Timothy Vasko

During President Obama's first election I said to my son, who was just old enough to vote in the United States, "he's taking on a mess in that country, let's see how he pulls it off..." That was nearly eight years ago.

Today, in my opinion, President Obama has masterfully made many of the changes the nation has needed. His latest push supporting the Supreme Court’s 5-4 ruling on equality in gay marriage is a capstone to a tough job – but one well done. Politics and all policies aside (which I do not pretend to speak upon with authority nor seek agreement on), in the realms of finance, health care, innovation, and access- President Obama has left an indelible mark on the nation, and in my opinion it has undoubtedly been for the better. Of that I am certain - I speak with first hand knowledge and conviction.

There can be no denying that many sectors in the U.S. were a mess after decades of failed policy and approach – in particular finance and health care. The economy was decimated - I saw it coming 18 years ago, when I immigrated to Canada. Untold times during the last few years people have asked me, "how did you know?” It was obvious to me, that the fraudulent practices some of the biggest players in the economy employed, could not last and would not lead to anything but economic instability, massive debt and recession. I had experienced first hand the impact of one of these massive corporations on the brink of failure, and I did not intend to stick around to see this replicated on a national scale.

So, as a single Dad, lacking options and seeking direction, I decided to start again in a country that seemed to be more accepting, more open and more in line with my values and beliefs. Back then.

I have been proud to be a Canadian citizen for years. The Canadian government has done much to support my dreams and my work towards creating an equitable financial and technological environment through the many grants and government programs I have received and participated in. For this support I will be eternally grateful.

But today, I can equally proudly say that I no longer see the U.S. the way I did when I decided to leave my home nation. It has turned the corner, as demonstrated with the historical decision on gay marriage equality this week. Although recent events in Ferguson, Baltimore, and too many cities across the nation demonstrate there is still far to go in terms of racial equality, I believe the United States is on the path to true equality and access for all. With the JOBS Act working to reshape finance, and Obama Care, much like LBJ in the 1960s, President Obama has left a legacy. The foundation, the opportunity is set - the rest is up to us. As history reminds us, the "old guard" won't just give up. But now we have the tools to work with, tools that were lacking for far too long. This is a new era and a new country, again. This is the United States I grew up believing in - not the one I left with my kids.


Thanks to the JOBS Act, I believe America is once again on the path to becoming the land of opportunity and plenty that it once was both in the collective imagination and in reality for so many new immigrants, like my grandfather who passed through Ellis Island. With the barriers to finance for smaller businesses broken down through the JOBS Act, I’m proud to see that the American Dream can once again begin to thrive. That’s why I invented Finaeos, to help entrepreneurs and small businesses in both the U.S. and Canada recapture that dream, and attain it.

To be able to provide Finaeos to support American and cross border entrepreneurs and SMBs, to be able to next launch FinaeosConnect to share these opportunities to investors, and to be focusing our efforts in helping drive financing and healthcare innovation and connectivity - well, this could not have happened without the recent advances in American policy. I’ve spent my career trying to break down barriers for entrepreneurs and small businesses. This began with my invention of an affordable, customizable CRM platform and hybrid cloud environment that provides more functionality and power than Salesforce to organizations a fraction of the size and without that massive budgets traditionally required for this kind of automation. Now, I’m proud to say that I can provide more than just a technical leg up to small businesses. With Finaeos, we’re simplifying and reducing the cost in terms of time and money for businesses seeking the opportunity to grow and scale through funding.

I've never believed in money for the sake of money, I did not become an entrepreneur simply because I wanted to become rich. I believe at the root of entrepreneurship lies creativity, innovation, and a desire for true autonomy and freedom- an independent spirit that seeks to control its own destiny.

I believe these new financial legislations on both sides of the border, whether the JOBS Act in the United States or the CRM2 amendments in Canada, help eliminate the kinds of loopholes only the financiers (and their high priced lawyers) have had for centuries.

To see governments supporting Entrepreneurship, Equality and Access, to see the albeit belated recognition that these are some of the most fundamental things in a healthy society, is nothing short of galvanizing.

