Watching out for Scam Artists

When I started out as an entrepreneur there was a lot I didn’t know about (then again, there still is a lot I don’t know about).  The one thing I kept running into were the so-called scam artists.  You hear about it a lot in anything but I was a bit oblivious at the start since I felt I needed to learn every piece of knowledge from anyone and sadly it came from the places and people that I really don’t want to do business with.

You know the guy.  He is a very good talker, has a lot of confidence in what he does and convinces you that you need his services.  Now there isn’t one single person that I dealt with that I am talking about as there were quite a few but they all can be lumped into one group.  I never liked the way they did business and they thrived on taking advantage of those that just didn’t seem to have the confidence in themselves or they were in desperate need of assistance to get their business going before everything went south.

One individual used to hold regular seminars and events throughout the city and it was always a different topic.  He loved to take others under his wing to milk them for all they were worth until they had no money left and no business.  I’ve seen computer companies partner with him to the point where they faced lawsuits because they got caught up in the behaviour all the way to turning good people into bad.  I never did get caught up with this person since my spidey sense kicked in and I avoided them at all cost.

But once I ridded myself of that person I quickly found myself caught up with another.  I look back now and boy did I feel like fresh prey to these guys.  They saw a young guy who was starting a business and they wanted to get in there as much as possible.  The second guy managed to get some stuff out of me since I felt there might have been long term benefits (it’s been over 4 years as I write this and believe me, no benefits).  But as I quickly realized how it wasn’t good for my business, I got out.

Most of these guys tour the business networking groups in Calgary and some start their own networking groups.  I’ve been in many networking groups and I’ve found some that work and others that simply don’t.  It all depends.

So now this all leads me to a dilemma I have during this present day.  I don’t trust anybody that’s a “consultant” as I think back to when I was burned over $9,000 or these guys that managed to be good talkers and pulled a fast one on me.  I have trust issues and I know it.  If you ever get into a job interview for my company I will flat out tell you that I don’t trust you and you need to earn it.  I’m currently exploring bringing on a business coach right now and there is a couple of individuals that I’ve met that have “systems” and they do scare me off.  I love systems, heck I run a computer / IT consulting firm, but it is just I didn’t like the first one and I find that some of it is quite expensive and useless.

But we will see.  I’m waiting to see who can gain my trust since the whole scam artist thing really through me for a loop back in 2008.  One thing you find out as an entrepreneur is that you will make mistakes, there’s no doubt about it.  What really matters is how you respond to those mistakes and learn from them.  My problem is learning to get past some of the mistakes.

Tags: consultants, networking groups, scams

Choose your Allies Carefully

This is one blog post that I’m sure is a very touchy subject.  I’ve spoken to a lot of entrepreneurs who have all admitted being burned in the past which have usually occurred at the outset of their entrepreneurial life.  This is exactly what happened to me back in 2008.  When you start out in something new you tend to trust everyone around you and have a false sense of security by dealing with some people you’ve come to know on a very personal level.  I hate to say it but these kinds of people can be extremely deceiving and can potentially ruin your business.

I’ve met a lot of interesting people so far in my life when it comes to business.  Many of these people have the “answer” to everything.  They feel so confident in their products or services that they’ve even convinced themselves of many false things.  I hate to say it but just because you incorporate a business, create a logo and slap up a website doesn’t mean you’re an expert at anything.

I got taken for $9,000 in my first year of business because of the things I spoke about above.  There were a lot of ethical issues with the whole situation today that should have caught my attention but I never did catch on.  In 2008 it was an extremely tough year for me so I thought that there must be quick fixes to my problem.  Here I had thousands of dollars in the bank and I was ready to hire an expert.

This person came along with the golden marketing planet.  It was full proof.  It was going to generate more business for me than I could ever imagine.  What did $9,000 end up getting me?

• 2 big boxes of books
• Tons of templates
• Some audio CD’s from a guy I’ve never heard of before
• A crappy guarantee letter

I will start with the crappy guarantee letter.  The guarantee was that if I didn’t have results I would get my money back.  But the way the guarantee was laid out put all of the onus on ME rather than on the consultant.  In addition, you were set up to fail from the beginning.  The coaching sessions were more like berating sessions than actual progressive meetings.  It was a really bad situation.

The big boxes of books were full of templates.  It had sales letters, marketing materials and a lot of stuff that was to be used to be customized for my business.  The $9,000 basically gave me a ton of templates that I had to fill out.  As many of you starting out find out, you really don’t have time to do that stuff.  You need to hire people to help you out and I recommended finding an all-star marketing person who can do this for you rather than trying to be an expert at everything.

The audio CD’s were, well, they were garbage.  I love listening to audiobooks by Stephen Covey or other Dale Carnegie type audio’s but these were simply no good.  They were short and just missed the point.

Now, this person ended up referring clients to me in the end which probably paid for the $9,000.  The sad thing is that those same customers went through the same experience, and they are all customers of mine to this day, but we all feel the same in the let down.  I actually keep the 2 big boxes of books near my desk at my office as a stark reminder of that expensive lesson.  I know others do as well.

So basically, my point of choosing allies is be careful.  They may seem good on the outside and may be a nice person but at the end of the day business is business and you need RESULTS.  Experience is extremely important and having a strong ethic proposition is important too.

I’m the type of person that works incredibly well with a strong handshake.  I notice when people make commitments and don’t deliver when they say they will.  I also accept that I’m not perfect either.  But I am 100% ethical and respectful in my business dealings so I try to make an effort to treat people the way that I’d want to be treated.

But if I am betrayed once, I’m not usually a nice guy to deal with.  I’m extremely forgiving but when someone attempts or sometimes succeeds in cheating me it gets ugly.

But to recap:

• Avoid the “consultant” programs unless you’ve found a very very experienced individual with lots of references to back their work up.
• When you’re starting out, you might be anxious to find the quick fix like I tried but really, take a step back and see how you can deploy your resources more appropriately
• Finally, hire a good lawyer.  I did and haven’t looked back.

Tags: consulting, marketing programs, scams