There’s just two small road bikes available this Easter long weekend, as well as one small MTB and large MTB. Other than that, we have full capacity this week. So if you’re a small rider keen to get out, now’s the last chance to grab a rental bike! The best thing is to phone me directly on +34 605 56 2020.
We deliver rental bikes anywhere in Tenerife. Since early February this year, we have been trialling a totally FREE island-wide delivery service!
This applies to all bike rentals with a 3-day minimum hire period. Delivery of bikes to the La Orotava / Puerto de la Cruz area is totally free of charge, all year round (and there is no minimum number of days required).
Please keep in mind that we are based in the North of Tenerife, approximately one hour’s drive away from Las Americas. For deliveries to the South of Tenerife during the low season (May through September), a delivery charge may be applicable in order to cover our basic running costs; the delivery fee for Los Cristianos, Las Americas and Los Gigantes is €36 (pickup included). The delivery/pickup charge to Santa Cruz, La Laguna and Icod will remain at €26.
The Autumn season is finally here! Thanks to all those that are coming to cycle Tenerife! I finally had time to take new photos of the bikes for the webpage, so you can see exactly what you are getting.
All of us here at Tenerife-Training have been anticipating a busy Winter season for quite some time. There are now several current bookings up as far ahead as December, January and even February 2010, so if you are interested in renting a bike with us during that time, please consider booking early!
Hi Leslie!
We aro so sorry
We should put off our arrival till summer because its a crisis here
my friend lost work
so…its changed all our plans
but i hope we will do smth to change the situation and make it better for ourselves
thanks a lot for your efforts
and hope to visit Tenerife in summer or next year!
Hello,
Don’t worry - there is a crisis all over the world … it’s global … for example one of the weeks in January I had just one bicycle rented! Normally I have 5-10 or more bikes rented then, if not more. Luckily last month [February] was okay.
My Spanish partner also worked for Iberia and her work contract expired early and is now unemployed. Unfortunately she isn’t entitled to unemployment benefits because she hasn’t worked more than 365 days… incredible! Where I am from -Australia- the goverment automatically helps us when we don’t have enough work.
Anyway, that’s one of the reasons I sent the last newsletter - it’s times like these that we have to work harder than ever, especially if individuals & businesses want to survive. Instead of complaining about the crisis and wondering about why the economic situation is the way it is, I always try to maintain a positive, optimistic attitude for the future and keep working to find new clients. I’ve found that it certainly helps if you have clearly identifiable and reachable goal.
Thanks for your email & hope to see you one day in the future training in Tenerife!
-Leslie
I’m pleased to announce that the Vertebrae Components website has been revamped! I wanted to keep the simplicity of the original webpage and also make it easier to navigate & update.
I don’t want the new website to be associated with a blog, because it isn’t one. It’s an online shop. I chose a very simple 1-column design template; I think what gives most blogs away is the sidebar with the blogroll in it. I also removed several things like search windows, RSS feeds, etc. The vertebrae-components webpage is essentially written page-by-page, not one post on top of the other.
Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you notice any bugs with the new layout or have any suggestions about how to make it more professional…
With nearly 4 months notice, I’d like to annouce that we’ll be closed from 09/05/09 - 25/06/09. This means bike hire and guided rides won’t be possible during that time. Of course the website will continue to function and I’ll administer it while I’m away. Throughout May and June I’ll still be able to answer emails and take advanced bookings for the remainder of the 2009 Summer. The bike hire service will resume as normal after that date.
The reason for the closure? After two years of non-stop work, I’m long overdue for a break. I haven’t left this island since June 2007 and I haven’t seen my family in Australia since then either. The May / June period is the slowest time of year for bike rentals, so I’m taking the opportunity to catch up with family, friends and relatives over there. At this time, we’re still unsure if my partner will be able to travel with me. I’m really look forward to it!
