Comment Number: 522418-10162
Received: 7/15/2006 8:45:44 PM
Organization: Quixtar
Commenter: Daniel Jantzen
State: FL
Subject: Business Opportunity Rule
Title: Notice of Proposed Rulemaking
CFR Citation: 16 CFR Part 437
No Attachments

Comments:

I am an Independent Business Owner, IBO, associated with the online shopping business Quixtar. I have been registered with Quixtar as an IBO for about seven months, and while I am still young in my business, I would like to share my opinion. Being an IBO has given me motivation to achieve my goals, and without motivation, people cannot do much. Due to the youth of my business, I am still an inexperienced businessman and have a humble income from my business, but Quixtar has helped me to grow and learn, and my business is beginning to show this. While I agree that we must try our best to keep all the pyramind schemes and ill doers out of the market, I believe there is a few problems within the proposed rule. First is the proposal of a seven day waiting period before a prospect can register. In my personal experience, those that were registered in a quick manner, while still excited about the business, reacted to the business faster and more aggressively than those who decided to wait. If people are required to wait for seven days, they will get bored waiting, and their business may suffer from the stagnancy. As long as all the information that is needed to make an informed opinion is presented to the prospect, I feel that how long they wait and think it over should be their decision, not yours or mine. Another problem I see is the need to give them "references," a list of ten other IBO's, their addresses and phone numbers, to allow the prospect to reaffirm the validity of the business. However, I feel that this would only inhibit most IBO's and their businesses as well as violate our privacy and allow for problems between IBO's. If a prospect is given ten other IBO's contact information, then you would open the door to possibly thousands of invasion of privacy problems. Furthermore, less virtuous IBO's might steal each other's prospects if this requirement is put into effect. Our business grows by signing-up, or 'sponsoring', other people into becoming Quixtar shoppers or IBO's themselves. If we are required to give ten other IBOs' contact information, we run a major risk of losing potential business, which amounts to losing income. Another major problem I have seen is the requirement to give the prospect a list of all litigation problems, proven or not, from the past ten years. This is not a very good idea. As an IBO, I have a lot of information to share with each prospect, and in many cases, time is already short. Also, that would require me as an IBO to give each prospect a copy of all litigations, and that takes both ink and paper, and as a young IBO, my 'business expense account" is very limited. A better alternative would be not to require each prospect be given the information, but that the IBO or root company(Quixtar, in my case) be required to have the information available for those who are interested. I think this proposed rule is a very good idea, but there is definitely many kinks in the armor to fix. I hope my opinion has been helpful in discerning these kinks. Let us all work together to make the true businesses flourish and the charlatans flounder.