On the same forum, Jack Werner, a former Signworld operator, fired back at his anonymous critics.  Werner defended Signworld’s claims that its business opportunity has an extremely low failure rate, stating:

I joined Signworld as an operator in 1995 after doing a lot of my own careful due diligence… I did honestly break even, cash on cash, my first month in business, and wrote my first paycheck to myself in my sixth month after letting the businesses cash reserves build up. I ran my business for 10 years before successfully selling it for many times what I paid for it and I then joined Signworld’s corporate staff because I strongly believed in the business model.

I do know of others that broke even, cash on cash, in their first month, some that broke even in their second, third, and fourth month, most broke even around their sixth or seventh month, and for some it took longer. Believe it or not, we actually did have an owner who did break even his first week in business. But that was a true testament to the hard work that owner put in securing a large order before his doors were even open. It is an owner driven business. Some people just “get it” sooner than others do.

It is impressive that Jack Werner has experience as an owner operator, and that he was willing to publicly address his critics in a professional manner.  However, his claim that one owner “did break even his first week in business” is especially troublesome.

How could an owner making a $183,000 investment “break even” his first week in business?  Did the owner secure this enormous order, collect the money, receive the materials and complete all of the necessary work in the first week?  Jack Werner must surely know that that’s what would be necessary for the owner to recognize monies received as income.

Does that mean that this owner maintained profitability since the first week, or that he did well his first week?  How many achieve profitability from Day 1?

Perhaps Mr. Werner – or someone else familiar with this claim – can provide the specifics.

ARE YOU FAMILIAR WITH THE SIGNWORLD OPPORTUNITY?  WHAT DO YOU THINK?  SHARE A COMMENT BELOW.

logo: SIGNworld

As an alleged business opportunity, Signworld makes bold claims on its website that would be illegal  for a franchise, including lots of attractive earnings claims and promises of “high profit margins” and “high resale value upon retirement” for its $185,000 investment.

But comments on complaint website Rip-off Report are critical of SIGNWORLD, founder Ken Kindt and VP of Sales Jack Werner.  Here are some excerpts:

December 16, 2008, dh from San Antonio, Texas wrote:

…THEY PROMOTE “No previous industry experience is necessary” because SIGWORLD is supposed to reduce the risk of failure. B.S. … It is bad enough that SIGNWORLD sell this lie by building up misleading statements on statistics (never see this in writing though) of low failure rate and cleverly hiding the awful truth of failure. I was told 5% in the 20 year history. I found out it’s closer to 40% once I got in and they had my money….

It’s a shitty competetive dog eat dog business. Your lucky if your gross profit ends up at 50% with this model…. any one can order the bread and butter business you want online for half the price you can do it for.

One more thing…. CITY REGULATIONS are getting tougher and tougher to put up signs. You basically make a sale and go back and research wether you really have a sale or not…

YOU WILL LOSE MONEY EACH MONTH FOR 2 TO 3 YEARS… it seems about 80% of new owners lose money for 2 or 3 years and they either close up or continue to work without a paycheck. This is true even though you do exactly what SIGNWORLD and Jack Werner said you should do….

MY ADVICE-Rather than wait until your broke……STAY AWAY!!!

December 31, 2008  Anonomous of Ofallon wrote:

They underestimate the capital required for start up. The performa’s they provide you with are erroneous….plan on an additional 100k over what they tell you if you want to stay in business. I asked for help trying to sell mine and JW’s comment was…”it would be against our best judgement to try and sell a failing business to a perspective client” How ironic!!

January 23, 2009 Rk of Spokane wrote:

…If you feel compelled to spend well over $250K in capital, I recommend that you convert it to dollar bills, pile it up at a camp site, light it on fire, and gather the kids around for a good old fashioned marshmallow roast rather than waste your time with Signworld.

Seriously, if you really want to get into the sign business, just visit a few sign shops and they’ll sell to you on the spot. Because the only thing that owner wants, is to get the bloody Hell out of his Signworld mistake…

October 13, 2009 signgirl of newnan wrote:

I work for a signworld company, not saying where, but have been there since the start up…

Ken Kindt sells dreams, and many people have bought it, i wish i could sit down with the man, and ask him how he sleeps at night knowing he has reemed so many people, but you know, people like him would laugh if they read this, because money has taken over ethics and morals.

Be sure to read: SIGNWORLD: VP Jack Werner Fires Back at Critics

ARE YOU FAMILIAR WITH THE SIGNWORLD OPPORTUNITY?  WHAT DO YOU THINK?  SHARE A COMMENT BELOW.

logo: SIGNworld

Have you had any experience with the heavily hyped and infomercialed SMC Specialty Merchandise Corporation business opportunity?  The infomercial stars pitchman huckster Tom Bosley, who was the father on Happy Days.  They boast that you can start a business for only $25 and make thousands your first week or even day.

What do you think?  Leave a comment below.

Here’re a few comments from unhappy SMC investors:

I also fell prey. To this very well orginized scam! This is what they pulled on Me. First SMC withheld the starter kit. Till My electronic check cleared, The transaction was complete and posted in My bank. The follwoing day. I received My kit 27 days later. Called to let them know and schedule thier appointment. Three days later they called. Two days after the scheduled date. Then the following day. Smc took another $39.95 out of My account. So I called them they said, ‘Don’t worry we didn’t set Your start date yet’. I was lied to again right then, They did start it The day they cashed the check!. So even when I did cancel My membership. They called My house to inform Me. I still owe them $400.00. I don’t think so. They aren not getting another penny from Me. Stay away from this scam company!!!!!!.  John  Round Lake Beach, IL

The 30-day trial is a scam. They start the trial on the date that the ship the membership kit. By the time you get the kit, and finally get your ‘business coach’ on the phone, you already lost 15 days of your trial time. Then if you want to cancel before the trial is up, they make it a TOTAL NIGHTMARE. You even have to send back the promotional literature, and the catalog. They tell you that your free ‘gift card redemption’ site will be automatically cancelled but thats not true either. You have to call up eMerchantClub and cancel it manually because they will contiue to charge you $29.95 a month for the stupid, free cookie-cutter site they give you when you sign up.
SMC’s entire deal is about selling you a $1,500.00 website that only sells to people who either buy gift card from you, or register on the site and receive a ‘free’ $10.00 gift card, that of course you have to buy in advance. Either way, you pay. The kicker is that they refuse to give permission for you to build your own website and host it yourself, because they want to charge you $29.95 a month to host the useless $1,500.00 website.
SMC’s product line is some of the worst junk I’ve seen in any mail order catalog. Its all stuff no one wants. If anyone wanted this crap, SMC wouldn’t have warehouses full of it.
The testimonials on their website are obviously fake. They actually have different people with the exact, same word-for-word testimonials, bragging about the exact same amount of money they supposedly made over the exact, same period of time. Its like they take the same testimonial, paste it all over the page, and just change the picture.
Our coach was annoying and rude. As soon as she realized we weren’t stupid enough to go for the $1,500.00 website, she shut up and wouldn’t go any further with us, even after we told her we wanted to do other, non-internet programs that they offer. She actually tried to have us set up another appointment to talk to her a week later, so that our trial period would expire, and we’d be locked into paying the membership for a year. We began the cancellation process immediately.
If you want to make some money drop shipping on the internet, there are lots of drop-ship suplliers out there. All you have to do is some research, and stay away from the ones that offer you a website.  Eb,  New York, New York

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