Fool-Proof Business Systems

I saw an ad the other day for a fool-proof business guide for painting contractors. Make $330 a day and more than $2,000 a week it claimed. (Out of curiosity, I bought the course.)

It’s not a difficult math problem to see that to make more than $2,000 a week at $330 a day, one would need to work 7 days a week. Personally, I’m not sure that is such a great business guide. Shouldn’t a business guide help you work smarter, rather than longer?

The author—who never mentions his name and doesn’t have a phone number on the web site—claims to have purchased other courses. “Most of the other courses suck,” he writes. This may be true, but several claims made on his site raise questions in my mind about the value of his material.

For example, he states that his course will show you how to win 8 out of 10 bids. Between you and me, this isn’t anything to get excited about. I’ll tell you how to do that for free—don’t charge nearly enough. If you are winning 80% of your bids, you need to raise your prices.

He later states that his course will show you how “earn extra income that can pay 100% of your overhead”. Why would you need “extra income” to pay for overhead? Shouldn’t that be a part of your regular selling price? Again, I’ll offer some free advice. If you need “extra income” to pay your overhead, you need to raise your prices.

It has been said that anything that sounds too good to be true, probably is. That includes fool-proof business systems.

© BEP Enterprises Incorporated 2008