Johnmharvey's Blog

Starting a new business

johnmharvey — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 00:13:07 +0000

I’m going through the Internet Business Mastery Academy and have been trying to find my “niche” for a while. Once that came to me I’ve been hitting this with as much energy as I can muster (2 jobs and 4 kids take all my “spare time”). I am psyched to share this when it gets posted.

A post on postage

johnmharvey — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 20:05:02 +0000

I recently bought postage for my tax forms. And I decided to discuss the details of this postage stamp purchase in the context of the product mix (you know the 4 P’s of Marketing: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion). While this is technically a service, I also recognize the physical product being attached to my material. The product was a large sticker that affixed to my envelope. It took up a very large amount of space, which was not convenient since I had already written out the address and had to figure out if I could stick the sticker on the back of the package. (http://faq.usps.com/eCustomer/iq/images/AI4147-1.jpg)

Postage pricing structure is very strange: I could have bought regular stamps but they don’t put a price on the stamps so it’s unclear how much you are actually buying. I think a normal stamp is $.44 now, but they don’t say, and unless you use a current postal scale you don’t know if you’re over paying or (heaven forbid) you underpay and they won’t accept the package. So I always error on the side of overpaying, never being sure how much I’m overpaying. Also pricing is unclear because it seems to be by weight, but you can buy boxes that seem to have given postage price. I’ve mailed books at other locations and they have a category for books which is substantially cheaper, but outside of using their service I would have no concept on how much to pay. Postal prices seems pretty elastic because I just pay whatever the price is and may grumble but I have no concept/evidence that I’m paying too much or too little for the service.

I can buy stamps at a grocery store, warehouse store, a scrap-booking store or directly from the post office via vending machine or standing in line. So I’d say the distribution is “intensive”. What is weird is that I can’t buy from my postal delivery person. When I asked (a while ago) he said it was because they weren’t allowed to carry money for fear of getting robbed. Seems strange that Domino’s can handle the risk of a much higher priced item, but the postal service is worried about muggings which would result in thieves making a getaway with pockets full of nickels and dimes or worse leaving the postal worker and hijacking the vehicle as part of their getaway.

I know that stamps can be collected, so there is some inherent value other than face value. And I know they make a big deal when they release one with someone famous on there (i.e. Elvis stamps can be worth quite a bit). (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/26/AR2006122600415.html) But that’s the only “promotional” activity I’ve heard of. They do have to deal with Public Relations because of a few shooters, so they’ve had to try and build some trust that they’re not all nuts, but that’s not specific to the stamps.

Have you purchased postage on-line? What was your experience with it?

Manage expectations

johnmharvey — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 09:02:30 +0000

I have bit off more than I can chew at work and am now choking and sputtering as the deadlines approach with their billy clubs to “finish d’ job”. It occurs to me my latest experiment of “just do it all” hasn’t been going so well. I was trying to prioritize and focus my energy, but was finding that several simple things were getting left off (I wasn’t emptying the dishwasher, an e-mail response was not getting written), so I decided to just try and do it all. That has officially failed.

Manageing expectations appears to be a “golden rule” and I should prioritize my activities and schedule some things out for a later period. Back to the process of prioritize and schedule to get it all done.

Graphing in six dimensions for dummies

johnmharvey — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 06:50:07 +0000

I was in a training on multi dimensional language, called MDX, when the teacher asked how you would draw 5 or 6 dimension. The class started talking about the thickness of lines and colors and other variations on how a two dimensional graph would have more dimensions. After noodling on it for a while, I think there’s a better way:

First, graphing one dimension is easy. You take a line and put a point on it.

One dimension is a line with a point on it (I've deliberatly avoided all color or line thichness to avoid confussion with the other class members suggestions.) The answer is: you draw another line and where it intersects. Each dimension is a point on a line. You can draw those lines in any way you want as long as you show the point where they intersect.Dimensions one through six

In my next post, I might try and make some prettier charts to illustrate the idea. Does this make sense to you? I think we could develop some charting tools in current applications to show this stuff. I’ve had a few written out and will share them. What would you think a 6 dimensional chart would look like?

Hello world!

johnmharvey — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 05:53:10 +0000

Welcome to WordPress.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start blogging!