I do sincerely apologise for any inconvenience caused and hope business picks up more in future…
I originally started the business with the intention of doing guided road bike training rides (hence the original website name Tenerife-Training). Some weeks I was riding 500km or more and climbing 10,000 metres cumulative ascent. Of course I became incredibly fit. Even during the weeks I wasn’t taking anybody I felt obliged to maintain my fitness. When I was desperate for money, I’d even go out with just one or two people, but to be honest the groups were never that big. I soon realised it was too much effort for too little financial gain. And then training like a professional cyclist while simultaneously trying to grow and establish a full-time business [singlehandedly] was too much stress. It was a recipe for physical injury & sickness. [Read more →]
The main site has undergone a few updates recently. The first was caused by the unexpected server changeover, so I was forced to rename all the file extensions to php. I realise now that some people with bookmarked files were not seeing the site correctly, so I’ve redirected the old files to the new ones. Once you have migrated to the new site using php files, please update your bookmarks…
I have also started the tedious process of re-formatting the main pages with css styles. The navigation menu now appear a little cleaner with no underlines and all the active links appear in red when you hover the mouse over them. If and when I have time to learn css fully, I’ll re-code the rest of the headings & paragraph text formatting using this method as the pages load a bit quicker and they’re easier for me to update in future too.
It’s also supposed to be easier to keep the formatting consistent, but if I accidently omit even one html tag or forget to include a css tag, then it’s not going to be. So for now I reckon “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it”. Looking at the code now, I’m amazed I started with a blank notepad almost 3 years ago, not knowing any html.
Last night I also updated the Spanish and German menus so that they match the English layout. If you notice any missing links, links that don’t work a they should, or pages without the navigaion menu, please contact me so I can fix it.
My sister has been hassling me halfway across the planet for the better half of 2008 to include a calendar on the main website showing current bookings for the rental bike fleet. I’m pleased to announce to the world that I’ve now incorporated one into the same page as the online bike reservation system.
It’s taken a while to set up and it does mean a bit of extra work for me. Hopefully it will encourage people to reserve a bike; at the very least it should make them book them early if they can see that their frame sizes might not be available!
Every now and then, I hear someone comparing the price of hiring a good quality bike to renting a car. Or else they tell me directly to my face that my bikes are too expensive to rent (and those ones are always non-cyclists by the way). I’ve heard it several times in the last two or three years, so I thought I’d offer a little explanation. The reason bikes usually cost more than rental cars is because: [Read more →]
Imagine cable-operated dual-pivot calipers or v-brakes with the modulation & power of hydraulic discs. Imagine the most reliable gear housing on the planet outlasting everything else attached to your bike, including the frame. Have I got your attention? Good. Then read on… [Read more →]
So I woke up today to find that the website didn’t seem to be working properly. Here’s the full damage report:
The main website is missing all the contact information + navigation bar, my two subsites www.BikeNode.com and www.ProBikeHire.com are completely offline, the last two days work has disappeared completely from existence and the web hit counter on the homepage doesn’t appear to be counting anymore.
Suprisingly, both the forum & blog (which are normally very susceptible to these kinds of changes) are working perfectly.
I eventually found out that this is due to the host provider changing servers. An analogy? Well, this is like waking up and finding that your landlord has moved all your stuff while you were sleeping -with no prior warning!
I just wanted to say that I’m already tackling the problem but at the moment it’s beyond my control. At least I’ve updated the homepage with the nav bar.
One of my goals when I was a teenager was that I never wanted to wear a suit and tie. I resented the very idea. It was too conformist. Too conventional. Illogical & impractical I also used to think. In that sense, I’m living my dream by never having worn one, although financially speaking, this was definitely not the wisest career move. As far as finances go, I’ve since realised it’s much easier said than done to make your own money.
It goes without saying that I like to make my own choices. I choose what my priorities are, when and how I perform tasks. I am my own boss. What I do not like in the feeling of insecurity. I’m living alright, but the dream has not come easily. In fact, I’m not 100% convinced that it’s even arrived!
When I was younger I got suckered into starting a Ph.D. Worse still, I was persuaded to continue until the end. It took 5 rather miserable years to finish. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed my undergraduate Materials Science degree immensely, but I liken the Doctorate to being tortured in prison. I needed a change.