Now it's my mission, and every entrepreneur’s obligation, to help make sure it sticks. That's what these new laws are there for - setting up for the generations to come through innovation and access.

I am starting with Finaeos - and I look forward to working with, and helping others who have the motivation to do the same.

Follow me @Finaeos @TimSVasko - let's do this together !

Tim

No More Excuses: The Cloud, Big Data & CaaS (Compliance as a Service)
How to use the Cloud to Eliminate Fraud & Ensure Compliance

19 years ago all of my data was on my thick and heavy Toshiba laptop. It was 1996, and this was the smallest device money could buy. Back then, I remember thinking having all your documents in one place was a great idea- it would improve organization, efficiency, and even protect in case of a fire or some other disaster. And it was great, that is, until the SEC seized that laptop as a part of an investigation into my business.

These were the early days of consumer computing. No one knew what they were doing or what risks were involved. External drives, backups, the “cloud”; all the places that data is protected and available today were, at best, an afterthought or a luxury. In most cases, they were not even possible – not readily anyways.
When my laptop was sequestered, never to be seen again, so too was the story that I was about to tell about FINOVA. For those who don’t know, FINOVA was a major corporation providing commercial financing back in these days. And my business was one of those being financed by FINOVA. Unfortunately, FINOVA was successful not because of their track record successfully financing commercial ventures, but because they were defrauding smaller companies, and using their extensive legal department to bury the evidence. FINOVA had my laptop sequestered four years before somebody finally got wise. At the time of their bankruptcy in March 2001, they were found guilty of committing the largest fraud in the history of the United States. But as we all know, 2001 was a tumultuous year. With the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in September, and Enron’s epic meltdown in December, FINOVA largely escaped notoriety (although several of their top executives ended up in prison).

Fraud has profoundly affected my life. Whenever I hear stories of people and businesses being defrauded, I feel my gut churn. I know exactly how helpless a person can feel when it’s not the truth that matters, but how good your lawyer is.

Since my own experience with fraud, I’ve sought to help change the fact that with big money and clever lawyers, cover-ups can prevent the facts from emerging, sometimes for decades. We’ve seen this from Madoff, to Lehman, to Bear Stearns. It has taken me nearly twenty years to overcome my “afraid to talk about it” phase. But for the better part of those 20 years, I’ve been looking, watching and building ways to help prevent others from going through the experience I had. I’ll detail those in the next installation of this series.
More to come ......

"However gifted an individual is at the outset, if his or her talents cannot be developed because of his or her social condition, because of the surrounding circumstances, these talents will be still-born." - Simone De Beauvoir

This morning I was forwarded a link by my eldest daughter to the speech that Emma Watson (best known for playing the character Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter franchise) gave to the UN. I was struck by the label she gave my son and I in the message that accompanied the video. “Inadvertent feminist.” What exactly did this mean? Naturally, I had to listen to find out. I played Watson’s speech over our car stereo while I drove my three youngest daughters to school. I told them, “you could be speaking at the UN someday too.” As Watson began to explain the aforementioned term, I got choked up, as a flood of memories came into my head.

I came to Canada as a single father of two children nearly 18 years ago. They were so small then, a boy and a girl. I was Dad, but by necessity, I was also Mom. Their birth mother had become estranged from them. I had left the US because I had been bludgeoned by media and larger forces than I, at my young age, realized existed. I was faced with a situation in which my opinions suddenly had to turn into actions. So, I left my homeland, and immigrated to another country with my children. I wanted a place for them to grow up that was open to ideas, to new ideals. A place that would nourish their individuality and promote their development as empathetic, conscientious people rather than a place, that I felt made aggression and monetary interests and power the major priorities.

When my family and I arrived in Canada, I was broke and unemployed for the first time in my life. I headed to the University of Victoria, hoping for a chance to work on my Ph.D.. In my doctoral research I wanted to explore the relationship between human rights and globalization, and opportunities to improve quality of life and increase autonomy in developing nations through entrepreneurial small businesses. But mostly I needed a job and income to raise my family on.

