Where do you position your product or service in the marketplace? What value do you attribute to it? What business model to adopt? Sell it cheaply at high volume or sell it at a high price with a high brand value but at a lower volume. Conversations like this usually go on a stuffy Business Breakfast Clubs up and down the country
I used to work in an industry where there are a few business models in place, but yet pricing to the end consumer varies greatly. That is the Private Hire Taxi industry.
The majority of “taxi” drivers are self employed, any fare that they charge goes in their pocket (as does the tip (if given) obviously). But it is the taxi company that dictates the rates charged, as opposed to the Hackney (Black cab) taxis that have their rates set by the local council. In Preston most of the taxi companies charge £1something “kick off” and £1.50ish a mile. In Milton Keynes the kick off is £3 and £1.10 a mile.
Local economic forces dicate the pricing structure. Especially where there is a middle man… an agent that sets either the charge to the end customer or to the self employed supplier of the service.
I’ll be writing more on various business models as applied to the services industry. Who knows I maye just go into this as a business myself *wink*
Tags: brand, business models
Monitoring your website is a very productive way to see where traffic is coming from. To allow you to see popular search web search terms from Google / Yahoo / Bing etc and see how your posts are being indexed.
WebStats Monitoring tools
At the moment the following trackers are enabled on my site and I’ll be writing a review of each of them in a fortnight (to give each tracker time to collect enough web traffic statistics to allow me to review them accurately).
- Pmetrics by Performancing.(The free/blogger version). Javascript based tracker.
- Google Analytics. Javascript based tracker.
- W3Counter. Logo based tracker.
- Wordpress.com Stats. Img based tracker
- Firestats. Self Hosted tracker
My website (RickSeymour.com) for example.
41% of searches are for me, Rick Seymour (in one form or another)
18% Taxi Dispatch Software (Autocab Cabmaster Cordic) due to a review page I did Review of Taxi Booking Software. Which ranks me on high on Google searches for taxi related products. Ie Cabmaster (2), AutoCab (3), taxi booking system(9), taxi booking software(13). I’m planning on doing more reviews of XDA/HTC technology & software to increase this.
15% Events and Places I’ve been to
10% Dating Related
5% Local Issues for example my stories on Preston Bus Station, StageCoach taking over Preston Bus
Tags: autocab, cabmaster, taxi booking software, website review
Chateau Pierrail - Red wine
This full bodied Bordeaux red was bought from Booths in Preston for approx £25 per bottle.
14% by volume it’s a bit of a potent one, although you actually can’t tell due to the dryness of the wine.
Fantastic after taste that fills the lower back pallet lasting for a good few minutes with the dryness leaving your mouth wanting more.
Tags: wine
Modern Art - A Table and Chair
Modern Art is an interesting phenomenon taking abstract things and allowing the “artist” to call it art (and of course let’s not forget sell it for millions!!). But the interesting question is… “What is art anyway”?
After chatting with one of the assistants walking round the Tate Modern Gallery in London, she was saying that because photographs and digital imaging are now of such a high quality that there is less call for portraits to be comissioned.
“There is now not as much call for realistic paintings and artists must find new ways of expressing themselves. Art is now trying to find new ways of causing a reaction, illicting a response.”
Modern Art Comic Sculpture
I replied with “So it’s more about empathy with the artist rather than the work that they’ve put together”. “Sort of”. Ah well.. I tried!
I respect art, be that painting, sculpture or craftwork, but for me… I don’t get modern art. I understand that it does cause reactions in people and maybe that’s just the point. But a table and chair in the middle of the room doesn’t leap out of the space that the artist has put much thought into it.
Tags: learning, philosophy
Twikini - Twitter application for Windows Mobile
I’ve recently been evaluting the use of various Twitter applications. Yes you can update your twitter in the UK via an SMS from your mobile but to review your timeline you need an application.
Twikini is a lightweight very functional programme for Windows Mobile devices. Coming in at just 110k it still provides everything you need to tweet and keep yourself up-to-date.