“Have you ever attempted to be yourself
when everybody wants you to be someone else?” - Powderfinger
Hello blog readers,
You might have noticed that I haven’t written many new articles in the past fortnight. That’s because I’ve been working behind the scenes on a few new simultaneous projects. One of them is called “www.bikenode.com“, a new global cycling links directory. It took almost a full day to create the Bike Node logo… hehehe. Anyway-
The aim is to make it “the fastest growing cycling link directory for the global cycling community”. The idea is to help generate exposure for us little guys. Whatever. But the good news is that I am now taking link submissions. So please feel free to add any appropriate cycling-related links to “www.bikenode.com“. It’s easy & it’s free!
There are still a few features I’d like to add, such as an email confirmation of link submissions, an info page, and an easy way for you to add reciprocal links with & without the Bike Node logo (to encourage activity within the directory, reciprocal links are not mandatory but are HIGHLY appreciated).
If you want a bit of extra exposure, a featured listing (highlighted & placed at the top of each category) costs a one-time fee of only 5$ and will result in more traffic to your site. I’ll also ensure that links are added to the directory in a timely manner if you choose a paid link.
If you feel that an appropriate category isn’t listed in the directory yet, you can also suggest new categories for the directory by commenting below.
Thanks,
Les
With the petrol prices rising, the energy crisis looming, and the state of the environment deteriorating, I thought it was time to compile a list of zero emission vehicles (ZEVs). First I’d like to say that I’m pretty pissed of that the internal combustion engine is still with us today. I remember when the Australian government told us about 15 years ago that they’d be “phasing petrol cars out”. Phasing them out my arse…!! Anyway, it is my hope that one day, the combustion engine will become just as unpopular as analogue electronic equipment now has, and that zero emmissions vehicles will be treated like the new wave of “digital” equipment. I hope that people will laugh at things like exhaust pipes in future. Fuck hybrid vehicles altogether I say… they’re like dual VCR/DVD drives.
Note that I haven’t included hybrids or alternative fuels in this list, as all of them still emit greenhouse gases. I also haven’t included any prototypes, impractical or uneconomical cars. The majority of these production cars you can buy TODAY, the remaining few that aren’t are slated for production within about a year, so you can at least reserve with a deposit. I encourage you to leave a comment if I’ve ommitted any ZEVs from the list: [Read more →]
So, you’ve decided to Self Publish? For many months, I’ve considered turning parts of this blog (Vida Enigmática) into a book but I’ve often wondered how to do this. I recently discovered the website Wordclay, a DIY online self-publishing wizard which provides you with a step-by-step guide until your manuscript is a complete, self-published book. The steps to self-publishing through Wordclay couldn’t be easier. So if you’re interested in publishing your own book, that’s a great place to start the ball rolling. [Read more →]
If you’re reading this, the chances are that you want to manage your own website with a dedicated url address. Even though your internet service provider (ISP) may provide a free hosting service, a dedicated url domain name and web hosting package is the way to go. Before you can do anything else, one of the first steps you’ll need to take is to choose a web hosting company, register (purchase) a domain name from them and also select a web hosting plan (they store your files on one or more of their web-servers). Note that the web hosting company is usually different from your ISP. [Read more →]
The second newsletter will be sent out on Monday the 18th of May at 9:00 Greenwich meantime. How’s that for precision? I promise you that the second newlsetter will be much more proffessional than the first attempt. You can subscribe to the NEW newsletter below!
Unfortunately, the old subscription list was lost when the software I was previously using crashed so if you wish to unsubscribe you can do that here as well. There’ll also be an unsubcription link at the bottom of all future newsletters. Please also accept my apologies if I’ve annoyed you in any way.
SUBSCRIBE TO THE NEWSLETTER:
I have just been reading the website ActionCOACH, run by successful Australian businessman Brad Sugars. Anyone who has lived in an Australian city (like Sydney) knows that they are the most cut-throat business environments to be found anywhere. The trouble is that most business owners around the world are not formally trained in running or managing their own business and have to learn the hard way. Of course the easy way is to hire a business coach:
“The role of the Business Coach is to coach business owners to improve their business through guidance, support and encouragement. They help the owners of small and medium sized businesses with their sales, marketing, management, team building and so much more. Just like a sporting coach, your Business Coach will make you focus on the game.”
