51–60 of 61 posts
You should add a 'skypeout' like option to this where it works internationally. People in the country of destination would print out the items and mail them for the cost of a local stamp and get some compensation for their efforts. That way you can offer international 'real' snailmail for a tiny bit over the price of a local stamp.
the problem with this is scale. Just look at what you need to do: print out the letter, print out the envelope, stuff the letter, apply stamp, seal the envelope. Double check the data. That's 3-5 minutes per letter. @3 minutes that's 20 letters per hour. @4 minutes that's 15 letters per hour, @5 minutes that's 12 letters per hour. So your potential income is $12-20 an hour. Let's add up all your variable costs: stamp…
That's 0 seconds per letter, if you're calling out to an existing API, which would be the only way I'd even consider getting into this business. You just take the difference between your marked up rates and the underlying service provider's bulk rates.
Any defensible value in this service is in the marketing/app design, after all. Printing, stuffing envelopes, and dropping them in a bin is always going to be a commodity service.
the problem with this is scale. Just look at what you need to do: print out the letter, print out the envelope, stuff the letter, apply stamp, seal the envelope. Double check the data. That's 3-5 minutes per letter. @3 minutes that's 20 letters per hour. @4 minutes that's 15 letters per hour, @5 minutes that's 12 letters per hour. So your potential income is $12-20 an hour. Let's add up all your variable costs: stamp…
Perhaps a postage meter that prints postage on the envelope? http://www.pitneyworks.com/postagemeters/
Who's going to step up to hack a letter folder so it inserts the letter in an envelope?
With $40k of automation, I bet you could hit 20 letters per minute. You'd make your investment back in just a few short decades!
Wait, so what are you doing differently than Dustin on your end?
Technically, probably nothing. Fundamentally, I'm trying to go after solo entrepreneurs and SMBs that need to send stuff out to clients, prospects, etc. Unless I'm mistaken, Dustin's service is better for people that have a "one-off" need to mail stuff. I'm setup for that use case too, but am trying to build stuff to cater to a group of people that have already budgeted money for this expense.
I find most of the comments here to be quite pessimistic, so here's a few things to consider:
There are proven economies of scale here. With any volume, a bulk postage rate will start saving you money. There's no reason to think Paul will continue to pay 44 cents a letter. Furthermore, the cost of printing is being grossly exaggerated: I picked up a laser printer from Dell that included a 1500 page toner cartridge. That's .08 cents a page, with a free printer. Its easy to do get cheaper than that per page with a more expensive printer.
Also, all of this can be automated. I share an office with an attorney who sends out hundreds of letters per day, and it takes about 2 hours of his assistant's time to setup the Mail Merge in Word and start the machines. All stuffing, labeling, stamping, etc. is done by the machines.
Here's a tip I picked up from them: if you can mail every few days instead of every day, you can get a nice break on your rate. I know you gaurantee a 24 hour turnaround now, but something to consider.
Paul's found customers and profitability from day 1, and he can just work hard until he generates enough cash to buy machines to handle it for him. It wouldn't be hard to completely automate the entire thing. I like it.
Feedback on your website: you knocked it out of the park. The domain is obvious and makes sense, the website is to the point and immediately conveys the benefit. There's no loose ends, from the privacy policy to the API. I'm seriously impressed.
Once the machine was running I didn't have to do much besides put envelopes in the hopper, but the noise, paper cuts, and opportunity to lose a finger while clearing a jam made it a horrible job.
I like this a lot. Nice job taking an idea and running with it. At $1/letter this doesn't work, at $3/letter its an enviable opportunity. I find most of the comments here to be quite pessimistic, so here's a few things to consider: There are proven economies of scale here. With any volume, a bulk postage rate will start saving you money. There's no reason to think Paul will continue to pay 44 cents a letter. Furtherm…
Now, about your lawyer friend, is he interested in outsourcing? :)
I like this a lot. Nice job taking an idea and running with it. At $1/letter this doesn't work, at $3/letter its an enviable opportunity. I find most of the comments here to be quite pessimistic, so here's a few things to consider: There are proven economies of scale here. With any volume, a bulk postage rate will start saving you money. There's no reason to think Paul will continue to pay 44 cents a letter. Furtherm…
That should be considered into the business model, example: 24-hour guaranteed: $3, 2-3 day delivery: $2, 3-5 days delivery: $1. Then you could have different queues/printers for each option.
If you start growing, you could set up different locations to print closer to the destination and you could have a really cool service like: 2-3 hrs delivery guaranteed!
Also, you could outsource the printing and delivery, say high school/college kids who want to make some extra money, they sign up at your website and start receiving correspondence to print and deliver close to where they live. For each delivery they accumulate a certain amount of money and you send them a check at the end of the month if they have achieved a certain threshold.
Btw, congrats and keep at it, try your best and you'll do great!
I like this a lot. Nice job taking an idea and running with it. At $1/letter this doesn't work, at $3/letter its an enviable opportunity. I find most of the comments here to be quite pessimistic, so here's a few things to consider: There are proven economies of scale here. With any volume, a bulk postage rate will start saving you money. There's no reason to think Paul will continue to pay 44 cents a letter. Furtherm…
Awesome, awesome feedback -- thanks! Now, about your lawyer friend, is he interested in outsourcing? :)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Awesome, awesome feedback -- thanks! Now, about your lawyer friend, is he interested in outsourcing? :)
Glad to help. I'll ask him on Monday if he has any interest in outsourcing, if it was automated enough I would think so. Of course it would fall on me to do said automation, so we'll have to see what the numbers look like. ;)