First let me say that I am TOTALLY confused.
In our around 1996 I was a young teenager in an orphan home. I seen this opportunity and did a lot of investigating a gave it a try. Long story short, within a little over two weeks I had over a MILLION orders. I tried for a couple of weeks to try to get staff and residents to help me fill my orders. One of my guarantees was that once a order was placed and payment was confirmed, the order would be shipped off within 48 hours. At that time I was only 14 -16 yrs old. I set up a merchant account and everything. At the time they didn't offer the "website". I built my own. Many, many, hours, of typing and downloading their (SMC) images off their member only website.
Basically I had no way to process all the orders in the time I allotted per my guarantee. FBI, Police, and others decended onto the property of the "Group/Orphan" home asking me questions and staff. I had a quite a bit of money in my account, which even that I signed up with NATIONAL CITY in Indianapolis, IN under age. Seems they didn't care, they just say money $...
I ended up stopping the business within days. The pressure of not having a family, foster care, authorities thinking I've done something wrong, and JUST THE AMOUNT OF $ in my account in less than a month. Many people offered to help, but I thought it was all for the wrong reasons. I returned every ones money that I did not process an order for with an apology letter.
I made up my own company label, website, envelopes, EVERYTHING, all with a home computer. I even went so far as dealing with the SBA at 15yrs old. Though I look older at the time and may have seemed older, no one asked me any questions.
I started up a sole proprietorship even that young, because I couldn't decide between a regular corp, s corp, llc, etc. Especially with having to have people on a "board". No clue who would do that even though I had plenty of volunteers.
SMC is a cooperation where you can make $. When I did it, it was only a fee to join. Everything else I had to pay for. Even at that age, and poor, was out of my range to get. I got a few catalogs for many types of situations/events. I could order more standard or custom. I order many more standard and just gave my info. My dream was to get custom catalogs, but it was always out of my budget.
The prices to me where "Coo'" at the time. I have no idea what they are now. That was part of my sales though. What a person saw in the catalog I would make them feel special by giving them HUGE discounts which cut into my profit, but they were happy. I even sold products at the price in which I would get them.
As far as quality, you sale what it says, the descriptions are usually detailed. READ and you will see that it says plastic or cubic...
My customers knew. Everything I typed on my site was the TRUTH.gifts of luxury from the heart, without the luxury cost...
Many products had guarantees/warranties which I passed onto my customers.
I don't know, I'm currently in school, homeless, stressed, no support, and thought I would try this yet again, because it help me years ago. I don't know now. I have 17 months of school left before I'm an RN (Registered Nurse), not my first time in school/degree/certification, but a person only goes back to what they know. I know SMC help me survive when I knew nothing else...
... To be continued i guess...
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