The ActionCOACH website contains many free helpful tips and obviously they can provide you with a business coach. What I found particularly useful about this website were the free introductory videos. They showed me the steps to becoming wealthy; first you need to start with cashflow so that you become income rich, then asset rich, and then finally paper rich. [Read more →]
Well I finally signed up to payperpost a few weeks ago, and now I’m writing the first sponsored post to earn 20 American bucks. Yep, that’s what they’re paying for me to just spread the word!
PayPerPost is a site where you can earn money from your blog. All you have to do is sign up and write blog articles for different advertisers. There are heaps of opportunities to choose from. There’s even a direct link where they contact you…
What can I say? Yes I’m partially guilty of selling out. Or 100% guilty of partially selling out. I dunno. But actually, this week I’m pretty desperate for the money. Working for yourself is tough. No I don’t have the security of a weekly paycheck, but I definitely don’t miss having to do whatever my boss used to tell me! (he he he) Trouble is, I have to come up with other ways of earning money and paying the bills. [Read more →]
As of the 15th of April, we will be reducing prices for renting 4 or more bikes! To make it fairer for everyone, we also need to optimise our existing pricing structure for renting 2 or 3 road racing / mountain bikes. What this means in real terms is that for the most part, the prices for renting 2 or 3 bicycles will increase slightly (since they were overly discounted to begin with). To clarify, all the current bike rental prices for single bikes will either remain the same or reduce.
Furthermore, the current pricing structure will be honoured for all bookings made before this time. The new rental prices for groups hiring 4 or more bicycles will come into effect immediately. Please email me for a quote. So if you’re thinking about coming to Tenerife for that well earned cycling holiday vacation, this is one more incentive to reserve the best bikes at the best prices!
I’d really appreciate it if a few of you cyclists could take the time to fill in this brief one-page survey. It will only take 3-5 minutes of your time, and will help us improve our bicycle hire & tours service. We don’t ask for any personal information & your answers are kept strictly confidential.
The aim of the survey is to:
1. Receive feedback about future potential hire bikes + rental equipment and the level of quality that customers expect or desire.
2. Evaluate the website’s effectiveness in displaying information
3. Find ways to improve the website.
4. Devise ways to significantly increase our web traffic and hence our exposure by effective marketing.
5. To acertain your future level of interest with regards to cycling and training events in Tenerife.
Here’s your chance to have your say! 
Thanks,
The management.
You hear so many people talking about how business owners should treat their customers, that “the customer is always right”. We’ll I’ve had one or two irritable customers so I’ve written this article with something different in mind: Tips on how to be a polite customer! 
It’s been two weeks since I last wrote an article for “That’s business”, so I thought it was time to reflect upon this topic.
In mid 2007, I set myself the following simple goal: to quadruple the number of web visitors by the end of the year. The target was 200 daily web visits, which at the time seemed like an immense number. I’m pleased to report that visitor numbers are up again substantially in the last 2 months; there were 9271 visits in January 2008, and 10,550 visits in February! This result is actually almost double my anticipated aim, so I couldn’t be happier! There’s no secret or hard and fast rules to increasing web traffic, but it does require a serious, continuing effort to achieve these visitor numbers.
First and foremost, visitors don’t come from nowhere. They have to be attracted to something. Although I am not formally educated in this subject, I do have a few personal theories about how to improve exposure to my internet business. For one thing, social networking theory has helped me to understand complex interactions [Read more →]
In the bicycle industry, there’s a common analogy often drawn between shimano and another well-known business monopoly, Microsoft. Both have (or had) a majority market share. Both employ ruthless business tactics. Both arguably produce products with “planned obsolescence” in mind. Both excel at introducing new products that are not backwards compatible. Of course none of it is ever compatible with anything else either… [Read more →]
In Spain, if you want to get a driving license, official driving lessons are compulsory. There is no such thing as learning to drive with family members or friends. Not only that, but unlike the USA and Australia, learning to drive an automatic vehicle is also not an option. Furthermore, both the theoretical and practical driving standards that you need to reach before you are ready to attempt the final driving exam can only be described as “pedantic”. What this means is attending paid driving lessons, and plenty of them…
Over the past few months I’ve been regularly attending driving lessons with a local driving school in La Orotava. This started out a fairly nerve-wracking experience. Today, I just completed the 19th compulsory driving lesson, at a cost of 48.00 to 50.00 Euros each one -yes they had the nerve to put the price up half way through! This soon adds up to quite a sum of money: 950 Euros!!! I’ve come to regard these as some some pretty darn expensive ‘advanced’ parking lessons, and if you think that’s bad, when my partner was learning to drive, she had to take 60-something lessons, and then still failed the actual driving exam twice!
