Business – Page 4 – Ready, set, Joe.

Think outside of the Mailbox

Ok, so the USPS is failing with a deficit of about 7 billion dollars according to the Times. That’s on a total budget of around 70-80 billion (estimating based on a Heritage.org article with data from 2002). It could be way more but the data isn’t easy to track down/root out.

That being said, the recession is kicking the Post Office’s ass, and it has been beaten to a pulp over the last decades with the advent and ubiquitous use of email as an alternative to sending letters. So less stamps are being sold, but the routes and delivery methods and post office numbers remain the same.

In an effort to alleviate their troubles the Post Office was asked to suggest some reforms to their programs in order to save money. The results were: close branches and cut back on Saturday delivery/pickup of mail. And even though that would not even meet the 7 billion, it was flatly denied by the congressional leader overseeing the reforms because it “affected his constituents” (this is paraphrased by the Morning Edition report on NPR which included an update on the USPS situation).

So the problem is declining revenue (already projected deficit), lots of liabilities (payroll and benefits) and even with the cuts proposed,

It takes a lot of people, equipment and trucks to move 20 billion pieces. If the mail volume doesn’t recover, and the trends don’t look promising for that to happen, there’ll be a lot of excess capacity at the postal service. (NPR)

The Times continues,

“We have too many people, too many buildings, less revenue and less mail,” said Darleen Reid-DeMeo, a Postal Service spokeswoman for New York City. “We’ve got to become more efficient.”

The problem, as I see it, is that no one is really looking at the problem with a fresh outlook. If we view the USPS in terms of current economics, most entrepreneurs would see the issue right away: their freemium model is backwards. Literally, as in they are giving away and charging for the wrong services.

Sure they needed to offer free mail delivery a long time ago in order to create their market, who doesn’t try to give something away these days? But nowadays there’s no way to justify ANY free delivery on ANY day. They want to cut Saturday. I say cut free mail delivery and pickup every day unless the end user opts to pay a monthly subscription fee for the service.

And instead of charging for PO Boxes, offer them for free. This way people are attracted to the Post Office as a destination and can still receive mail at no cost (besides stamps). My suggestion would have several effects:

drastically decrease the number of staff needed for mail delivery
cut transportation costs (gas, fleet upkeep)
create a new revenue stream from those that opt to receive home delivery and pickup
prepare the USPS for continued reduction in pieces of mail

Now, any congressperson would say that their constituents would balk at this. Obviously, the USPS affects all districts, states, residents and therefore every constituent and interest. Mail is a serious business even if no one is bothering with it anymore.

This isn’t my last post on the USPS situation. It really grinds my gears that they aren’t taking a more serious look at totally revamping the system. GRRR!!!

Browser In/Efficiency

I love Google Chrome. It’s probably the biggest boost to my at home/at work productivity since I added more RAM to my laptop (before I did, my IBM could only handle 1 window of Firefox open at a time: this isn’t a good thing for someone who is currently blogging with no less than 10 tabs, two separate windows for gmail and gdocs and a music player open).

Now you might be wondering how it increased my efficiency. There are a couple of ways, mostly more noticeable to me when I’m not using my regular computer and Chrome. They are: 1 click access to the most important sites to me (which I have listed across the bookmark bar, just as icons…when you create a bookmark in Chrome, just delete the title if the site has a nice favicon and voila: instant mini shortcuts. I bet you could fit 50 or more along the bookmark toolbar) and 2 click access to my most frequently visited sites (whenever you open Chrome or a new tab all of your most recently and frequently visited sites are listed). It’s telling that my top three sites are all work related, followed by blogger (1/2 work, 1/2 play), Flickr, whatever Fantasy sports league I’m in at the time, Apple Movie trailers (I love movie trailers) and a couple other that change like the seasonal aisle at your local pharmacy or grocery store.

Chrome is also great cause I can have 10+ tabs open in multiple windows and they all show as much of the webpage as possible. I am really sold on Google’s design and am a huge Chrome-fanboy.

That being said, never before have I ever not used a website because of browser incompatibility–until now. I often switch back and forth between FF and IE to test sites and visuals when designing a new site, blogging or building courses, but if I think something is going to be a highly frequented site then I want it compatible with Chrome (because that is more and more my desktop). To manage my side-business finances I really want to use Quickbooks Simple Start as opposed to just a spreadsheet. But they don’t support Chrome. They also don’t support FF on linux/Ubuntu. That has been a big enough obstacle to prevent me from using their product so far, even though it’s free and I could easily open FF instead. I might make the leap but only after a lot of searching for an alternative.

It’s not that I’m super picky, it’s that I hate inefficiency (even if it decreases over time) no matter how minuscule. I think it’s telling too that as a consumer of online information and applications that I would be so turned off from adopting a product that doesn’t work at all/as well when paired with another technology (this is a derivation of incompatibility of OS and programs as well, however the barriers are smaller when we’re talking about browsers–but no less significant to the end user).

So, I guess the conclusion is that even if your product is the bee’s knees, it better work on whatever I’m using. And if it doesn’t (cough, Quickbooks, cough) then you might not get me as a customer as easily. And as a provider of such products in work and personal, the sites better work the first time someone comes to them or there’s probably a good chance that you’ll lose that person forever.

Now, if only I can find a better online program than Google Docs to manage our small business finances that would be sweet (suggestions welcome).

the obvious point of a business

…is to make money. Otherwise I think it’s called a hobby. Another great Seth Godin quote:

“There’s a great cartoon of a mathematician doing a complicated proof on the blackboard. The board is covered with all sorts of squiggles and symbols and then, at the bottom, it says, “And then a miracle happens,” followed by the end of the proof. Business models can’t depend on miracles any more than mathematics can. Every once in a while a business comes along that creates its own model. I can tell you that it’s infinitely better to have one before you start.”

This is called competition

I’m using dailylit.com to read Seth Godin’s “Bootstrapper’s Bible” and it’s great (it’s also completely free, I also just finished a novel by Cory Doctorow “Someone comes to town…”…let’s just say, not as good). Between he and Guy I think they could write the entrepreneur’s version of the Hitchhiker’s Guide.

Here’s a quote that made me laugh (No idea on the page since it’s send via email).

In a free society, the government doesn’t control who gets the right to start a business. Anyone can do it—in most cases without a license, a permit, or a training course. This has one chilling implication: as soon as a business starts to make money, other people will notice, and they’ll start a business just like it. This is called competition, and it usually keeps people from retiring at the age of 28.

I was this close…