My children and I survived off a student budget, for a time, until, by circumstance, the University offered me a role as an adjunct professor. It was a God send for a single father. And while I accepted eagerly, I couldn’t help but consider the women out there by the millions, who were raising children on their own. These were women who by and large did not have the inherent privileges my gender, race, and middle class upbringing afforded me. Nor did they benefit from the material manifestations of my socioeconomic status. My education and my pursuit of further schooling allowed me a way out of a hopeless situation, yet there were so many women in the same predicament with far fewer opportunities than I, to change their circumstance. No matter how much they might want to.

Around this time I fell deeply in love and got married, and eventually had three more daughters. All of this only deepened my opinion that people are people, and should be treated the same no matter their gender, sexual orientation, race or otherwise. This belief my eldest daughter pointed out, has in a sense made me an “inadvertent feminist”.

A feminist, as Emma Watson defines in her speech, is “someone who believes in the social, economic, and political equality of the sexes.” An "inadvertent" feminist, I suppose, is a person who does this without thinking of themselves directly as feminist. That being said, I don’t want this label "inadvertent" any longer. I am proud to say that I am a feminist, and proud to raise my daughters with feminist ideals. This has been a deliberate choice.

I read a lot while playing the roles of Mother and Father about “how to” raise kids. I read Reviving Ophelia and How to Father a Successful Daughter. I also read a book, Real Boys, which described the pressure young boys feel to appear stereotypically masculine, objectify women, and be aggressive. My son was no jock, but an intellectual and deep thinker, passionate and loving. The ideas I read in these books made me look deeper, first, at myself, as a young boy raised in a generation where gender roles were still rigidly codified. These books helped me understand “how” to get beyond some of the ingrained cultural paradigms I’d been part of, and break them down.

Today, I'm proud to say two of my children are university graduates. My eldest daughter now works for me and just graduated from McGill with an honors degree in Cultural Studies and History. My son is working on his Ph.D. in political science. Both ended up in fields where they were actively challenging oppressive political, social, and economic structures and constructs, and patriarchal practices that have persisted for centuries. I also have a daughter who, at 13, recently visited South Africa with her school, to collaborate with youth from around the globe seeking to create a better world, marked by sustainability and tolerance. With two younger daughters on the way, I could not be more moved, and supportive of the efforts of the UN in “He For She”, or respect more the words of Ms. Watson in her passion and involvement with this important issue.

I’ve said I identify as a feminist. However if I am considered an “inadvertent feminist”, I suppose, too, I am an “inadvertent health care” proponent . I believe people should be able to access health care no matter what their location, demographic or political status. I am an “inadvertent living wage” proponent too. I believe people should be paid equally for their skills, efforts and talents, regardless of their gender or race. And, too, I am an “inadvertent financial reform” proponent, where markets and access to market capital, should not be controlled by incumbent structures of financial powerhouses, but by the market forces and “crowd sources” that enable innovations.

When we are "inadvertent” in our actions or beliefs, we are not going far enough. May we all become aware enough of the ideals and opinions we already feel strongly about, so as to enforce them with determination. I believe women should to be treated equally. I believe a man can raise his children and be as loving and responsible for them as a mother. I believe men have the right be vulnerable and open in their feelings. And so I actively work to reflect this belief in the most important aspects of my life. In my family, my profession, and my personal relationships.

As Emma Watson said at the UN, quoting Edmund Burke, “All that is needed for the forces of evil to triumph is for enough good men and women to do nothing.”

It should not be the gender we are born with, but the passion we are given to become who we are. It should be each individuals right to participate in the world in the ways we may help and effect change, as individuals – woman or man.

This July, I've been traveling- a lot !

I'm in Toronto at the moment, at the Microsoft WPC (World Partner Conference) 2012, along with "16,000 of Steve Balmer's closest friends..." as the CEO of Microsoft put it in his Keynote address this morning. The Air Canada Convention Centre and subways of the Toronto Metro are a far cry from the Haro Strait I was sailing upon yesterday. As our sailboat glided along calm waters, crossing the border from the US to back to our home port in Canada, I realized, no matter where I am- in the middle of the ocean or a metropolis- I am in the Cloud and connected.