Now you may think “what kind of a clutz needs that many lessons?”. And I can tell you right there that I had already driven halfway across the state of NSW in Australia earlier in 2007, a distance of well over 500km. Not only that, but I hold a current full motorcycle driving license. So I already had plenty of experience driving on public roads in dense city traffic. Changing gears on my motorbike become second nature years ago. I’m saying that I was already fairly accustomed to driving on the road, albeit in Australia. In my opinion, I only needed some further instruction with the gears & clutch, which I was already getting the hang of by the end of the very first spanish driving lesson.
My point is: that great quantity of lessons is not really needed at all. It’s just an excuse to earn money. To prove my point, let’s look t the following numbers. There are now 45 million people in Spain. To quote some driving statistics, Spanish authorities issued 698,128 new driving licences in 2003, bringing the total number of drivers in Spain to 20,301,418. Ususally, these figures increase with each passing year. Even so, if every one of those new drivers needed an average of 20 driving lessons at cost of 50 Euros each, the total cost per annum is 1 BILLION AMERICAN DOLLARS!
Above all else, we strive for a minimal environmental footprint.
I think the most important thing to know when contemplating new business ideas, isn’t whether you are actually capable of providing the service or not (because we all know that yes you could do it!), but weather it is economically feasible or not. At the end of the day, you invest ALL your time & energy setting up any successful business. The whole idea is that it’s a new way of life that is supposed to eventually pay for itself.
Ecotonoha is a project to nurture a virtual tree collaboratively, and at the same time contribute to the actual environment to cope with global warming. As one makes Ecotonoha’s leaves, by leaving a message on the virtual tree, it keeps on growing. And as Ecotonoha grows, real trees will be planted by NEC.
We received 107,054 messages from around the world in the year 2006. As a result, 1,070 eucalyptus seedlings will be planted on Kangaroo Island ,Australia.
We accept your entries until Febrary 13, 2007,and next season will start soon.
The growth of www.Tenerife-Training.net website has been astonsishing over the last 2 years:
For the past four months, we’ve received an average of 5000+ monthly web-visits and this figure continues to climb steadily.
For Jun - Dec 2007, ~82% of people visited www.Tenerife-Training.net more than once. The average number of pages per visitor was 9.2.
We also received a record number of visits recently on the 9th of January - 437 in one day!
The latest trends show that, on average, 75% of visitors add one page to their favourites folder. To date I can estimate that there have been 17,501 instances of people adding a page to their favourites folder.
This policy is valid from 28 May 2008. This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. This blog accepts forms of cash advertising, sponsorship, paid insertions or other forms of compensation. The compensation received may influence the advertising content, topics or posts made in this blog. That content, advertising space or post may not always be identified as paid or sponsored content.
In 2006 I met a fellow cyclist and it was clear from the very beginning that this man was fundamentally not happy. As we talked and rode together, he confided in me that although he was a successful attorney/solicitor who made £200,000 / year, he suspected that he was ‘depressed’! Having been through my own dark phase the year before, I remember thinking“but how could this man claim to be unhappy?”.
Perhaps in the game of life, the struggle to make it in the world -to be successful- to get what you want, maybe that part IS the happiness, not the desires themselves -not even the destination- but the journey. Not the reward at the end, but the actual road to achievement. The belief in yourself. “The survival of the fitest”.
You meet older people like this all the time - jaded travellers are a classic example. It’s almost as if life is too easy for some. And I have a challenge to those people. Let’s call it “Doc Browns Challenge”:
There is only one rule: you aren’t allowed any outside financial help or aid and you must obey all the local laws and customs of the foreign country. And the moral of the story is, if you can read this, don’t take anything for granted. Be positive, because happiness is far richer than money.
