Letters

Readers react to articles from the October 1998 issue of Inc., including Jill Andresky Fraser's "The Art of Cash Management" and Susan Greco's "The Wall."

The fallout from our October issue centered on stories about recruiting and the payoff of managing accounts payable, and included comments on the perils of misleading cover lines.

Help wanted

Readers ate up Christopher Caggiano's cover story, " Recruiting Secrets of the Smartest Companies Around," which provided dozens of tips for finding scarce job candidates. This reader loved the piece and even decided to turn to Inc. for some extra help.

As usual, your magazine is right on target, addressing the key issues of the day. My October issue arrived just before I headed off to the library to do some research on more effective ways to recruit new employees. Fortunately, I picked up your magazine just before I left and reviewed your cover story. Once again Inc. provided exactly the information I was looking for. Now if only Inc. could find me additional sales reps....Any candidates should fax their résumé to me at 781-395-7954.

Barry Lipsett
President
Charles River Apparel
Medford, Mass.

Pay now, benefit later

Jill Andresky Fraser's " The Art of Cash Management" (Business 101) counseled CEOs to "take as long as you're allowed--without incurring late fees or interest charges--to pay your company's bills." A bad concept, one reader argues:

Your recommendation trades a better working relationship with vendors for a few dollars in extra profit. Small to midsize companies are very aware of their clients' payment history. That awareness has an effect on their drive to deliver a quality product. I may lose a dollar or two in interest by paying my vendors as soon as their bills arrive, but I gain an extra willingness from them to help me when one of our clients gives us an impossible deadline. The few dollars lost to interest are minuscule compared with the additional profits gained by building a sterling reputation with our clients and their associates.

Sally M. Snell
President
Shade of the Cottonwood
Topeka, Kans.

Clicked off

After reading Joshua Macht's take on companies that copy Amazon.com's way of doing business, " Toy Seller Plays Internet Hardball" (Upstarts), one reader was irked by the way we tagged the piece on the cover.

I was really excited to get my copy of Inc. and see the cover line "How to copy the Amazon.com business model." I was really disappointed to find out that there was no in-depth article about this in the magazine. Why? It's something I'm really interested in, and I'm sure others are, too. I felt ripped off. And for what? I already was a subscriber. But now I'm not a happy one.

Hank Barksdale
Founder
Mossbrown.com
Minneapolis

Editor George Gendron responds:

EDITOR DELIVERS FULL CONFESSION! CLAIMS EVEN HE WAS DUPED BY HIS OWN COVER LINES!!

Inc. makes solemn promise never to write tabloid headlines again

Guilty as charged. In fact, we've been getting related complaints in the past few months--about cover lines that attract attention but create confusion when readers try to locate the story in the magazine. Ordinarily, we're pretty conscientious about how we pitch our stories on the cover. Lately, in an attempt to make sure Inc. doesn't get lost on the newsstand in the midst of all the turmoil that's been created as a result of consolidation among magazine distributors, we've been overzealous (so overzealous that, two months ago, a story was pitched on one of our covers that I couldn't recall ever having assigned in the first place). We've corrected the problem, starting with the November issue. And sorry for the confusion.

Hitting the wall

" The Wall," by Susan Greco, was all too real for some readers.

I have run two businesses (in Lima, Peru, and Vancouver, Canada), and I can relate completely to the ordeal that the McManuses went through. I, too, hit "the wall" with both of my businesses.

Just as the McManuses' company depended completely on them, my business had no value apart from me. I was doing everything: designing, managing, marketing, and selling. I couldn't sell the company, and I couldn't get out of it because it was the only revenue source I had to support myself and my family. And, of course, there was this feeling that the company was my "baby" and I couldn't abandon or get rid of it.

Since that time it has been a long and painful struggle to prove to the world at large and to myself that I can do it again, this time fully aware that I don't need to be a hero anymore. Susan Greco's article has helped me to come to terms with what happened.