| Comment Number: | 522418-10522 |
| Received: | 7/16/2006 4:19:38 PM |
| Organization: | Serenity Marketing |
| Commenter: | Melissa Guipe |
| State: | IN |
| Subject: | Business Opportunity Rule |
| Title: | Notice of Proposed Rulemaking |
| CFR Citation: | 16 CFR Part 437 |
| No Attachments |
Comments:
Gentlemen~ My husband and I have been IBOs for about 4 years, and our association with Quixtar and the independent business owner opportunity have given us a lot of hope for several reasons: 1--We were partners (with no voice, but money invested) in a new golf course development. After learning of our partner's infidelity to his wife and family, and learning about his dishonesty and unethical business and personal behavior, we left our partnership--only to lose about 99% of our investment in the golf course...hurting us on a huge scale financially, emotionally, and career-wise. The IBO opportunity gives us an opportunity and the hope to "make-back" the money we lost in our golf course "mistake". 2--Too, I was afraid my husband would suffer an emotional breakdown, but due to the love, kindness, loyalty and concern of our friendships through Quixtar, we made it through that devastating period in our lives...and have managed to move on to other things--still with the hope and with the encouragement of our friends/family through Quixtar. 3--We have met modest goals, but are meeting more and more as we get better at presenting the opportunity to others. Right now, we plan on creating 10 auto shipping profiles by the end of August--this is a current goal. Our leaders are helping us, teaching, guiding, and sacrificing right along with us. They have been a blessing, and these friendships and even our modest financial gains have been other benefits that keep us working at our opportunity year after year. Plus the hope we also have been given from these people and the opportunity. 4--I've always been a mom-at-home, and now with 2 kids in college and a teen still at home, I still want to be around the house while creating income for the family. This business model allows me to do that while also being able to go to Ohio to help with my elderly parents. 5--I did receive all the info I needed to make a calm, informed decision at the time we were mtg. with our sponsors and at the time we registered, thus providing us with a great example for how we guide others through the registration process as well. 6--I'm very up-front about this not being a get-rich quick thing...if it were, everyone would be doing it! How do we convey this--we tell them, and they can see that we are not rich. We are very honest about this, plus people can see how we work and persevere at this ourselves. 7--It take about $5l.00 to just register--with no product, and this is guaranteed if an IBO changes his/her mind at a later date (they can get their money back). *I don't agree with the 7 day waiting period, for Quixtar at least, cause dissatisfied people can get their money back anyway...so there's no point. *Giving a list of references would open the IBOs up to all kinds of problems, not to mention an infringement of our privacy; along with the risk of an unethical IBO "stealing" our prospect. I don't agree with this requirement. *I think the disclosure of past litigation is also a bad idea because the unethical businesses would just abuse this one. *As for disclosures for ea. income claim--this could be accomplished by making a more general disclosure such as an "average monthly gross income for active IBOs", and Quixtar already does this. *Please don't bog us down with a lot of unnecessary red tape. We basically show people how to shop--hassle free, using the internet. If you require lots of red tape--just to shop on-line, people won't do it! They'll go to other sites where there is no red tape, and our hope for some future income will go down the drain! Respectfully, Melissa Guipe