Comment Number: 522418-05663
Received: 7/2/2006 10:37:54 PM
Organization: Quixtar
Commenter: Brian Beasley
State: IL
Subject: Business Opportunity Rule
Title: Notice of Proposed Rulemaking
CFR Citation: 16 CFR Part 437
No Attachments

Comments:

I have been an active Independent Business Owner (IBO) for several years. In that time, I have attended many meetings presenting the Quixtar business opportunity. In addition, I have participated in the personal development programs sponsored by the Worldwide Group LLC. These programs include training in interpersonal skills, budgeting, proper business ethics, and skills unique to our business. Speaking only of the Worldwide leadership, I have never seen a more ethical, honest, and humble group of leaders in any other business arena. In my opinion, the major benefits of our business (as well as any major problems in the "Quixtar" business) sprout directly from the "upline" leadership and individual IBOs. Quixtar does a great job of supplying us and our clients. In addition, they service us well and provide a great compensation plan. Quixtar has little to do, however, with any success or failure of an IBO. Keeping that in mind, I suggest the following: 1. Waiting periods: Businesses like Quixtar with a money-back guarantee should not have a 7 day waiting period. The same guarantee is available for business support materials (BSMs) This rule would be redundant. 2. References: References already happen in our world, as prospects are encouraged to meet our upline leadership as soon as possible, either by phone or in person. In addition, Worldwide Group IBOs can bring prospective IBOs to "Second Look Meetings" where they can interact with dozens of other IBOs and prospects. A rule requiring such action would violate privacy of IBOs and become difficult for those leaders who have literally hundreds of new people joining their organization each month. 3. Disclosure of Lawsuits: The mere existence of lawsuits and accusations proves no wrongdoing. Simply listing "alleged" issues is irrelevant to prospective IBOs. Imagine if the Wal-Mart Corp. required all applicants to review each case for the last 10 years! Rather, only cases where wrongdoing was PROVEN should be disclosed, and then ONLY if they involved the upline organization. A distant, unrelated IBO's wrongdoing shouldn't hinder my personal efforts! 4. Financial disclosure: No business owner should be required to disclose their personal financial information. This would dramatically violate their privacy, and possibly expose their families to predators/kidnappers, etc. The complexities of disclosing each and every claim can be solved in the following manner: a. The prospective IBO should have an idea of the successes of their upline organization. This has more relevance to their own success than data on all of Quixtar. b. Average Income data should be available about various levels in the business (platinum, emerald, diamond, etc). Again, I suggest this data be relevant to the sponsoring IBO organization. c. The correlation between work habits and income should be revealed. This is important, since few IBOs actually WORK their business. In our industry, IBOs cannot be fired. Currently people can fail, but remain included in Quixtar's "averages." d. Correlations can be shown between income and participation in training, personal development programs, etc. This would give the prosective IBO a clear picture of the value of such programs and BSM's. All the best, Brian Beasley