Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

So... Im looking through yahoo hot jobs and I come across this advertisement. http://hotjobs.yahoo.com/jobseeker/company/company_profile.h tml?gid=13608&type=main&page_number=2&spon=0& ;reverse_order=0&company_gid=13608   I follow the link and see that this is a company that is related to a company Im already familiar with and respect... VistaPrint.

I read through the ad and follow the links...I wonder all through yesterday and then again this morning...just how this works!  Here are the questions I had...what do you think?

1. Exactly HOWdo they make any money off this aside from the increased sales of their printing services? Its a 25% discount to a notable style sales rep, off their prices which were already  very affordable.

2. They dont require their logo on the stuff you print out... and they dont care what the quality of your work is.  You can upload anything, and print it out and sell it as a notable style rep, and set your own prices. Which I guess, if their name isnt ON it..then why would they be concerned?  Most of the marketing stuff is free, the rest is inexpensive, so I dont see that they make much there. 

3. They encourage you to have home parties and to advertise in your local paper,but say nothing about advertising online..offering websites etc((like marykay etc)).  No kickback  to them aside from the increased sales and also the free advertising they get by posting jobs in hotjobs on yahoo.  They dont have much web support ((tried to contact them concerning a HUGE typo on one of their samples)) and they dont offer any1099 stuff or tax  info that Ive seen on other places....  They dont line out very clear guidelines on what you CAN and CANT do...but again...if they arent DIRECTLY associated... really, who is responsible? 

They arent going out on a limb to mentor you, and their helpful tips page is really basic.  So they havent invested much. Is this just a glorified discount?  Im thinking its a genius marketing play, if I can just figure out how theyre going to make money off it...and what the possibilities  of profits for them could be... am I missing something here?

What do you think?

Yvette

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Going slow is for weenies!

Hello,

I actually know Karen at vista print and did not know about this, i will have to call and ask her...seems interesting. One of our companies is having built a print gateway through them. I have had great customer service but i know Karen. I will have to look into this, it seems interesting. I am looking at the link at there site, I will have to ask.

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Our Goal Is Your Success!
Founder Girls with Goals

Thanks for checking into it...I`m fascinated by it! Will you please tell her that there`s a typo on the last sample on the page you access through yahoo jobs? http://www.notable-style.com/

It`s driving me nuts. It should be "You`re Invited.  Not  "YOUR invited".

Thanks!!

Yvette

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Going slow is for weenies!

I don`t think there is any mystery here. They are providing very little to the Rep. They are basically locking you in to using their printing services. Think about how many people out there are already doing custom printing, and how many people will jump on this opportunity when it is nicely packaged for them. With a company like Vista Print, their highest "expense" is actually machines sitting idle. Whenever they aren`t completely booked, they are losing money. In order to price so competitively, they are pricing as if capacity is full. This franchise gives them a more consistent pipeline of orders. And, their acquisition cost for cusotmers the rep brings in is nothing! You pay for and do the marketing. So they don`t have customer acquisition costs with these orders.

Doug

I`m a little late on this post, but I just wanted to give my feedback. I would be a little leary of this opportunity for the following reasons.

1. Vista Prints already has an affiliate program (acutally mulitple programs) setup. This doesn`t really seem to flow with what they are already doing. This will be important in another point made below.
2. Vista Prints is a publically traded company. Any moves they make would be slow and strategic. If you were to do a search for notable style it would show up on the main site and would probably include several press releases. Publically traded companies do this type of thing for multiple reasons, but either way they can`t just decide they are going to implement a new division of the company without share holder and board member support.
3. If you do a whois lookup on the domain name notablestyle.com the following information is displayed.
   
   Domain Name.......... notablestyle.com
     Creation Date........ 2005-12-07
     Registration Date.... 2005-12-07
     Expiry Date.......... 2007-12-07
     Organisation Name.... Davidson
     Organisation Address. 1367 Nye St.
     Organisation Address.
     Organisation Address. Charleston
     Organisation Address. 29407
     Organisation Address. SC
     Organisation Address. UNITED STATES
   
   Admin Name........... N Davidson
     Admin Address........ 1367 Nye St.
     Admin Address........
     Admin Address........ Charleston
     Admin Address........ 29407
     Admin Address........ SC
     Admin Address........ UNITED STATES
     Admin Email.......... n_davidson33@yahoo.com
     Admin Phone.......... +1.8435575500
     Admin Fax............
   
