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MAURIZIO'S ANNOUNCEMENT.
"It's sad day: I just buried my friend FREE" It's almost one year and a half that I've been volunteering countless hours (well, … believe it or not, I could actually count them!… Well, sorta!) just about everyday of the week - including Sundays and most other holidays - to the cause of helping end-users and prospective end-users of natural stone products to solve problems and/or to avoid them. I did that by offering my expertise here, where consumers or consumers-to-be of natural stone post their questions, their problems and their gripes. Unfortunately the stone industry is just about totally unregulated, and there are no official training programs for the operators involved in it (importers, retailers, contractors, fabricators, etc.). There are no official certifications, either. All one has to do to become a "Michelangelo" overnight is hang a shingle out of his or her door with "Marble & Granite" written on it! Since stone is inherently a very complicated matter, such total lack of professionalism inevitably leads to “glamorous” performances by the people that, from all walks of life, somehow got involved with it. besides a little over 40 years of field experience, I privately conducted substantial studies of petrography and chemistry applied to minerals. Theory and intensive practice: a combination not often found! The help that I’ve been offering has been defined by its recipients, in different occasions, as “articulate … priceless … eye-opener … passionate … sincere … refreshing …unbiased … sensible … extremely useful … based on unusual integrity … showing true in-depth knowledge of the subject … entertaining … etc.” One person (a retailer/contractor) went as far as telling me that I did more good to the industry by myself in this a year and a half, that all the “salesmen” running it put together since its inception! Well … I really don’t know about that!! The bottom line is that I helped many consumers – none of them poor – save hundreds or thousands of dollars, by avoiding costly mistakes, or helping them see their rights through. I kept a pretty accurate record of all my activity, to see if it would take me anywhere. And a few days ago my secretary came back to me with some serious statistics. I’d like to share these numbers with my audience. 1. My volunteer activity cost me approximately 1,090 hours, of qualified (I hope I can say that) consultation services. 2. My out of pocket expenses for such a “privilege”, it’s been close to $800 (Using the internet from an office is not free as in the case of a residential account. The telephone company charges me 72 cents an hour to be connected to the local “free” AOL number). 3. Out of all the people I helped, only 12.2% sent me a “thank you” note of sorts. 4. Out of the people I sent my free maintenance guidelines for maintenance of stone installation (upon their request), only the 2.3% (it is NOT a typo) blessed me with a small yet meaningful and very much appreciated order. Since the average amount of the orders that I receive from consumers is $37.15, it translates into a “staggering” revenue of a little less than $300.00. Figuring a gross profit of approximately the 50% of that, it turns out that I earned an impressive 14 cents an hour. To achieve such an amazing result, however, and like I said before, I had to spend $800 -- or 72 cents an hour -- of Internet time (let’s call it “commuting” expenses!) Now, I would like to make very clear that I’m not desperately after the sale of a couple of bottles (thank goodness I don’t need that!), but I do consider a little order as a nice token of appreciation. OK, so, just about nobody bought my products … I’m old enough to know that people are not much grateful, but I was kind of wondering what all those people were doing with my free and valuable guidelines. Well, I’m glad to announce that I’ve got to know that! Here’s a very interesting story that I want to share with you: A couple of weeks ago I received a telephone call from a tile and marble retailer out of somewhere near Cleveland, OH. The guy goes: “Hey, Maurizio, I have a copy of your guidelines for maintenance of residential stone installations, and I want to tell you that’s one of the most valuable pieces of information I ever read in my life, and I was wondering if I could make several copies and give them to my customers.” At that point I was kinda hoping that the guy was considering the possibility to become one of my distributors, so I said, “Why yes, by all means, for as long of course you don’t change a word. It’s copyrighted material, you know …” “Well, … that’s the problem” said the guy, “You see, we don’t carry your line of products and my boss is kinda reluctant switching from what we have now, so we would like to change the product references you make from your products to the products that we carry … What gave us the idea is a customers of ours who came here with these guidelines that she’s got from the Internet, but she didn’t want to bother buying your products on line… so, following your guidelines, we sold her the correspondent products of the line that we carry …” You do NOT want to know the conclusion of that conversation! I have all the reasons to believe that the episode mentioned above is just the tip of the iceberg! That was the famous “straw that broke the camel back” and the motivation that made me ask my secretary to elaborate the statistic figures that I reported above. Now, I may be considered naïve (I grant you that; after all I’m 58 and I should know better!), but it’s never too late to wake up and smell the roses around me. And wake up I did! To tell you truth, I really didn’t like what I saw when I opened my eyes. It sure ain’t pretty! Not only didn’t I get compensated in any way or form for my qualified contribution, not only did I have to spend money to give it away, but, as a token of appreciation, I’ve got kicked in the teeth, too! Thanks, but no thanks. I’ve got better things to do, and, very definitely, much more entertaining or profitable to boot! Am I going to refuse my expertise to whoever could benefit from it from now on? No, I won’t do that. but since I believe that the information I dispense is valuable because it makes consumers save hundreds or even thousands of REAL dollars (not certainly Monopoly money) by protecting them and informing them against the rampant “professionalism” that’s out there, I feel that’s only fair for me to charge a little fee. My maintenance guidelines are no longer available for free, as it’s not available for free any other piece of literature that was free before. Free is dead and I was not the one who killed it. I’m only the one who buried it. Everybody has been making money out of me: the distributors, the fabricators, the contractors, the consumers, and now, also the competition! Should you feel that my expertise is worth something to you, all general information, as well as one-on-one specific consultation, will be available I already know that I will get only a few takers (unfortunately, I’m only selling valuable information, not pay-per-view movies or WWF events!), but I never counted much on such a particular source of income, and it will give me the opportunity to spend more quality time with my family, or to devote more time to the profitable part of my business. I may be amusing at times, but I’m certainly not amused. Ciao and good luck, Maurizio Contact Maurizio through info@findstone.com
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