The RatRaceRebellion.com Blog

NEW Corp. Hiring Home-Based Agents in Abilene, TX

NEW Corp. announced this week that it seeks home-based customer-service agents in the Abilene, Texas, area, according to the Abilene Reporter News.

To quote from the article, "Paid training opportunities will probably start in September, with the jobs offering 'an opportunity to earn a decent living,' said Gary Robinett, director of marketing and industrial recruitment for the Abilene Industrial Foundation."

NEW is offering one-hour online "Job Fairs" for the positions in Abilene, with details at the company's website. For the Abilene Reporter News article, click here.

Does Your Child Have a Lemonade Stand? Inc. Magazine Offers $500 for the Best

If you have a budding entrepreneur in the family standing outside selling lemonade (or you're mulling over how to pry him or her away from that video game to do something out of doors), check out Inc. magazine's annual "Best Lemonade Stand in America" contest.

It's open to kids from ages 5 to 12, and offers a $500 savings bond and other prizes for the winner, including a nifty Inc. t-shirt. (Chris and I are partial to Inc., not only because they're such ardent supporters of entrepreneurship and small biz, but because they were one of the first national magazines to cover us, way back in 2000. We had just formed Staffcentrix the year before, and it was a tremendous shot in the arm.)

Last year's winner was the "LemonSharks Lemonade" stand, run by Hunter and Gunnar, 11-year-old twins in North Carolina. It's a pretty sophisticated operation (they had family help), and they even had a business plan! (Chris and I never did.) They made nearly $1,000 in profits, which is so good it makes you wonder if they shouldn't have sold branded t-shirts, Frisbees and beach towels, too! (The stand is in a beach town.) But then, with the odd rip tide on NC beaches, there's a lot to be said for focus!

For more:

• LemonSharks Lemonade stand
• The Inc. Contest (Deadline is August 24)
• The Kauffmann Foundation's Policy Dialogue on Entrepreneurship, whose newsletter covered the contest.

 

 

FTC Busts Alleged Work-at-Home Scammer (Covered by Chris Durst & Jim Avila on 20/20)

Cracking down on work-at-home scams, the FTC announced yesterday that it had filed suit against alleged scammer Michael Brooks, covered on ABC News 20/20 in March by Christine Durst and Jim Avila. 

Quoting from the FTC's press release, "Penbrook Productions, run by Michael Allen Brooks, promoted a work-at-home scheme online that used spokesperson 'Angela Penbrook,' and charged $197 for the opportunity to become a 'certified' rebate processor, earning as much as $225 per hour. According to the FTC complaint, after purchasing, consumers discovered that the work-at-home 'opportunity' had nothing to do with processing rebates, but merely instructed the consumers about becoming an affiliate marketer."

"Rebate processing" job ads flooded the Internet, and can still be found here and there online. But the recent FTC action should go a long way to discouraging their perpetuation and arming the public with the facts.

For the FTC's announcement, click here.

For the 20/20 coverage, click here. (See video links in related article.)