Sometimes little things get under my skin. Often, I will just let them go—typically they aren’t a very big deal. But sometimes they fester. Try as I might, they keep coming back and bugging me. And right now, it is a popular commercial that has me fired up. It is kind of stupid to begin with; but it can also be seen as irresponsible. Have you seen it?

I am talking about the new commercial by Intuit for TurboTax and their free product. I get it, the guy finds his way into a dire situation but is somehow relieved that Intuit won’t charge him for his…

The display on the base of the phone read “Unidentified Caller.” I don’t usually answer the phone when I see this display…but last evening I did. Just as I thought…a telemarketer.

The person politely asked for “Mike Marchev.” I said, “Speaking.” The caller then attempted to interest me in her Energy Company. Being that it was dinner time, I politely interrupted her in the middle of her script, and in a calm voice informed her that, “I am not in the market for a new Energy Company, and in fact, you have called before and I have told you the same thing.” I then bid her a sincere good-bye and gently hung up the phone. I was proud of myself for the polite and humanely way…

Developing and marketing a niche area of expertise is one of the best possible ways to differentiate your travel practice from the competition. As an expert in a particular theme or destination, you can quickly establish your travel agency as the only reasonable resource to which consumers should turn when considering travel in your niche venue.

The concept of adopting a niche is often misconstrued. Niche marketing is a way of helping you focus on locating new clients, not a set of restrictions on your business offerings. Niche marketing is not necessarily about gearing your entire business to a particular type of travel. It is about segmenting your marketing efforts to focus on particular groups of people, however.

One great advantage…