... in response to It is not easy being Bruce..., posted by papi on Jun 24, 2005You'll see much worse over the years of you stay in this business. One other thing- You always start out with your buddies giving you the "atta boy, finally an honest agency run right." That fades over the years and one day you too will be the target of (earned, or unearned) critism and claims that you are a rip-off, etc. Your buddies will no longer be around.
Oh yea, unless you go into this full time with a lot of effort and marketing savy, you'll lose money! You'll lose money the first year or two anyway. There are very few agencies that earn a real living for anyone. At least anyone who wants to live in the US. I think TLC and AFA do okay. Most others would generate a poverty level (by US standards) income.
The better you do, the more critism you'll receive. I found TLC to be completely up front when I used them. I only ordred their catalogs and wrote to women. Tours and agencies where you interview women never appealed to me. I always wanted as little to do with any type of match making service as possible. TLC delivered a large quantity of addresses at reasonable price which I used to contact my wife. Addresses is what they promised, and that's what they delivered. I think many men expect way too much. When they don't get what they expect, they call you a rip-off.
Based on experience, I'd say around 75% of the scam/rip-off claims are either exagerations, misunderstanding, or simply men who expected way more than they should. When it comes to "mail order brides" some men expect delivery to be included.
