Comment Number: 522418-06776
Received: 7/7/2006 12:54:43 PM
Organization: Quixtar
Commenter: James Burns
State: VA
Subject: Business Opportunity Rule
Title: Notice of Proposed Rulemaking
CFR Citation: 16 CFR Part 437
No Attachments

Comments:

I applaud your efforts to clean out the pyramid, get-rich-quick opportunities that often times get confused with legal, forthright and honest opportunities like Quixtar. However as it is currently written the Trade Regulation Rule will hurt people like myself and my Quixtar business. While a pathologist during the day, I have been a part-time IBO for over 20 years. Besides a supplemental income, my Quixtar business has allowed new friendships and relationships to develop outside of medicine. My wife and I are extremely pleased with our experiences and would not want them to be hurt by new confusing and misguided regulations. When we saw the opportunity we were given an information pack and some tapes which more than adequately explained the opportunity along with the pros and cons. We have always built our business with honesty. In reality, if an IBO shaded the truth or exaggerated the facts, as soon as the prospect or new IBO discovered the truth they would loose trust and more than likely STOP shopping on the website. All potential income would be lost. There is NO advantage to NOT telling the truth. As a part-time IBO with a very limited time frame to work my business a 7-day wait period would significantly hinder my growth. Talking to many many people and then having to get back with them would double the work. Since my time is limited it would cut my growth in half. The 7-day wait period only hurts, but does not help. We show the opportunity, loan out the Literature Pack and sign up the interested prospects in less than 7 days. If they later want to quit, we retrieve the materials and purchase back any thing(s) that are reusable or resell able. We DO NOT want to create ill feelings. In reference to the requirement to provide 10 references, that is unfair to all IBO. Pirating by the 9 others will become a possibility. Personally I do not want my name as a doctor used without my permission and given out indiscriminately to strangers. The same is true in reference to my income and earnings from Quixtar. Do real estate brokers or car salesman have to disclose their income to potential buyers? The idea of providing a litigation list is also unfair. Often the litigation/arbitration problems are misunderstandings. Never have they helped my business but they have NEVER personally involved my business. Supplying a list of previous divorce cases will not help a young couple in love wanting to get married. I do believe that a reasonable cancellation policy is adequate to help out those new IBOs that change their minds. I do believe that a statement considering income potential that clearly lets the prospect understand that it is entirely up to their work and performance. All-in-all, thanks for attempting to get the frauds out of the business opportunity field but please do not kill the legal, honest, business owners like myself. Thank you, James C. Burns DDS, MS PhD