From my 1to1Real login screen this morning (which I shyly observed while Cirque Du Sole was trapezing around to open the conference) I Tweeted, generated an EFT to pay corporate bills, checked in on my collaborative activities with my Team on our virtual "Cooler Wall" - and overviewed reports and analytics from our latest marketing and customer service Cloud Business Coach communications. I never logged off my single dashboard, I did it all right on the same screen (including this blog post:-).

I can say now like never before, I have 100% confidence that the 1to1Real Cloud can handle any business and whatever that business may throw at it- anywhere, anytime. This, I think is pretty cool (I'd say "sick", but my 21 year old daughter who is editing this post would chastise me). When I finally put my iPad away I was amazed, not only at the acrobatics on stage- but at what my brain child could do- and I've been at this for a decade plus! I thought to myself "We could literally do this for any business owner, any CEO, or entrepreneur, any manager of any organization". The Cloud has arrived- the world has changed and we're here to be part of the new driving force of the internet!

More to come from the road - next stop Baltimore and Washington DC :-) Tim

PS: Did I mention I didn't use email even once !

Small Business Master or Disaster: Which Are You?

Our good intentions actually become the cause of our failure.

Paradoxical Intention, Victor Frankl

How can you avoid becoming a casualty of "paradoxical intention" in your business, projects and goals?

We all start our projects, set our goals, and define our mission with the best of intentions. We intend to succeed. We seek to acquire the best tools to assist us, and put all of our energy towards efforts to "make things happen" - this statement is cliched for a reason. Whether on the football field, at the kitchen table of a small business owner, or in the steely boardroom of a corporation, the means may be different, but the lusted-after end is the same. We all are driven to succeed in our respective fields. But with all this desire for success, why do the statistics of failure continue to hold strong decade after decade? Why are our good intentions, our most sincere efforts, never enough?

"Every year in the United States, 40 million people change jobs, 600,000 new businesses are formed and 500,000 companies fail. Companies with less than 500 employees make up 99 percent of businesses. 50 percent of today's start-ups will be out of business five years from now."

Dr. Alex Pattakos, author of "Prisoner of our Thoughts" puts it like this:

"We all know how it works: our nervousness and anxiety about getting it right keep us from getting it right. The higher our expectations about something, the more disconnected we are from the actual process..."

95% of business's now believe that technology is the key determinant of success. And yet, most end up senselessly chasing technology, never bothering to actually consider what system may be best suited to their needs. For example, I recently had a CEO of an investment firm that has struggled with everything from legal regulations in the financial industry, to a lack of cash flow state to me that "I can do everything I need to do with technology for $19 a month...". This is only one laughable example of the kind of irrational thinking that makes the aforementioned statistics so pervasive. When you're managing anything, any size business, does it make sense to try to do it for less than you're spending on your weekly lattes? This is the same CEO who spares no expense with for instance, his office's physical location, paying astronomical rent for fancy downtown offices. So why does he believe that when he elevates his business to the Cloud, he can do it successfully for $19 a month?

The myth of the internet era is that it would be a space which would be "free". And although the evolution of the Cloud and technology hosted upon it has opened the doors for smart small businesses and start-ups to compete with the giants of industry unlike ever before, the idea that it is cheap or free or easy to do is what keeps 99% of the small companies from succeeding. That being said, spending millions, even if you have it as a large organization, doesn't necessarily ensure success either. 70% of all ERP and CRM implementations fail at the enterprise level to meet objectives or achieve a return on the investment associated with their cost.

Technology, especially Cloud Business Operations (I'll call them "CBOs") need, more than ever, to have a process based approach - a guiding mechanism which functions in line with "HOW" you plan to get there. Most of us know the "why" - we pretty much all want to succeed. It's time to stop asking "why" and start focusing on "how". If we didn't know "why" we wanted to achieve something, we'd never start in the first place.

