Comment Number: 522418-09981
Received: 7/15/2006 3:11:16 PM
Organization: Foust Marketing Group
Commenter: John Foust
State: VA
Subject: Business Opportunity Rule
Title: Notice of Proposed Rulemaking
CFR Citation: 16 CFR Part 437
No Attachments

Comments:

I am a Quixtar IBO. I run a business based on total integrity, and frequently get asked the questions you are addressing in the proposed rule. I answer them straightforwardly, and refer people directly to the FTC, BBB, and Chamber of Commerce if they have concerns beyond my answers. Since they are looking at business ownership, they have their own responsibility to perform their own "due diligence" in researching what they're about to enter. That's not my responsibility, it's theirs. My responsibility is be totally honest, and not to bear the brunt of others’ dishonesty in having to “force-feed” lazy or unmotivated people. I present what I offer on a "take it or leave it" basis, vice a hard-sell recruiting approach, because I know what I have is both legitimate and highly profitable, if pursuing properly. I don't have time to twist the arms of business light-weights of non-decisive fence-sitters who won't make decisions for the betterment of their family's financial future. And this is what I see your rule doing: putting the onus of the "due diligence" obligation - which anyone pursuing a business has an intrinsic responsibility to perform - on the IBO vice the prospect. This is the reverse of what makes sense, and casts a pall of forced mistrust on the business-building process. To force waiting periods, personal financial disclosures, lists of references, and legal judgment descriptions on the IBO merely obstructs, it doesn’t mitigate against dishonest people and phony business opportunities. All of these proposed rules will foster work-arounds from people and operations bent on ripping people off. Just because the FTC adds more rules than they already have – and those in existence are already enough – doesn’t mean the marketplace will be improved. Enhancing the opportunity of proven, legitimate businesses, with whom the FTC has worked for many years (such as Quixtar), and cracking down on the illegal and/or illegitimate businesses, is what’s needed, not new rules for everyone. Since Quixtar has imposed severe penalties on anyone violating their guidelines for registering new IBOs, and those guidelines meet current (not proposed) FTC rules, I strongly recommend leaving the Quixtar business alone. Our current rules are more than protective of new IBO registrants, and include income information, buy-back/refund options, and other caveats. The forms new IBOs sign when they register contain extensive disclosures, and I do not let anyone register in my business without reading them in their entirety. Quixtar represents over $!B in revenue annually in the U.S. (with attendant tax revenues at the Federal and state level), and is part of an international operation of over $5B annually across six continents. With an over 40 year track record, including past conflict resolution with the FTC, we have proven ourselves valuable, imperfect but honest, profitable, legitimate partners in the U.S. and world economy. The last thing America needs now is to cut down good business operations in a misdirected attack on an entire industry. I recommend you go after the bad guys – as Quixtar does when they get bad apples in their organization – and let the good guys continue to do good work. I am a good guy. Please leave me and my business alone. If I screw up, prosecute me – I’ll deserve it. But I don’t now, since I haven’t done anything wrong. Your new rules are wrong. Thank you. John T. Foust President, Foust Marketing Group