Pricing strategy

Development is moving along nicely. I've just completed the Java and Actionscript code to handle the XML-RPC communication between the Flash interface and the Java backend. Earlier in the week I completed the Flash User Interface library which contains AS class-wrapped windows, text widgets, comboboxes, etc. I even managed to create a dynamically resizing base window for the Flash interface that automatically expands to fill the browser window. It's working nicely in both IE and Firefox--finally! It was tempting to require Flash player 7 or better, but I've managed to keep the minimum version to the version 6 player.

Switching gears abit... I've been thinking about pricing lately. At some point following our beta, we'll have to think about making some money I suppose. FindFreeTime's value proposition is that it saves those who use it time. So I've been thinking about how much time a typical person might save:

Let's say Mary is a production manager at a busy web design firm. On average she coordinates two meetings a week with her firm's clients and on occassion independent consultants working for her firm. Since these people don't have access to her firm's Outlook server, FindFreeTime is an excellent way for her to book these meetings.

Without FindFreeTime, Mary must coordinate the meetings using email. She checks her own schedule and locates some free time for the meeting [task #1; 1 min]. She composes a proposal email. In it, she lists the times she has available [task #2; 2 min]. Once all the invitees have replied, Mary reviews all the emails and finds the first available common time [task #3, 2min]. Sometimes (let's say 30% of the time), there is no common available time. In this case, Mary must retransmit the request with additional free times, possibly incorporating feedback from the invitees [task #4*, 2 min]. If there is an available common time, Mary sends out a confirmation email, possibly adding call-in information or other meeting information [task #5.1, 1 min]. If there were no available common times, Mary sends out a cancellation email [task #5.2, 1 min].

Using these estimates, we can say that the average total time spent by the coordinator is 6.6 minutes when a meeting is scheduled using email. Can FindFreeTime do better?

Task #1: Although FindFreeTime will show committed meetings, there still may be commitments or meetings planned outside of FindFreeTime. So no savings there. But, because past proposals can be duplicated with just a click, this would save Mary some time. Estimate 0.5 minutes savings.

Task #2: There is no need to list free times because the interface handles this. 1 minutes savings.

Task #3: FindFreeTime automatically (and instantly, like watching TV!) shows the common times, no thinking required! 1.5 minutes savings.

Task #4: If no common times are automatically revealed, Mary can simply open up more time using the same screen. (1 minutes savings 30% of the time or 0.3 minutes savings).

Task #5.1 and 5.2: Mary simply has to press a button to confirm or cancel the the meeting --emails with VCAL attachments are automatically sent. 1 minute savings.

Other benefits aside, we can hypothesize that FindFreeTime can reduce the time required to coordinate a meeting from 6.6 minutes to 2.3 minutes. That's over 4 minutes per meeting.

If Mary books 2 meetings every week for 50 weeks, that's a time savings of 400 minutes or 6.6 hours per year.

So what's 6.6 hours a year worth to Mary or perhaps more to the point, her employer? If we use a $20/hr salary ($41,600/yr salary), then those 6.6 hours are worth $132.

I had been thinking all along that $40 per year seemed reasonable. And I'm feeling better about it now. So FindFreeTime could be had for about the cost of a latte (with maybe a few quarters dropped in) once a month. A company wishing to provide the service for their employees should be able to prebuy their domain (maybe in 50, 100, 500, & 1000 packs) with appropriate discounting.

I've also been thinking about giving the first 250 people to sign up and book a meeting a gratis one year membership--since they'll be acting as beta users, helping to find problems, etc.

Of course, we should also offer a trial. A 10-meeting trial seems adequate.