| Comment Number: | 522418-07900 |
| Received: | 7/11/2006 11:30:48 PM |
| Organization: | Kruger Enterprises (Quixtar Business) |
| Commenter: | Ronald Kruger |
| State: | IN |
| Subject: | Business Opportunity Rule |
| Title: | Notice of Proposed Rulemaking |
| CFR Citation: | 16 CFR Part 437 |
| No Attachments |
Comments:
My wife and I have been affiliated with Quixtar (and it's predecessor, Amway) for about 10 years. The FTC proposal to which we are addressing would significantly harm how we conduct our business. When we registered for this business, we had been contacted by a college acquaintance and NEVER felt that we were ripped off or made a bad decision that we could not get out of. We continue to conduct our business in the same way - like a business. If someone we share this business idea with does not want to register the night they see the business plan, we give them time to ask questions and do any amount of research on their own, or we get them the answers to their questions. If someone is going to start a legitimate business, it should not require the government (FTC) to remind them to think it over for seven days. This only slows down the whole process of building a legitimate direct selling business. Our Quixtar Corporation gives new persons registering in our business AMPLE time to get back 100% of their registration fee - a WHOPPING $51.50. Wow, too bad we don't have that same money-back guarantee when we spend $10,000+ purchasing a car from a pushy car salesperson or vacation timeshare salesperson! We ABSOLUTELY do not approve of the requirement of providing references. We don't do business that way. It reminds me of someone talking you into buying something by showing you all the people in the neighborhood who also bought into the product/service. A good business idea will stand on its own. Also, what is to prevent this prospect for our business (who we've just spent an evening with sharing the opportunity) from seeing a list of our "competition" and registering with one of them. That's not a fair business practice. I also do NOT want someone (who may be of questionable character and not affiliated with our personal Quixtar business) giving OUR name to their prospect - that's a violation of our privacy. There are some people that we don't want in our business, and for now we have the freedom to choose. Providing a "litigation list" is also not fair. Is every business establishment that we walk into now required to post a list of ALL cases filed against it in the last 10 years posted on their door? NO! As far as earnings disclosures, we are very upfront with providing income disclosures already. I would hate to think that we would have to provide personal income information to everyone that we share this business plan with. We never know how hard a person will work at growing this business. But as in most business, the person who works the hardest/smartest and puts in the effort usually makes the most money. Is it fair to put a limit on a prospect's potential income just because they looked at the results of someone who did NOT put in a great amount of effort to build their business. Also, I don't think most businesses make public the income of everyone in their organization - why should we have to in THIS business? In closing, we're all FOR regulations that crack down on so-called "businesses" that create a scam and rob people of their money. But do not go about it by crippling legitimate business opportunities and penalizing honest business owners. Please re-think applying these proposed rules to ALL direct selling businesses. Sincerely- Ron and Janet Kruger