| Comment Number: | 522418-07791 |
| Received: | 7/11/2006 6:24:01 PM |
| Organization: | Angelic Enterprises |
| Commenter: | Deborah Mulholand |
| State: | OH |
| Subject: | Business Opportunity Rule |
| Title: | Notice of Proposed Rulemaking |
| CFR Citation: | 16 CFR Part 437 |
| No Attachments |
Comments:
It sounds like you are trying to do an excellent thing in preventing fraud in e-commerce business. However, the execution of some of the proposed rules for the Business Opportunity Rule would create an unfair marketing environment for Independent Business Owners in many marketing companies such as Avon, Shaklee, Melaleuca, Quixtar, MaryKay, etc. I personally have purchased products from all of these companies and have found the sales reps to be wonderful, quality people. They always took time to explain their product, gave me a 100% money back guarantee whenever I requested one, and gave awesome quality customer service! I have been involved in both the Avon and Amway and Quixtar businesses as an Independent Business Owner, and found that the business and marketing plan was explained in great detail, with the opportunity to view the marketing plan on multiple occasions before making a decision to become part of the sales organization. The Quixtar business opportunity was never presented as a get rich quick scheme. As a matter of fact, it was explained that there would be much work involved, and that there were no guarantees of success, but that the playing field was level and that the company rewarded those who worked the hardest. The Quixtar business opportunity sounds very fair in that you are rewarded with a percentage of all of the volume that you bring into the business. However, they have an excellent break-away feature that allows you to earn more money that those who got you started in the business if you end up bringing in more volume than them. That stated, those who took the time to train you still get a small percentage of your huge volume, just because they took the time to train you. As far as the 7 day waiting period goes, that would only be fair if you make people wait 7 days before purchasing an automobile, or make them wait 7 days before purchasing toothpaste or deodorant at Walmart or Rite-Aid. A seven-day waiting period for an Independent Business Owner would bring our business to a screeching halt and would be very unfair. In this high-tech age, no one would sit still to wait that long. This would add enormous cost to running a Quixtar business and become an undue burden. The rule requiring references would be an invasion of privacy. Does the FTC require Bill Gates to give his home address, home phone and home cell number to every client who purchases Microsoft Office? Not hardly. When we bring people into our business, they are given the opportunity to meet other business owners in the area who are successful in our business. They can ask them questions. They have this opportunity to speak with others who are successful on a weekly basis. Questions are always welcome! Our business is a mentoring business, and as long as business owners stay in touch with their mentors, they have all the help they desire in getting their business off the ground. As far as providing a litigation list, is Yahoo required to provide a litigation list before anyone purchases anything from the Yahoo website? Are McDonalds franchises required to provide a litigation list before they sell a franchise to someone? Are attorneys required to provide a litigation list to all of their new clients? Are accountants required to do this? That would be absured. We find out about litigation through newspapers and the radio and TV. As far as financial substantiation, it makes sense to post on the business website the average amount of income that independent business owners earn. However, to list actual incomes would be an invasion of privacy. Quixtar IBOs who speak publicly tell us all about the changes in lifestyle that are possible by putting more hours in their business, but they also stress the advantage of being able to spend more time with their families, and making awesome friends. We all know running our own business is not easy -- but we are proud to be entrepreneurs!