| Comment Number: | 522418-05859 |
| Received: | 7/3/2006 10:33:54 PM |
| Organization: | Fraser and Associates/EEU Japan |
| Commenter: | Douglas Fraser |
| State: | TX |
| Subject: | Business Opportunity Rule |
| Title: | Notice of Proposed Rulemaking |
| CFR Citation: | 16 CFR Part 437 |
| No Attachments |
Comments:
Thank you for reviewing these comments for the current FTC review. They come from a single source and point of view, however, they are pertinent to the total scope of the FTC review. Amway/Quixtar is first of all one of the finest business opportunities in the world today. My wife and I have been IBO's for almost 29 years. We have had the opportunity to build a very substantial business, most especially in Japan. We also have a much smaller business here in the United States; mostly by choice and the focus of building our primary business in Japan. The Amway/Quixtar business foundations and model are very solid; they will work properly and pay a very good income for the various levels of success outlined in the opportunity/marketing plan. Very simply, the plan works and the company pays the appropriate earned income and bonus incomes and extra benefits for various levels of achievement as they are earned. Thus, in my opinion and experience this is a great business for anyone who will do the WORK required to build it. The challenge or negative points of the business are almost always related to the "business inside the business" of business support materials production, promotion, sales of these non-Amway/Quixtar produced materials; and the "motivational training/seminar programs" by the upper echelons of the distributor lines of sponsorship. This has become the major source of huge incomes that have nothing to do with the Amway/Quixtar opportunity per se. This has become a devisive legal issue for the coporation for many years with some of the larger "business inside the business" owners, and between independent business owners and their uplines. It is this practice which needs to be addressed and resolved. In Japan, Amway Japan Ltd. produces and sells all these materials. Why not here too? I beleive this would resolve many, if not most of the negative comments from prospects and current business owners; except all of those who have produced and fed off this system for over 35 years. While I know this is, in my opinion, a very serious problem within Amway/Quixtar in the USA; there may similar issues within other MLM, direct sales, and networking businesses. These are issues which have been brought about by the ideas of business owners and not the corporation or it's desired business opportunity to be presented to the public at large. When my wife and I saw the Amway business opportunity almost 29 years ago, we saw the potential for a very good and workable business that would pay a good six figure income and possibly more. It has done that for us and many of our friends and fellow distributors in Japan without the challenges and negative issues brought on by the "business inside the business" politics and greed of many large organizations here in the USA. Japan has some of it's own unique challenges brought about by the greed and wrong actions of some business owners too. This is always the human element of every issue in life: Business or Politics is included too. Since my wife and I belong to one of the largest builders of this "business inside the business"; our comments will not sit well with them. However, the founders of Amway, Rich DeVos and Jay VanAndel, established a business and a business ethic built upon character and integrity which are worth teaching and following in every endeavor to insure a great measure of success. For these men and what they have taught me and my family and my business associates I am very greatful. This value system and legacy has also been imparted to current DeVos and VanAndel children who are leading this great corporation around the world today.