| Comment Number: | 522418-08054 |
| Received: | 7/12/2006 11:00:08 AM |
| Organization: | Graves International, LLC |
| Commenter: | Henry Graves |
| State: | TX |
| Subject: | Business Opportunity Rule |
| Title: | Notice of Proposed Rulemaking |
| CFR Citation: | 16 CFR Part 437 |
| No Attachments |
Comments:
I have been an Independant Business Owner (IBO) associated with Quixtar (and Amway before that) since July 1995. During this time I have had nothing but very professional and rewarding experiences. The Quixtar business has provided me and my family with income and professional development opportunities that I would not have otherwise had. When I first registered I received more than enough information to adequately evaluate this business. Anyone who is just getting started in this type of business can be easily overwhelmed with volumes of information. Unless the person is coming from a business owner background (and the vast majority of people do not) they will not immediately grasp all the concepts. It is imperative that we provide them with enough information to adequately evaluate a business opportunity, continue to provide them with additional imformation when they want it, and not try to rush them to understand everything about this business. I make it very clear during my presentation that this Quixtar business is definitely not a "get rich quick program" but a program to build wealth for a lifetime. I also make sure that they understand they will get out of this business what they put into it. I think some of the reasons that most people do not succeed in this type of business is: first, they don't have any concept of what it takes to actually run a business because they are coming to it from an employee mentality; and second, we don't charge them enough so that they have a financial stake in succeeding. We typically only charge new IBOs about $100 to get started. If we charged them $5000 then they would have an incentive to make it work. The cost to join is purposely kept low to allow just about anyone to get involved in a legitimate business that can produce some serious income if they are willing to work for it. I am opposed to the seven day waiting period because it unnecessarily limits my ability and the ability of new IBOs to build their business. There is nothing to be gained by imposing a seven day waiting period. In our system they can backout anytime they want and get their money back for everything except the products they have consumed. Another proposal that I am opposed to is the requirement to provide a list of local IBOs. I may or may not have any IBOs that live locally depending on where I am building my business. This proposal assumes that the business is only built locally. Our business is build all over North America and approximately 84 foreign countries so providing this list might not be possible and probably would not be meaningful to any prospect. I don't have a problem providing them with a phone number or email of one of my IBOs if they want to contact them. We have absolutely nothing to hide concerning this business. I just think it is incredibly burdensome to require it. If the people are interested in acquiring a litigation list let them get it from Quixtar because I don't have that information and it puts an additional burden on me and the company to provide. We are required already to provide the prospects with the average monthly gross income and do so through the SA-4400. We give the prospect a range of income that is possible during the presentation. This range is skewed to the low side so that we purposely do not overstate the earnings potential. It is not very relevant what I make from the business if the person understands the concept of this business. If they do they understand that how much they make is dependent on how much effort they put into this business. I have seen a lot of people get into this business thinking they are going to make a lot of money and then find out that they have to put a lot of effort into it and quit. The business is wonderful and the opportunities it provides are outstanding. It has greatly enhanced my life. Don't make a bunch of rules that unnecessarily burden the legitimate business owners and don't stop the frauds.