10% discount for Summer 2008 bike hire bookings made before the end of 2007 year.
To be eligible, you must quote the secret code word “vertebrae ceramic” and pay your 20% reservation deposit on or before the 31st of December, 2007. Offer only vaild for bike rentals in the Summer 2008 period from April 1st through to September 30th. Discount applies to published web-rates.
Simple enough?
www.Tenerife-Training.net now caters for extra small riders! We’ve recently purchased some 16″ extra-small MTBs. These can be easily converted from a WSD hybrid style of bike (pictured below) to a conventional cross-country MTB.
Amornrat “Meow” Vatanatumrak of USA now takes the record for the shortest www.Tenerife-Training.net client, measuring 5′0″ (152cm). The previous record holder was Elena Lazkano of país vasco (Spain), who stood 5′1″ (155).
That’s right. This giant german man who stand 2.03m (6′8″) tall, rented one of our XL Mrazek BOH Road bikes just yesterday. The day before, he test-rode an XL 22″ sized Decathlon MTB, but found the seatpost was still ~5cm too short.
So when this road bike became available the following day (effectively 60cm center-center; 62cm center-top), I set the pro road seatpost to the maximum allowed height “safety height” mark, which resulted in a saddle to center-bottom-bracket measurement of a whopping 96cm. He attempted to straddle the bike and said “Ahh, you got me!” and we lowered the seatpost a few more cm to make it fit correctly…
Mathias Lohse of Germany (2.03m / 6′8″) now snatches the previous height record from Andrea Delcuratoro of Italy (1.93cm / 6′4″). Congratulations Mathias, and we hope to have some extra-long cranks available for our rental bikes in future.
Almost everyone has heard of Qantas, Pepsi and IBM. They’ve saturated the world with publicity. These are household names because everyone is familiar with the business & their products. That is to say, we all know they exist, we all knows what they sell, and most importantly we all know how to reach them.
At the extreme opposite end is a hermit living in Timbuktoo. He doesn’t have much connection with the outside world (if any), hence is local network may consist of him and his dog. So in other words, It’s a question of “popularity”.
Social network theory views social relationships in terms of nodes and ties. Nodes are the entities within a network, and ties are the all-important relationships or connections between them. Entities may be organisations, businesses or individuals. They say that any two people on the planet are linked to each other by only six ties, on average.
In Spain, learning how to drive is like attending University lectures. In fact the theory lessons are so incredibly pedantic, it could be complete curriculum for a university subject entitled “Advanced Driving Theory”. However, Spanish traffic control is not really concerned at all about safety, just semantics. They attempt to trick you with each and every question. The answers usually all technically correct, or there’s one blatantly wrong answer. It’s just a question of which one of the remaining questions is most correct. And it’s going to get worse say the instructors, because they’re going to introduce what they call “multi-multiplechoice”… that’s where you can choose answers a; b; c; a and b; b and c; and finally a and c. Anything to get you to fail. But that’s a whole other story…
To be eligable for the theory test, you must first pass a medical examination (except I’d hardly call it that). First they ask for your €35 in the reception. From there, a psychologist asks you to perform a quick physical dexterity test. Next, you’re trundled off to yet another room where they do a rapid eye test. Finally you get to see another Doctor in yet another room who supposedly signs the paper, granting you a clean bill of health. Hey presto, you’re done in under 3 minutes!
Except it didn’t go like that for me. In my case, this relatively straightforward procedure was has just been yet another delay. [Read more →]
I’m sure you can think of a few reasons not to hire a rental bike in Tenerife, but here are 16 legimate reasons you should:
I just finished helping with today’s “cosecha” way too early…
For those that don’t know, a cosecha is the local name for a grape harvest. The owner of small vineyards in Tenerife usually ask their extended family members to volunteer to harvest (cosechar) all the grapes in a single day. This day normally falls Saturday at the end of September. They’re usually offered some form of small compensation, but on our farm we like to provide a traditional lunch for everyone that participates.
