Mail

Looking Good, Idaho

I live near the old Buck Knives facility in San Diego County ["The Buck Stopped Here," May]. It was always a matter of pride to many San Diegans to have this wonderful company in their community.

It hurt that pride when the company left. After reading about CJ Buck's circumstances, the decision to move the company to Post Falls, Idaho, seemed like a no-brainer.

Maybe one day the politicians in California will wake up and do something about the business climate for companies here. I think they believe that the weather will keep us here, but Idaho is looking pretty good to me now. If only it had surf...

Rodger B. Price
president
Primal Marketing
La Mesa, California

Safety in Numbers

That Elcometer's servers got fried by lightning three times indeed shows the fragility of in-house IT infrastructure and the suitability of Web-based services as a replacement ["Service, Not Servers," May]. The story ended with Joe Walker admitting that he is still "nervous about keeping his data on the Web."

He needn't be. Most small and medium-size businesses can't afford an advanced level of security infrastructure for their in-house data. When the data is on the Web, the service provider can spread those costs over many customers and offer a highly sophisticated security approach.

Michael Sampson
Global vice president
Foldera
Huntington Beach, California

Cheering On the Underdog

I agree with ARTS PDF's decision to go head on against its partner, Adobe [Case Study, May]. The company should be in business to grow, not simply to wait on a drop or two from Adobe's bucket. If that means becoming a direct competitor to Adobe, so be it. ARTS PDF just might show Adobe up. We have all seen large companies struggle and lose market share against the smaller, nimble companies.

Chris Harper
Manager
Lunchbox Inc.
Knoxville, Tennessee

I had been struggling with downloading Adobe PDF conversion for four days without any resolution to my problem. Many conversations with Adobe customer support got me nowhere. Then I received my issue of Inc. with the article about Sam Chandler and Karl De Abrew of ARTS PDF.

My PDF file conversion problem is solved. I will happily pay the $99 for its Nitro PDF program. ARTS PDF gives customers a free 30-day introduction to its software, which I tested and love. The customer support was helpful and prompt. This company will go far.

Laverna Marshall
Beckwourth, California

The Two Sides of Chargebacks

Vendors have known for ages how chargebacks can benefit them ["The Case for Paying Chargebacks," May]. In fact, some speculate that the practice of paying chargebacks was actually started by vendors as a way of guaranteeing sales and eliminating the risks associated with buyers increasing orders each season or trying new items. The practice turned into a hairy monster when some retail buyers began demanding money from vendors in order to offset overall margin shortfalls, even when the particular vendor's products sold relatively well.

I'll add that this is yet another area in which Wal-Mart is not given enough credit. It has somehow managed to gain a reputation for beating up its vendors by frankly stating front-end pricing requirements without back-end repercussions. Department stores, on the other hand, have put countless vendors out of business over the years with punitive and unpredictable back-end profit killers, chargebacks chief among them.

Carol Spieckerman
President Newmarketbuilders
Bentonville, Arkansas

Stand by Your Plan

Norm Brodsky's column about looking for your real goal and taking it one step at a time reaffirmed that I am on the right track ["What Are You Trying to Do?" May]. When I come across something like that, I get excited and want to get started in the office again, right in the middle of what I'm reading.

With my ice cream company, I have started small and slowly. I've been gaining a foothold in independent grocers, buying equipment as I need it, and outsourcing what I can. My initial goal was to not get bogged down in unnecessary debt while I grew my company. Brodsky's column confirmed for me that it is a long process, but it's a lot steadier in the long run.