   Tech Name............ YahooDomains TechContact
     Tech Address......... 701 First Ave.
     Tech Address.........
     Tech Address......... Sunnyvale
     Tech Address......... 94089
     Tech Address......... CA
     Tech Address......... UNITED STATES
     Tech Email........... domain.tech@YAHOO-INC.COM
     Tech Phone........... +1.6198813096
     Tech Fax.............
     Name Server.......... ns1.whitelabelparked.com
     Name Server.......... ns2.whitelabelparked.com
   
   Now do the same thing for VistaPrint.
   
   VistaPrint Technologies Limited
     Cedar House
     41 Cedar Avenue
     Hamilton 
     HM12
     BM
   
   Domain name: vistaprint.com
   
     Created on: 1999-05-04
     Expires on: 2012-05-04
   
   
   Administrative contact:
     Patrick Lynch
     100 Hayden Avenue
     
     Lexington MA
     02421
     US
     +1.7818908434
     +1.7815777208
     domainadmin@vistaprint.com
   
   
   Technical contact:
     Role Netnames Hostmaster
     3rd Floor Prospero House
     241 Borough High St.
     London 
     SE1 1GA
     UK
     +44 (0)20 7015 9370
     +44 (0)20 7015 9375
     hostmaster@netnames.net
   
   VistaPrint has no locations listed on their website for Charleston SC. I would imagine the notablestyle domain would be registered by someone at VistaPrint.

Here`s my take. I would imagine someone has signed up as an affilate with VistaPrint. Possibly at one of the higher levels. I`m not sure of the breakdown on discounts or pay for the various levels of the affiliate program. However, let`s consider this if I were to sign-up as an affiliate with VistaPrint at a higher level of commitment, but received a 30% discount off all services, but had to do so much in revenue per month it would make sense for me to setup a direct sales company allowing a 25% discount and keeping 5% for myself. Very profitable I would say. I setup my own site and have the ability for files to be uploaded collect money and pass it along to VistaPrint. This would require very little work and the end result is a product from Vista drop shipped to my customer.

Now the bad news is, I imagine this is in direct violation of any affilate program VistaPrint has established. In setting up this site and using the connection to VistaPrint I would say this causes many legal issues. Lastly, look at the Vista site and the NotableStyle site obviously the is a vast difference in design and functionality. I would think Vista would spend some money to establish a very professional site without typos.

That`s just my two cents.

Hello Everyone,

Shinedog -- That was a great observation. I just signed up with Notable Style yesterday and I am very curious and wonder if this is a reseller. Please let me know if anyone finds out anything. I am getting ready to publish my business website on Monday and I would like to know should I list Notable Style on my website.

Thanks

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`Things that are Lovely` Philippians 4:8 www.lovelycreativedesigns.com www.goclick2shop.com

It is not a reseller, it is Vista Print itself.

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Our Goal Is Your Success!
Founder Girls with Goals

Thanks for your response

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`Things that are Lovely` Philippians 4:8 www.lovelycreativedesigns.com www.goclick2shop.com

Hello!

Has anyone determined whether Notable Style is what it purports to be?  I have found it lacking in some things, and I`d like to know the concensus of the people who wrote in.  I `d like to know if answers were found from any of the writers above.  Thanx so much for your input.

I just found the listing for this opportunity and did a little research as well.
I found websites of Notable Style Independent Consultants created by VistaPrint. It`s well documented on their site which includes a press release in the Investor Relations page.
I don`t see a downside to it or any listings of complaints. It would be a convenient addition to my services, I think I`ll sign up.
Additional information...anyone?






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LauraJean
Virtual Assistant, Web Design
LauraJean Business Services
LauraJeanBiz.com

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