There are Four Pillars of Process that define "how" we achieve every goal, whether it be business or personal. When the Four Pillars are clearly understood, we can avoid the "paradoxical intention" that leads to failure. With this understanding, instead of focusing on the anxiety a situation causes, we can focus on the situation itself. When we are free of our anxiety, we can focus on what we should be doing and how we can collaborate with others in order to optimize our performance. With this knowledge, we will better understand when it's time to take a "Time-Out" to reflect on how we are doing. When we remain conscious of ourselves and our surroundings, we are focused on the present moment. Only in this "Zone" can we better understand the efficacy of our choices.

Technology moves fast. So does business. But, with the ability track our own movements and activities, as well as that of our team, we can begin to create a Hub of Understanding, - a place where activities currently in process are monitored and displayed. We designed the 1to1REAL Cloud to help direct a path and learn the process of what individuals and teams do best. When we re-group, and take time outs - it is like looking at ourselves from the sidelines, or on video. In his book, Dr. Pattakos calls this "looking at yourself from a distance". When we seek to understand the the steps we have taken, our process can be seen, defined and improved upon.

We all have a unique way of approaching things - that is our unique "Zone", where we are our most genius. However, we must put a process around those unique approaches and find the technology that can match our approach - rather than attempting to match our approach and goals attempting to technology. The problem is, historically, that's not how software development has worked. Typical software delivers "functionality and features" defined by engineers and designed by software architects. The problem? Software has attempted to be "all things to all functions" with a specific goal. We can not add leverage to our best efforts with technology, until we can have technology that understands our best efforts. Unfortunately that approach does not often match the way traditional software has been delivered and designed.

I've studied business success and failures, alongside technology for well over fifteen years. One of the missions I had in building a piece of software for the Cloud, a dozen years ago, before it was called "The Cloud", was to stop the crazy approach where a technological platform was dictating how things must be done. Most people do things best with their unique flavor. Most successful business have a "secret formula" - almost like their own Coca Cola secret recipe.

So, just as a professional athlete combines their natural talents with the skill they've acquired through practice, a successful technology should take into account your organizations strengths as well as its weak points, and begin to structure itself from there. Just as an athlete must practice more those shots which they would typically miss, in business, we must find a system, a piece of technology, designed to assist us in the areas we require improvement, and perfect the areas in which we generally succeed.

Take Michael Jordan as an example. The arena, the rules of the game, the other players, were all the moving parts that increased in complexity as he moved from the backyard to the NBA. Just like a growing business - Jordan had to focus on his natural process to improve it. What Jordan was doing with all those hours and hours spent repeating the same action, was consistently improving in his "Zone". He also worked with his team making sure that they were included - which brought in win after win. It was a process that created the maximum results. Nike would have you think it was the Air Jordan's, but Michael learned how to leverage his talents with a team and the resources around him

When approaching our business's, when moving onto the Cloud, we are simply changing the arena. We need to think of the Cloud as our new "office building in the sky" - it is the place where we will spend our time, pay our rent and meet with our customers, as well as work with our team, play our best game. The magic of the Cloud is that it scales to any size business operation - the software platform you choose needs to do the same. Every basketball court, an NBA arena, or a grade school gym, has the same court. But the processes surrounding them are totally different. With 1to1REAL we built technology to support any size game- whether rookie, amateur, or professional. We discover "how process" and match the tools to the goals.

Our mission is to deliver the services of the 1to1REAL Cloud we've spent over 1.5 million man hours to build, to change the odds of the game in the favor of small and medium sized business - with the Four Pillars that every business can use to find their How - right Now. The present intention of every business and entrepreneur should lead to success, and help avoid the paradox of hyper-intention that can, and too often, leads to failure.

Tim Vasko The Cloud Market Coach Founder & CEO - 1to1REAL Cloud Solutions

Editor's Note: This blog post is an edited version of a blog post Tim put up in 2006. Unfortunately not much has changed since then in the airline industry.

I was recently sent a link to this video - a humorous take on the folly of discount airlines: Cheap Flights

Most people would agree that it hits a nerve, but for me, it's more like hitting the entire spinal column.. I know this pain. Personally.