One of the more unique features of the programme is to update your location via the GPS functionality of many phones by uploading the longitude & latitude to Twitter
Download Twikini from Trinket Software
Derwent Water from South near Grange
Yesterday I turned 29. I decided to come up to Cumbria to spend it with my parents.
Not being one to celebrate birthdays with cake, jelly and ice cream (ohhh I don’t know) I’ve not been one to scream it from the rooftops. I don’t think my facebook lists my birthday for all to see. Obviously most people go “You’re a year older… what are your plans”.
Rather than have a party, a friend from Preston came up and we drove over to Grange, south of Keswick. Walked through a campsite up a hill giving us a great view back over Derwent Water (see photo). Down into Seatoller and round back to the campsite. It was a lovely 3 hour walk in glorious sunshine. Big thanks for a good walk and a good birthday, Louise. 
Recently I used archive.org to copy blog post from back in 2007 when I started blogging (although RickSeymour.com dates back much further when it functioned as a place to store, my then, 3000 photos).
Being Transparent
If you have to hold back saying what you think you are not being honest with yourself, yes there has to be a level of decorum to what you put down, but if you have something to say you should feel that you can say it. I’ve got political ambitions (not MP style expenses crap that’s going on at the moment), community based, local government that you can’t make a living from, ie doing it because I want to rather than to live off it. As someone new to the scene, people need to feel that you give your heart, soul and your time to a project.
Which is why being transparent is so important, so show you are who you say you are…. one word….. Integrity.
Keep your licensing simple
The license for this site is Creative Commons (not a pure copyright), so if someone uses ANY of my text, words or video they MUST link back to where they found it, which allows readers of their content to verify what has been said. (So you don’t have to worry too much about being misquoted)
Legacy
Make them proud, a quote from Gary Vaynerchuk in that he wants his grand kids to watch the videos that he puts online and to be proud. As I said before with archive.org anything you put online, be that video or textual content is archivable, searchable and mashable. Be aware though that yes anyone can read what you put and it’s likely that anything you publish can be saved, copied and redistributed. Remember that this is your content, and the essence of you, being able to look back is as important for you as it is for anyone else.
HR Googling your name
Recently I had a conversation with Franky and he suggested that my website is too open, too much personal information on, that a HR department would Google my name and instantly not progress me to the next stage of interview. To me this assumes one thing, that firstly I want to work for a company that spies on it’s employees. I have no intention of ever being a robot, I’m an individual and any company that tries to stiffle that creativity and that individuality isn’t a company worth my time.
Creativity is what makes us human, it allows us to see a problem and come up with a solution, and I feel that is much more important in any business than employing a robot that looks at the clock every 2 minutes waiting for that 5pm to pass.
Tags: blogging, brand, website review
Knowing who you are, where you want to go in life and what you want is really important. It gives us purpose, and a self of identity. I’ve had to rethink a few of these recently from whether or not I want kids to whether I want to travel the world and explore. But it’s what we do with these ideals that’s important…. how we translate and pass on our experiences to others.
Choice is so important in knowing yourself, the choices you make in the world, the decisions you take and the lifestyle you wish to lead. We all need education to make choices as we are all a blank canvas to begin with. I truly believe that the education system we have in place at the moment doesn’t really set you up for major life changing decisions that you have to make…. but I’ll leave that for another time….
But for now…. it’s all about personal and social growth….. see you on the other side
Tags: decisions, philosophy
Stagecoach (Preston Bus) Credit Note
For years Preston Bus (now part of Stagecoach North West) has been “Exact change only” with coin drop slot to take payment.
The fare was £1.20 I only had a £1 & a 50p coin.
But after a protest today the bus driver issued me with a credit note to the value of the “wasted” coins, which I can use on subsequent travel.
How many times have people put in £1 for a 90p ride? How much extra revenue does this make for Stagecoach? Should they be forced to install change machines or at least advertise that you can obtain a credit note?
Tags: preston bus