This year there were 21 grape pickers, who collected a total of 68 full crates, for a total harvest of ~1200kg of premium black grapes. For comparison: last year, our farm produced 5000kg of grapes (some 280 crates)!! What caused this year’s disaster crop? Two things happened almost simultaneously:
Insurance companies refuse to insure small farms like ours for such occurences. Neither does the tax office nor the government recognise this year’s unofficial vineyard catastrophy; they never provided any financial aid to small-time growers. Sadly, this isn’t the case for bigger vinyeards (at least five times the size of ours), who are in a position to receive both substantial tax-cuts and other insurance benefits. Even today, many families still depend on their vineyards as a source of income. Unfortunately, even though the majority of grapes in Tenerife are still grown and supplied to wine cellars by small family-run cultivators, they are simply not supported by institutions who provide help to larger vineyards.
It takes a lot of time communicating the bike hire & equipment needs of my clients. Normally it takes between 3 & 5 emails to finally confirm everything -for example- the size of the type & size of bicycle they want to rent, thier name, contact number, height, the name + location of their hotel or apartment, dates of stay, dates of bike hire, number of days of bike rental, and any other questions they may have.
On my sister’s advice, I decided to create an online bicycle hire reservation form for specifying everything online, but like every new task, it always takes longer than you think. It’s a typical revenge effect: Setting up any automated system in the hopes of saving time, initially requires even more time to be invested!! It also sometimes requires further human involvement, to keep it in check!
The main glitch was that I wasn’t getting sent any data at all!! But there were lots of other bugs to fix too. This has taken hours and hoursto sort out (I had to learn new html form tags & some php code), so I hope this will eventually save some time. It’s now finally up and running…
During one of the lectures I attended at university, our popular Design & Materials Selection Proffessor, Bessim Ben-Nissan, once said:
“No one’s going to buy a kettle if it’s-a purple”
At the time, I thought that statement was an over-generalisation of people’s tastes. I remembered thinking: “Well I for one would definitely buy a purple kettle, if they were available”. Not only because I happened to like the colour purple, but maybe even just to prove him wrong.
Its been nearly a decade since that lecture, and I’m yet to encounter a fully purple kettle. For years I went in search of one. You can find mauve kettle lids and lavender-coloured handles in most electrical retail shops, but NEVER, EVER, a genuine 100% purple coloured kettle. There’s an online shop called www.purplestore.com, who specialise in all manner of eclectic purple products. There’s a virtual smorgasboard of items, in fact the only common trait is that they’re only available in various shades of purple. The shop is devoted to purple. Nevertheless, you won’t see any purple kettles for sale.
Taking this slightly further, even if you go to another super-specialist retailer, www.purplekettlegifts.com, stocked with the most kitch American products you could ever hope to imagine, you still won’t find any purple kettles! In fact you won’t find any kettles for sale at all!! One gets the impression that they chose this rather eccentric name just for the sake of being totally unique.
The first step in creating my online business was to start with a good quality website. I improved the content by taking spectacular photos, providing free information, maps, bike routes, altitude profiles & even filming several good quality cycling videos.
Despite advertising all this with google adwords, posting countless links on cycling forums, and creating numerous in-links from cycling holiday directories, it still was not receiving many visitors (between 30-50 per day). Moreover, web visitors do not always equate to cutomers! So I paid for one magazine advertisement in cyclingweekly.co.uk which I turned out to be a complete waste of £100. 
Obviously, the only way to get any internet business to work is to increase web traffic. The first thing any online shop needs is a good website design, preferably with interesting content and something to sell. But www.Tenerife-Training.net was still not receiving the level of exposure required to generate sufficent income.
Clearly something was not working. The idea of selling any product is effective & appropriate marketing. If no one knows you exist, how can you suceed? I realised that my niche is incredibly small & it would be extemely difficult. I knew I needed to target hard-core cyclists, and cyclo-tourists who have the most probablity of hiring a bike when they come to train & tour this island. How could I reach them all?
Turning his passion for cycling into a business, one that showcases the beauty of the local scenery, is among the things that Australian expat Leslie is doing in Tenerife, Spain. He tells us what he likes and dislikes about living in Las Canarias and gives some tips on things like the local job market and learning the language.
We really had fun making this. A special thanks to Iván - I couldn’t have done it without you man!
Interesting Internet Statistics:
Click here for a current traffic report of the global internet communications network!
