Guys, I truly appreciate your candor in letting me in on your mindset when you were researching Pinnacle. The strange part of this whole episode is that we were considering placing a much smaller ad in national publications to direct people to our company AND we were in negotiations with two property manangement firms to rent space for our office in Atlanta, as an expansion city. When we saw the Pinnacle ad, we were blown out of the water, for obviously three reasons. 1- They stole our thunder by placing a much larger ad in a national pub, 2- The rate of return was higher than any of our programs had ever been (made us feel like we must be working hard and stupid); and 3- They were already in Atlanta and we didn't want to seem to be a "copycat".
As far as the comment concerning growing 2000 investors using great business practices; I don't believe in can be done. I think 9 - 12 - 15% is not enough to catch the eye of normal people. I say this because we have tried for a number of years using a no pressure methodology and we have a high success rate for the people that actually call us, but I can't see the day where I would get an influx of 1000 - 2000 new investors in a few months. (However, we were hoping that our ad would increase call traffic and, hence, our new investors, but never could we imagine the growth Pinnacle had)
Next, this is to the comments on BBB, bank references, etc. for methods to check up on a company. Most of these organizations are financed by the people that they report. You buy your membership into the BBB based upon employees, gross sales or the type of business you are, depending on what part of the country you are in. So when I tell people that we are members of the BBB, the only thing that really tells you is that I have paid a fee to say I am a member of the BBB. But just by saying I am a member, it lulls a lot of people into a false sense of security. Even by asking about complaints doesn't really mean anything in a non-consumer arena, because most people that have complaints anymore, do not call to complain and if they do, there is a procedure to rectify the situation and not have any bad marks on the company's file.
My Dun and Bradstreet account was set up by our firm paying $500 +/-. A bank reference is worthless becasue of privacy laws.( and guess who will get sued if they say the wrong thing.) Chamber of Commerce is like the BBB. Etc., etc., etc.
As a reference point, credit bureaus are suppose to be properly reporting personal credit. However, a recent study says 1 in 3 reports have a major error in them. 4 in 5 have a reporting error in them. Why would their information be worth anything with that many errors? But that doesn't change the banks opinion on using them. Oh, as a sidenote, in my personal Experian file, I am deceased.
What I am trying to say is that even if you use the best traditional checking, you are still flying blind. Newsweek doesn't owe a fiduciary responsibility to its readers. It's just an ad. They owe a higher duty to their stories which they have to make sure are printed "without malice". If they make a mistake, thet can just decide to say "I'm sorry" and/or print a retraction.
Lastly, at which point do the actual investors owe a duty to themselves to tiptoe into the water. I can see a number of people losing $5,000 to $25,000 because of Pinnacle's reported minimum investment; but why would someone write a check for 6 digits and sometimes even without any paperwork?
In closing, I hope the comments keep coming because I have already got a new sense of understanding from the frst two responses. But answer me this, and be honest: "Wouldn't you have just passed right by our firm also if we were only offering 12%?".