Yes, I'm afraid it's true. I'm in the Million Mile High Club: I've accumulated enough frequent flyer miles to take a family of six around the world at least seventeen times. People like me are known as "Road Warriors" we are the people who pay homage to the airport bars on Friday afternoons with circles under our eyes, glasses of beer in front of us, cranking out messages on our smartphones while muttering into our Bluetooth headsets.

While traveling, I've had time to collect some of my thoughts about airline travel. Most of them start with "@$#&!!"

However, the ones that can be printed online represent the very distillation of my wisdom. If you're an airline who wants serve your customers and make money, heed my words. I've flown with them all.

Here are the 7 cardinal "what-not-to-do" lessons from an extremely frequent flyer. Want people to love your airline? Recommend you to their friends? Want to travel with you? Then please don't follow these rules:

RULE #1

Make your customers life as difficult as possible. Try hiring a special force of employees (or Gestapo) to harass your passengers at every possible point in their journey.

This is an actual encounter with the Air Canada Carryon Bag Gestapo while I was standing in line at security 40 minutes before my flight was to leave for home:

Gestapo: "Excuse me. I see you must do this a thousand times, but I don't believe your bag will fit on the plane." Me: "Chuckle. Yes. I have done it at least 10,000 times, and this is the latest TUMI bag ($450), guaranteed to fit, it fits just fine thanks." Gestapo: "Sir, I'm hired by Air Canada to reduce the number of carryon bags, Air Canada doesn't want you to take a bag that size carryon." Me: "Thank you, I'm sure you're doing a good job, but I can assure you this bag fits, or I'll send it back to TUMI and bonus you the $450 it cost me. After all, I got it here on an Air Canada flight!"

If you want your airline to be as successful as Air Canada, I suggest you hire even more people to harass and micromanage your passengers. After all, having people working for you whose sole job is to annoy your clients is an excellent use of company money.

And yes, the bag fit.

RULE #2

If your "streamlined technology" fails to support the customer's convenience, make sure you delay your passengers and argue with them. Passengers love to argue and delays allow them to extend the travelling experience.

On two occasions now, I've made the mistake of going up to the Air Canada counter agent to get a ticket I should have been able to get at the computer kiosk. After the usual check in process, I had to argue to be allowed be allowed to take my specially designed, perfectly sized carryon luggage, carryon. This took almost 30 minutes.

Finally they relented. After clearing security (which is thankfully very fast in Victoria), I know I'm cutting it close - it's only 10 minutes before my flight will leave. I arrive at the Air Canada gate and see the same Agent that kept me arguing for 30 minutes at check in.

Agent: "Sir, the flight is closed; it's 10 minutes to take off."

After realizing I'm now in a Saturday Night live episode, I watched the plane sit on the tarmac for 10 minutes and then take off. I then rescheduled my entire trip, canceled meetings, and stayed overnight in Vancouver.

So, if you want to be as beloved as Air Canada, make sure you train your employees to argue with your passengers at every turn. Make sure your customers know your business better than your staff does! However, if you want to be a successful airline, perhaps do what the Westjet employees do, and help me with my compliant roller bag.

RULE #3

Charge for everything. In fact make it unbearable for your passengers. Starve them, freeze them, and then make them BRIBE you to solve the problem. It doesn't matter how much you're charging just make sure they're so uncomfortable they have to crack open the wallet.

We've all been there. Pay $2 for a bag of nuts, $8 bucks for a stale sandwich, $10 to watch movies.. some airlines even charge you money to stay warm. A real exchange I witnessed:

Elderly Lady: Excuse me, could I have a blanket? Flight Attendant "We have a blow up pillow and blanket in a packet. You can keep the pillow, but its $2"

So, if you want nickel and dime your passengers to death to try and make up some of the money you"re losing, charge for everything. OR try trimming the Gestapo from the payroll and hand out some peanuts, some food and God forbid, a blanket for an old lady.

RULE #4

Scold your customers, oh those bad, evil people who pay your salaries, pay your equipment leases and buy your fuel. Scold them like children and treat them like they've never flown before. Then storm off as the jingle begins on the safety announcement drop down screens.

