter Blues and New year Plans

Winter blues is the slightly depressing feeling you have in winter of not wanting to do anything but sleep and eat. As a result, you’re not particularly motivated to work or pursue objectives such as losing weight, quitting smoking, executing your business plans and so on...

Unfortunately it’s a syndrome we all have to fight - but, if you put in the work now, the effort should pay off in the summer. Many athletes work this way - but most them go to hot countries for their winter training. As a tennis fan, I know a lot of players go to hot countries to train for the Australian Open - Andy Murray, for example, goes to Florida to train.

We mere mortals have to stay in the cold and TRAIN for our objectives.

I guess the only way of beating the winter blues is by focusing each day on your main objective - that way you’re more likely to beat the blues and put your plans into action!

My favourite Inspirational quotes

I came across some quotations recently and felt inspired to put together some of those that I found most inspiring. Personally, I don’t just enjoy reading them - I find them uplifting. The idea was to list my Top 10 quotations but unfortunately I couldn’t bring myself to leave out the eleventh.

So here are my Top 11 most inspirational quotations!

1. “He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.”

Muhammad Ali (Born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jnr in Louisville Kentucky. Widely considered the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time)

2. “Making your mark on the world is hard. If it were easy, everybody would do it. But it's not. It takes patience, it takes commitment and it comes with plenty of failure along the way. The real test is not whether you avoid this failure, because you won't. It's whether you let it harden or shame you into inaction, or whether you learn from it; whether you choose to persevere.” Barack Obama (First African American President of the USA)

3. “Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.”

Dale Carnegie (American who wrote the bestseller How to Win Friends and Influence People and a pioneer in the self-improvement movement)

4. “Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.”

John Quincy Adams (Sixth president of the USA)

5. “Singleness of purpose is one of the chief essentials for success in life, no matter what may be one's aim.”

John D. Rockefeller (American industrialist who revolutionised the petroleum industry and became the world’s richest man of his time and the first American billionaire)

6. “Have the courage to say no. Have the courage to face the truth. Do the right thing because it is right. These are the magic keys to living your life with integrity.”

W. Clement Stone (An American businessman and author who promoted the Positive Me attitude in business and life to achieve success)

7. “As a general rule, the most successful man in life is the man who has the best information.”

Benjamin Disraeli (First and only Prime Minister of Great Britain of Jewish heritage)

8. “You can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving.”

Ami Carmichael (Northern Irish missionary and author)

9. “Never before in history has innovation offered promise of so much to so many in so short a time.”

Bill Gates (Co-founder of Microsoft Corporation, pioneering leader and innovator in the world of software and also the world’s richest man)

10. “Courage is the discovery that you may not win, and trying when you know you can lose.”

Tom Krause. (A very successful American motivational speaker and coach. He has written many books and believes in the following principle: Be Yourself - Believe in Yourself - Don't Be Afraid to Go for Your Dreams!)

11. “Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become.

Everything else is secondary.”

Steve Jobs. (CEO and co-founder of Apple - the world leader in the digital music industry and one of the most innovative companies in the world)

The Pitch for my comprehensive Flight status notification solution for travellers and Airlines

 Dgoose Technologies’ flight status notification service is a web-based solution that allows airlines worldwide to provide a comprehensive flight notification service along with relevant flight information to their passengers through email and SMS. This solution also allows passengers to set up their own com

prehensive 

flight notification service themselves online

comprehensive flight status alert solution for air travellers

In detail – The software automatically 

provides relevant travel information, 

alerts passengers of flight delays and cancellations and at the same time alerts others that are involved with the passenger’s travel arrangements anywhere in the world by SMS and email. For example, it notifies all relevant parties of departures in real-time, expected arrival time and actual arrivals in real-time.

The Dgoose software also enables airlines to send real-time SMS and email  notifications about checking in times, luggage weight details and  departure gate opening times to multiple passengers or a selected few.

First-class travellers can be easily singled out and sent a food menu by SMS and email before boarding the plane. Our software will also allow targeted announcements to passengers via their phones rather through airport loudspeakers or microphones.

The prototype is still in development and we are currently looking for funding to develop the solution further.
For more information go to  http://www.dgoose.net

The Importance of writing a Business plan for start-ups

For any budding entrepreneur or anyone else who seriously wants to start a business, business plans are a must. Even if you have twenty years’ experience in an industry and you know your business inside out, a business plan is still a necessity.

Why?

A professionally written business plan helps focus the mind of the founder on areas of the business that otherwise might be taken for granted - areas such as the business’s legal constraints and requirements. This area was ignored or at least poorly-executed in one of my projects and I paid very dearly for it. The result was that I failed to get the project off the ground after 18 months’ hard work - just because I hadn’t implemented all the legal requirements properly. The lesson is to always review the legal implications of your business project before you start - or be willing to spend money on a solicitor or an attorney to get all the legal issues right.

Writing your business plan will force you to research your competitors in more detail. By actually looking into their published accounts rather than just depending on what other experts have said; by having real facts to support your write-up you’ll add considerably to your business plan’s credibility.

The writing of your business plan will highlight your business’s strengths and weaknesses and indicate to you the type of people you need to ensure you bring your project to life. The right team is crucial to its success.

The writing of financial forecasting within your business plan should indicate the best ‘guesstimate’ of the funding your business will need.

With a well-written business plan, a great team around you and some evidence of a prototype or your business in its start-up phase of operation, the chances of receiving funding should be considerably enhanced, if not guaranteed.

Having a business plan does not mean that your business cannot fail - but not having one definitely increases your chance of failure. By having one at the outset you can adapt better, have a better chance of raising funds, have more chance of bringing your plans to fruition - and ultimately a far greater chance of succeeding.

It is too easy to overlook the importance of a business plan when you have the money and don’t need funding from VCs or business ‘Angels’. Don’t succumb to the temptation to do without. At the very least, pay someone to do it for you!