Peter Sorgenfrei, founder of a product development consulting firm, Sorgenfrei in New York, uses a Web application called Highrise to keep track of his e-mail, so he knows when he last communicated with a client and what was said. Whenever Mr. Sorgenfrei sends an e-mail, a blind copy of the message is sent to his Highrise account, where it is archived. “I come across as completely buttoned-up and in-control,” he said, “because I have all the information, files and discussions in one place and can access them before talking to the client.”

Recently, when an automotive manufacturer he works with couldn’t find some legal documents it had sent him, Mr. Sorgenfrei located them in his Highrise archive. It took him just minutes to send the documents back to the client.

37 Signals makes a series of great products for small (and large) businesses. In addition to Highrise we also use their Basecamp for project management. Tools mentioned in the article by other entrepreneurs that we also use include Shoeboxed (for receipt management), Mailchimp (email campaigns), and here is a previous blog post where I talked about other tools: Tools of the trade: How to be a successful solopreneur

From Autopia: Study Suggests We’ve Hit ‘Peak Travel’

They found a correlation between rising prosperity and passenger travel from 1970 to 2003. But passenger travel stopped growing after 2003 even as GDP per capita continued to rise.

Motorized travel has plateaued at about 16,155 miles per year per person in the United States, 6,213 miles in Japan and between 8,077 and 10,563 miles in the other countries.

“Since 2003, motorized travel demand has leveled out or even declined in most of the countries studied, and travel in private vehicles has declined,” the authors wrote in their study. “Car ownership has continued to rise, but these cars are being driven less.” (full story)

If car sales continue to rise (which we believe they will) and families therefore will have more vehicles in the driveway and these vehicles are driven less, what does that mean for the service and repair businesses and their suppliers?

Do more cars on the road equal more aftermarket parts? Or does the fact that they are driven less equal fewer parts net net? And as quality of cars ceteris paribus has gotten much better, do the cars visit the repair shop less? All these issues need to be studied and addressed by suppliers in the aftermarket and to the repair shops. Our guess is their business will be further under pressure.

Your thoughts?