Within the last decade it seems, the internet has grown to contain ~1 trillion pages. There is ~1 Petabyte of total information storage (a billion Gigabytes). What is the size of the internet?
BARCELONA, Jan 2, 2004. This is a naming and branding epic.
Spanish candy maker Enric Bernat Fontlladosa died in Barcelona on December 27. He was 80 years old. Born to a family of candy makers, Bernat bought Granja Asturias S.A., a troubled Spanish confectioner, back in the 1950’s. He took the advice of an article in the December, 2003 issue of the Harvard Business Review written by Nirmalya Kumar, Director of the Centre for Marketing at the London Business School. Kumar makes the case for eliminating unprofitable brands and focusing on the clear winners. He points out that many corporations generate over 80% of their profits from fewer than 20% of their brands. And he explains how hard it is for companies to kill their unprofitable brands.
Soon after he took over Granja Asturias, Bernat made the brave move of axing most of the company’s 200 products to focus on a line of caramel-filled lollipops. Bernat picked a strong brand name that would appeal to kids: Chupa Chups. It comes from the Spanish verb “chupar–to suck.” In English the product name might be “Sucky Suckers.” The lollipops went on sale in 1958, and ten years later his friend Salvador Dali designed the current logo which you can see in the picture. The festive display was an important part of the merchandising, and shopkeepers were told to keep it right next to the register, a fresh idea at the time.
Within five years, Chupa Chups were sold at 300,000 outlets in Spain, and Bernat renamed the company after its flagship brand. The Chupa Chups Group produces four billion lollipops a year which are sold in 40 flavors– including mango, chili and lychee–in 170 countries. Bernat’s three sons are now in charge, and Chupa Chups are the second biggest confectionary product brand in the world after Hall’s, with over $700 million in sales. And it all goes back to having the courage to kill off weak products and focus brand development on one good idea.
What is happening to the world? In short, most people refuse to ACT, because they’re be too busy justifying their need for a high standard of living, blaming goverments for the situation, & avoiding the underlying social & environmental crises. This sounds like an inescapable viscous cycle to me.
Yes its all been brought about by greedy 1st world nations. Blatant consumerism- which capitalises on the latest scientific advances and all the while fueled by governments who only think in short term economic gains. The first need is to communicate the problem. The next requirement is change. People are afraid of change, but to me it seems the world is changing for the worse anyway.
Anyone who has read Schumachers book “Small is beautful” will know that over the long term, what we are doing to planet Earth surely must be considered uneconomical. Are people so afraid of change now that they’re willing to bury their heads in the sand about the future repercussions? I think where we’re headed, the changes will be alot more daunting than the thought of giving up our most prized possessions. Chaos will be surely covered in one of my future articles, but who wants to live in a world without nature?
TRADITIONAL ECONOMIC WORKING PRINCIPLE:
BUDDHIST ECONOMIC PRINCIPLE OF WORK:
The former, in short, tries to maximise consumption by the optimal pattern of productive effort, while the latter tries to maximise human satisfactions by the optimal pattern of consumption. It is easy to see that the effort needed sustain a way of life which seeks to attain the optimal pattern of consumption is likely to be much smaller than the effort needed to sustain a drive for maximum consumption.
It is not wealth that stands in the way of liberation but the attachment to wealth; not the enjoment of pleasurable things but the craving for them.
But what can we actually do about it? Firstly, don’t replace things before we need to; repair them if necessary, use them until they can no longer be repaired. Yes, there is some real satisfaction to be gained by owning things that last through time. Do we need the latest 3G phone or mobile electronic device? A phone is a phone for Pete’s sake!
Only a small percentage of my time is actually maintaining, cleaning & delivering bikes. The most common chores are inflating tyres, swapping pedals, adjusting rear derailleurs, cleaning chains, truing spokes, and preparing people’s toolkits before a ride.
You wouldn’t think this, but the overwhelming majority of my time is spent networking. Devising & publicising online marketing campaign strategies (especially during this low season). I also do all of the administration & financial work at the computer. Answering emails and keeping the books up to date. Its a full time job to maintain such a web presence. I’m wondering when I’ll be able to go for a bike ride…
Loading ...
