| Comment Number: | 522418-04955 |
| Received: | 6/28/2006 10:31:45 PM |
| Organization: | |
| Commenter: | Scott Weible |
| State: | VA |
| Subject: | Business Opportunity Rule |
| Title: | Notice of Proposed Rulemaking |
| CFR Citation: | 16 CFR Part 437 |
| No Attachments |
Comments:
The proposed changes are, in each instance, unnecessary, ill-advised and will irretrievably destroy, not merely the Quixtar business, of which I am a part, but all other legitimate so-called 'net-work' marketing businesses. Moreover, the proposed changes invidiously discriminate against Quixtar and similar business opportunities, imposing draconian registration and disclosure requirements on Quixtar and similar businesses which are not also imposed on other businesses. /// /// /// For example, I am an attorney working for one of the largest municipalities in the United States. When I spoke to the hiring manager about my current position, I was assured that I would receive a 50% increase in my salary very shortly after I was hired, and because the municipality was in a budget crunch at that time, and needed my services (I am a specialist in a particular area of law) I was implored to accept the job at a very low salary. I believed what I was told, and accepted the job. Those promises have not been kept. /// /// /// By analogy with the rules you seek to impose on Quixtar businesses, this municipality should have been required to give me complete list of all employee complaints, all litigation against in relating to its hiring, promotion and salary practices, or in the alternative, it should have been required to provide me with the option to terminate my employment if the promises were not kept with a certain period of time after the first opportunity for my promotion to kick in, and to pay me back all of my out of pocket costs incurred in preparing for and working at the municipality should I determine to terminate my employment. /// /// /// The same should hold true for all employers. If, in any material way, the employee comes to find a representation about income, working conditions, promotion potential or, indeed any other material matter, is, or is believed to be, false or overstated, the aggrieved employee should be able to have some kind of recourse ... which of course, employees do: They can sue for fraud, misrepresentation and overreaching. /// /// /// The same holds true for prospects for businesses like Quixtar. If a new IBO is dissatisfied and feel they have a legitimate complaint about the representations made to them, they can comment arbitration and/or litigation. The reason that so few people who have attempted the Quixtar business opportunity actually do file law suits, is because these people realize that they had a legitimate opportunity in their hands, that it was their responsibility to make the business work, that they did not put in the time, effort, investment and dedication to make ANY business (not merely a Quixtar business) work, and therefore, it is really only themselves who are responsible for the condition of their Quixtar business. /// /// /// In point of fact, I am one of those Quixtar independent business owners who have never, in the nearly 10 years I have been involved in Quixtar (and Amway before it) ever made a significant amount of money. I have invested thousands of dollars in training, product samples and costs to attend seminars. I have not received back, in compensation anywhere near what I have spent, and of late. HOWEVER, I realize that this was my choice, that I have always been given accurate and ethical information about the Quixtar/Amway opportunity, that I made these choices full well knowing that I might lose my money (just as more than 75% of all businesses in the United States fail and lose their owners' investments in the first 5 years of of their operation). I made an adult decision. I was given way more information than I needed to make an intelligent decision, and it was my decision to make -- no different than if I started a small coffee shop and didn't make a go of it. /// /// /// In short to punish the Quixtar business, and make it virtually impossible to find people who are truly interested in having their own business, but who do not have $100,000 or $200,000 of up front franchise fees, simply because some, or even many, of the IBO's eventually quit or become inactive, is to make an irrational distinction between the Quixtar business and other businesses in which the failure rate is equally as high. /// /// /// The complaints you get about Quixtar and similar business opportunities will, if reviewed carefully, come from people who wanted to get something for nothing. They ignore the plain and unequivocal statements by Quixtar IBOs to the effect that this business takes HARD work, it is not a get rich quick scheme, and you will have to learn a lot of information and come to think and act like a business man or woman in order to succeed. People start the Quixtar business knowing that their chances to succeed "big" are slim, but willing to part with the extremely modest sums needed to start, because they want the chance that they cannot get anywhere else. That many do not succeed is not a flaw in the Quixtar business. All avenues of commerce are fraught with peril and difficulties. Most of them are astronomically more expensive to fail in, and can lead to personal and financial ruin when you do fail. In Quixtar, if you fail, you could lose a few hundred or even a few thousand dollars -- although only if you are too embarrassed to ask for your money back, since Quixtar has a rule requiring IBOs to refund all monies, including monies spent on all training materials. /// /// /// I strongly oppose any such changes. The United States is the very last place on Earth to impose such draconian interferences with entrepreneurial ambition. /// /// /// Scott Weible