How we avoid scams... Your kin assistance/ Trust

Richard,

This is a most excellent question. The key here is the scale of biz you are
doing. Recall we
are working on the margin, we are improving a solution already out there. When
we test, for
a foreign manufacturer, the reaction in the USA market to an ice-ax covered in
teflon, our
value is information, not money. Happily though, we can pull down about $250/hr
for this
'service' to foreign manufacturers by means of the margin we charge to our
customers.

As time progresses, we take on more responsibility in the form of higher
frequency and more
products, learn who's who, and build our business, and more fully support our
lifestyle. As
this goes on, we are uninterested in other deals. It's all about lifestyle, not
money.

As to cheats and scams, step # 1 of every con game is for the scam artist to
announce what
they are doing is illegal. Regardless of the "help the poor" or whatever else
is said in these
letters, every letter announces what they are doing is illegal. Why? Every
scam artist knows
you cannot cheat an honest man, so they test first for honesty to save time.

A more subtle version of this is "we have to keep it secret." Now in this case
the point if
"someone finds out, we'll lose our tenuous advantage" so while not strictly
legal, ones greed
is excited.

But in both cases, secrecy is the thing...

We, in small biz int'l trade, are loud mouth about what we do every step of the
way. Who has
our passion for the particular idea, who wants to devote overhead to such a
minor issue...?
Neither big nor small wants to steal from us, scam artists are not going to
bother with us.

This is not to say we are particularly honest, it is just to say we are
otherwise occupied with
beneficial activity, so we "avoid the occasion of sin," if I may borrow from
theology.

So the challenge of concern to you won't be there in real life... age quad agis
keeps you out of
trouble.

JOHN


On Sat, 20 May 2006 08:23:48 -0500, Richard Ingels wrote :

> So I guess this is one type of business model in the import/export
> world. It appears we've found the best supplier in the world for this
> service/product, although I don't know how much of a need for it there
> is. [LOL]
>
> It got me thinking about how one navigates in business. One fear I have
> is that my inexperience in navigating foreign suppliers and in dealing
> with domestic retailers will mean I won't always know if things are
> "right". There's a fine line between being suspicious and wanting
> everything nailed down with lawyers and in writing and killing deals to
> being naive and taken advantage of and taking things said orally
> literally (like the scam email) instead of with a dose of skepticism.
> It seems like every day there is a new scam taking advantage of others
> when they don't even need to (they could actually make a profit doing
> what they say if they would deliver, but instead cut and run because
> they can't deliver).
>
> How do you navigate this area in attitude and being open and trusting
> enough to develop new areas and do the deals but cautious enough not to
> be taken?
>
> Richard

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