Those Weird Tactics - Are Women in Business Getting Scammed?

People who decide to own a business are very driven individuals who want to venture on their own. Of course, with any business, there are certain strategies one should take in order to achieve full potential to earn money.

From building the business model to marketing, business management falls under so many facets. Think about bigger corporations who have departments just dedicated to marketing strategies and even that alone will have different drivers which fall under that category.

Which brings me here, as to why I’m writing this short piece for you today.

With the success of Servboxx and its continued growth and new products for sale, I wanted to expand my business by advertising with a local popular newspaper out here in Phoenix.

I made an initial contact on their site. I filled out their customary contact form request in order to receive their PDF file of their marketing and statistics and why you should advertise with them.

A few days later I received an email from a gentleman who was going to be my account rep and help me with the necessary paperwork, graphic arts, etc., I would need in order to advertise.

I thought great, someone who understands, not going to waste my time and I can begin advertising.

But…smh

I get a zoom invite meeting so we can discuss my advertising needs for the type of business I own.

When the day arrived, I was greeted with a person who seemed he was ready to discuss my needs and how we can tackle getting my business in the newspaper, but the conversation made a 180 from positive to assortments of “criticism” I did not expect.

While I am always open to constructive criticism for improvement, there’s a big difference between constructive and just outright rude.

Before I get into the details, let me just say this…. anyone into business coaching or marketing advice, the WORST thing you can do is tell a potential client they can’t do certain things because of your personal and unfounded information. That piece of info now becomes your own personal shit opinion, especially when you don’t have the findings to back up the bullshit you’re spewing to someone you want as a client.

That’s like going to a therapist and they spew hate on what you’re doing and tell you, “Well if you can’t do it my way, I can’t be your therapist”.

Same shit.

Not only did this man belittle my business, he used every ploy to get me to spend money on unnecessary tools, which by far were personally insulting to me.

One tactic he used, was a site which allegedly measures SEO. Now while I’m not insinuating some of these sites have untrustworthy usage, no one should rely on these sites as a form of credibility.

Second, I took notice immediately, while using this tactic, he began introducing a product to help elevate my SEO “faster”, yet they would take months, if not years to build up.

HUH?

Unless this man missed the memo on Google Ad Sense, he totally lost me on this one.

Third, with this “incentive package”, I would receive round the clock support, from all facets of web design, photography, videos, and any other tech support for the small price of $2,000 a month.

It was at this point I should have left the zoom meeting.

To add insult to injury, he thought he was being of service until I can get my retail store to a good place, because and I quote, “I can’t in good conscious let you advertise until we fix what’s broken.”

Yes, ladies and gentleman, read that sentence again. Exactly what he said.

Now me being me, I have a very big “fuck you” attitude.

These SEO sites serve me zero purpose. What serves me is the money I’m making from my retail store and how many products are selling and what are the most popular products, in addition to my customer’s feedback which tops everything. If my customers aren’t happy, they aren’t buying shit. Get my drift?

How people are finding my store, would be through social media means and word of mouth. Advertising would be the next logical step, in order to expand, among other resources I am exploring.

But let’s just say, I was new to business and business management. Being impressionable, I would have bought into this man’s foolishness into selling me a lemon. Had I agreed, not only would I have wasted $2,000 a month, but could potentially lose my domain name and anything agreed upon in the event I couldn’t pay that monthly fee.

Then everything I have built could be taken away at the drop of a dime, literally.

Potential and current business owners, I’m here to tell you, this is a serious scam in full effect. This isn’t any different from seeing a used car ad, calling the sales person to see that car, getting there and guess what, the car was sold just a half hour before you arrived.

“But here’s another car, a little bit more than what you’re willing to pay, but in excellent condition.”

We are living through this pandemic and while others have suffered more financially, there are others still living pretty well and even some beyond their means, not experiencing any financial difficulties at all.

But within this pandemic, the snakes aren’t even hiding anymore, waiting to bite you with new cons and get you to spend money that’s not even a necessity to spend.

I don’t know of any newspaper who would deny anyone to advertise unless they were selling outright sex, which most of us know it’s illegal in almost all of the USA.

With that, I cordially ended the call, which honestly, he didn’t deserve my respect after that con.

I immediately contacted two close friends of mine and shared my experience of what just happened. Both agreed, this was a con job in the making and mentioned how there was nothing wrong with the site, which I already knew.

I think what bothered me the most about this call, would I have been a man, would I have gotten the same spiel?

As for any person looking to build a site in a simplistic form when it comes to retail, there are different platforms people use to build their sites and most hosting services now include a variety of WordPress themes to fit your needs, while other hosting services are dedicated strictly to eCommerce for sellers looking to have a simplistic store with easy check out options and very minimal design work. This works great for a small business owner who has all hands-on deck and looking for more effective ways to add their products to their stores without having to do a lot of legwork towards designing the site.

And finally, once we have a business in full effect, the customers start buying, and you’re looking for more ways to monetize, keep in mind, there will be those snakes present to steal your thunder, while scamming you at the same time. I see on TikTok almost on a daily with people selling you “business ideas”, one would think, if you had thought of this years ago, you would be just as rich, right?

Keep in mind, the idea of the salesperson is to find products that best fit your needs in good sense and business practice. There’s nothing wrong with inquiring with a person who’s interested in advertising with you.

A word to the wise, it is sounds fishy, follow your gut since there are so many out there trying to sell a good game all for the sake of making money fast. In the same breath, just because something may smell good, it doesn’t mean it is good.

Be safe out there.

Until then. Take care of You.