Comment Number: 522418-10644
Received: 7/16/2006 7:49:40 PM
Organization: Liberty Business Group (Quixtar affiliate)
Commenter: Kevin Fortney
State: WA
Subject: Business Opportunity Rule
Title: Notice of Proposed Rulemaking
CFR Citation: 16 CFR Part 437
No Attachments

Comments:

I am an independent business owner under the Quixtar banner, and have been for almost one year. I see this business opportunity being an avenue to financial freedom, allowing me to put my children through college, get out of debt and to have some freedom that a normal business/occupation does not allow. I'll admit that I was skeptical of this business at first, due to all the "get rich quick" schemes that are out there. However, it was planely laid out to me that this is not the case. I am making about $175/month right now, and I know that that will be increasing over the next few months. There was no promise of quick money or that no work would be needed. Actually, I was told quite the opposite and that is what I share with those who I bring into the business. We are very up front with potential business owners and give them time to check us out. I always tell them that their work and time will be needed to build this into a profitable business. I also mention that there is a six-month 100% money back guarantee, so they can check it out with no risk for several months. The cost to register in the business is right at $175. This includes a setup fee that goes to the corporation for access to the website and a cadre of business reports. It also includes a sample pack of many of the items that we sell. The money back guarantee is pretty much all inclusive, with even the cost of the products being refunded if the client is not satisfied. There is only a small handling fee that is deducted from the total. This is why the seven-day waiting period is unnecessary with this business. In our case, when would the period start? We already give them time to check us out and to attend some free seminars/classes to get their feet under them. On top of that we have the money-back guarantee. I am in a business where the need to provide references would greatly ham-string my ability to register people. The other business owners in the area could very easily sabotage my business with what they tell my contacts, even to the point of stealing that contact for themselves. Again, the money-back guarantee shelters the contacts from getting into something that they can't get out of. The regulations proposed for disclosure of litigation would also be entirely too cumbersome. That portion of the document can be construed as meaning that I have to provide a list of litigation for the entire Quixtar corporation, as well as all other independent business owners. There are way to many areas in the verbiage of this portion to try to contend with as a business owner. All in all, I do believe that there needs to be some stricter regulations against some of the fly-by-night con-artist type organizations that are available. Many of these take advantage of people and hurt them beyond recovery. However, there are also legitimate corporations, such as Quixtar, whose business would be unduly affected by these overly-restrictive regulations. I urge you to put together a coalition of some of these legitimate companies to assist in writing these regulations governing these types of businesses. The legitimate businesses definitely have a vested interest in cleaning up these harmful schemes that bilk people of their hard earned funds.