We know that we can't use our Blackberries and iPhones after the warning goes, but if you can see we're just trying to hurriedly finish our email or answer a question, let us finish. Then trust us to put the device away like you asked us to. We are adults and we can follow rules if asked politely.

How about this approach? Trust your customers and say something like, "sir would you be able to please turn that off just after you finish that quick message; I'd really appreciate it, thank you."

I'm sure there's no FAA regulation saying that flight attendants can't say "please" and "thank you" when asking passengers do something. However, if there is an FFA rule I would like to report Southwest, Westjet and Alaska Airlines for using these contraband words.

RULE #5

Create an "alliance" and share the misery so your customers have a miserable experience wherever they might be. After all, you're aiming for consistency!

The Star Alliance deal between United and Air Canada is a true alliance between equals. After all, they both filed bankruptcy, both are major carriers in their countries and both try to make their customers as miserable as possible.

I"m sure Canadians reading this are thinking "I hate Air Canada" and Americans are thinking "I hate United". This is actually an incredible achievement. Most brands struggle endlessly to maintain a consistent image and deliver a standardized level of customer service. To coordinate something like this across two different, unconnected companies is REVOLUTIONARY.

RULE #6

Spend lots of money on sending your messages out to your "frequent flyer's" (aka, everyone dumb enough to sign up for your program) because people want spam in their inbox. Make sure you send it regularly too - at least twice a week. You want to be able to irritate your customers even when they're not flying with you.

While you're planning out your email strategy, make sure you only send confirmations in glorious HTML, with all kinds of links and pretty pictures, so it takes a long time and lots of bandwidth to download your emails on their smartphones, even if they're out of the country and roaming.

I do this computer stuff for a living, but it took me at least an hour on a few separate occasions to figure out how to opt out of all of those boxes I missed. That kind of marketing just gets me angry. Stop talking at me, and talk with me.

RULE #7

Charge A LOT to change travel plans, and don't compensate your customers when you have a problem. Making airline travel expensive preserves the glamour and mystique of the experience.

Hey, things outside of our control happen, but only to the airlines - customers don't do anything important or have lives. Thus, you can charge the heck out of them. Charge them to wait on standby. Charge them to change flights. If you have to credit them because you screwed up, make sure the credits are hard to use so you can keep their money anyhow.

The more expensive it is for them, the less likely they are to change their plans, and the more inconvenient it is redeem credits, the less likely you are to see them again. After all, your airline would be far more efficient if it didn't have all those pesky passengers to deal with.

We Road Warriors are fine with having our flights cancelled due to mechanical troubles. Nobody wants to risk a faulty plane, but sometimes we have time sensitive plans. Meetings we can't miss. Personal matters to attend to like birthdays or funerals where it's important that we need to be there, but not everyone can afford to pay hundreds of dollars in change fees because there has been a problem on your end.

I've waited in Winnipeg for three hours because I couldn't switch to a stand by without paying the $500 difference in fares. At the time I had a $3,500 credit with Air Canada, but couldn't use that credit to pay the stand by fees, because it was Air Canada policy not to allow flight credits for standby fees!

These are the 7 rules that you can be sure NOT to follow if you want to be a popular, well liked, profitable airline.

Take them to heart, learn the lessons from them, or consider adopting the Air Canada slogan for your airline: Air Canada - we're not happy until you're not happy!

PS: Here is a great link to a travel expert that talks about the industry - subscribe to the news letter; get the books by Chris McGinnis - business travel advisor extraordinaire: www.travelskills.com

Tim's Top 10 Tech Frustrations That Drive Business Owners Crazy - My list of "frustrations" that I've heard most during the last decade (plus) from business owners about technology!

Ever gotten into a good natured argument with a friend about a fact neither of you are totally certain about? For example, are Baboons monkeys or apes? This simple question, completely unrelated to anything important became a hotly contested item of debate for one CMAEON staffer. She solved the problem the way so many people in her generation do - she checked Wikipedia. Victorious in her assertion that Baboons were monkeys, life went back to normal.

Photo: Cartoonist Bill Amend's somewhat sarcastic take on the power of Wikipedia - from Ross Mayfield's Flickr (licensed under Creative Commons.)